Ghatak: Lethal

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Ghatak
File:Ghatak Lethal.jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed byRajkumar Santoshi
Screenplay byRajkumar Santoshi
Dialogues byRajkumar Santoshi
Shyam Gupta
Story byRajkumar Santoshi
Produced byRajkumar Santoshi
Starring
CinematographyIshwar Bidri
Edited byV. N. Mayekar
Music byScore:
Vanraj Bhatia
Songs:
R. D. Burman
Anu Malik
Production
company
Santoshi Productions
Distributed byBharat Shah
Release date
  • 15 November 1996 (1996-11-15)
Running time
158 min
CountryIndia
LanguageHindi
Budget₹6.2 crore
Box officeest. ₹32.7 crore [1]

Ghatak is a multiple-award-winning Indian 1996 Hindi-language action thriller film directed by Rajkumar Santoshi, starring Sunny Deol, Meenakshi Seshadri, Danny Denzongpa and Amrish Puri.

Released on 15 November 1996, the film was a blockbuster[2] and earned ₹32.7 crore at the domestic box-office to become the highest-grossing Hindi film in terms of domestic box-office collections and the second-highest worldwide grossing film of the year.

It won three awards including Best Supporting Actor for Puri at the 42nd Filmfare Awards, where it was also nominated for three other awards: Best Director for Santoshi, Best Actor for Deol, and Best Villain for Denzongpa. Ghatak is Seshadri's last film to date. The film was later remade in Telugu as Aapthudu (2004), starring Rajasekhar and Anjala Zaveri.

Plot

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Kashi Nath is a kind-hearted wrestler and the dutiful adopted son of Shambhu Nath, living in Banaras. Shambhu Nath, who was a freedom fighter awarded with the Tambra Patra, is an honourable and respectable man in town. Kashi, along with Shambhu, comes to Mumbai for medical treatment for Shambhu and stays with his elder brother, Shiv Nath. Kashi meets Gauri in Mumbai and starts liking her. He learns that the locality is being terrorized by the tyrannical gangster, Katya, along with his six brothers. Before Kashi's arrival, a resident named Sachdev tried to initiate a revolt against Katya, but got ruthlessly killed by him, thereby making Malti, Sachdev's widow, go mad. Katya and his brothers become enemies with Kashi when he beats up their goons when they were roughing up Malti.

Shambhu is later diagnosed with terminal throat cancer and only has a few days to live. When Kashi refuses to join Katya's gang, Katya becomes furious and humiliates Shambhu before the entire locality, by making him bark like a dog. After a series of dramatic events, Shiv is run over to death by Jeena, one of Katya's brothers. In retaliation, Kashi then kills Antya, another one of Katya's brothers, and gets arrested. Meanwhile, Shambhu passes away. When Kashi tries to disperse his father's ashes at the Ghat with the police, the police van gets attacked by Katya's brothers and goons. Kashi kills all of them, including Katya's three brothers, and reaches Katya's home. There he kills Jeena, thereby causing only two brothers to survive, including Katya; however, Kashi is captured in the process.

As Katya had Shambhu bark like a dog, he tries to make Kashi behave like an ox in front of the locality, to re-establish his supremacy. Gauri however stands up, arousing the audience to attack as well. Kashi frees himself from the shackles and beats Katya to death. Katya's entire gang is attacked by the residents of the locality. Katya's sixth and the last remaining brother, Bhiku, is killed by the mob. For retribution, Kashi makes Katya bark like a dog just like Shambhu. He then kills him in front of the residents, but loses control over himself as he keeps beating Katya's corpse. His nephew then brings him Shambhu's ashes from crematory rites which brings him back to senses. The ending is a bittersweet one, where Kashi loses every one he loved, but the locality has its freedom at last.

Cast

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Actor Role Description
Sunny Deol Kashi Nath
Meenakshi Seshadri Gauri Kashi’s girlfriend
Danny Denzongpa Katya
Amrish Puri Shambu Nath Kashi’s adoptive father
Om Puri Sachdev
K. K. Raina Shiv Nath Kashi’s adoptive elder brother
Mukesh Rishi Jeena Katya’s brother
Sheela Sharma Sheela Shiv’s wife
Viju Khote Pinto
Anjan Srivastav Dhamu Kaka
Deep Dhillon Antya Katya’s brother
Tinu Verma Bhiku Katya’s brother
Harish Patel Katya’s brother-in-law
Ponnambalam (special appearance) Ring Fighter
Makrand Deshpande Katya’s goon
Ila Arun Malti
Navni Parihar
Shiva Rindani Chandru
Tinnu Anand Police Inspector
Rohini Hattangadi Savitri
Ghanashyam Nayak Receptionist
Amitabh Bachchan (friendly appearance) Himself
Suresh Bhagwat Gopal
Mamta Kulkarni (special appearance) Dancers in the song "Koi Aaye Toh le Jaye"
Ganesh Acharya (uncredited)

Production

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Kamal Haasan was originally signed to play the lead role and an advertisement was commissioned to appear in Screen magazine noting "Welcome back to the Hindi screen", pointing at the actor's return to Hindi films after 1985's Dekha Pyaar Tumhara. However, due to no producer willing to back the actor in the film, Rajkumar Santoshi changed the star cast.[3]

Music and soundtrack

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The background score of the film was composed by Vanraj Bhatia. The music for all but one song was composed by R. D. Burman. Only one song "Koi Jaye To Le Aaye" was composed by Anu Malik, and it became quite popular. The lyrics of the songs were penned by Majrooh Sultanpuri and Rahat Indori.

Ghatak: Lethal
Soundtrack album by
R. D. Burman, Anu Malik and Vanraj Bhatia
Released20 October 1996
GenreFeature film soundtrack
LabelVenus Records & Tapes
Song/Title Singer(s) Length Music director Lyricist
"Nigahon Ne Chheda" Suresh Wadkar, Sadhana Sargam 06:24 R.D. Burman Majrooh Sultanpuri
"Badan Mein Chandni" Kavita Krishnamurthy 05:55 R.D. Burman Majrooh Sultanpuri
"Aaki Naaki" Asha Bhosle 08:57 R.D. Burman Majrooh Sultanpuri
"Ek Dil Ki Diwani" Suresh Wadkar, Sadhana Sargam 07:29 R.D. Burman Majrooh Sultanpuri
"Koi Jaye To Le Aaye" Alka Yagnik, Shankar Mahadevan 05:18 Anu Malik Rahat Indori
"Theme of Ghatak" (Instrumental) 02:28 Vanraj Bhatia –

Box office

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The film was made on a budget of ₹6.25 crores and collected over ₹32.7 crores nett theatrically to become a blockbuster.[2][4]

Awards

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42nd Filmfare Awards:

Won

Nominated

Screen Awards:

Won

Re-release

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This film was re-released on 21 March 2025, after 28 years at the Red Lorry Film Festival.[5][6]

References

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