Vijay (Hindi Language)

Advantages: Amitabh Bachchan in a double role
Disadvantages: Some of the fight scenes drag on a bit

...Don, starring Amitabh Bachchan, was released in 1978 and should not be confused with the remake released in 2006 starring Shahrukh Khan. It's a Hindi language film also known as Bollywood film. STORY BASICS Don is an international gangster, respected yet feared by his own people and hated by the police who are determined to track him down. Unfortunately Don is killed in a police encounter which leaves one of the most senior police officers on his tail somewhat stumped as he wants to bring down the rest of the gang and their associates too. He knows a likeable but very common street performer called Vijay who is the spitting image of Don and he persuades him to go into training to be replaced into the gang as Don. This takes a lot of hard work but eventually Vijay is sent back into Don’s gang as Don. Things seem to be going... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful

Advantages: good all round entertainment
Disadvantages: somewhat dodgy plot, rather lengthy at 3 hours

...Namak Halaal is a Hindi language film (aka Bollywood) certified as PG, which was released in 1982. The film's title means "Loyalty" and it was a real hit film back in the day. I saw it recently after about 20 years of first having seen it and enjoyed it enough to want to write about it. The film stars Amitabh Bachchan as Arjun, Shashi Kapoor as Raja, Smita Patil as Poonam, Parveen Babi as Nisha, Waheeda Rehman as Savitridevi and Om Prakash as Dadu along with a big supporting cast including: Ranjeet, Suresh Oberoi, Kamal Kapoor & Satyen Kappu. ~*~*~*~ Bhim Singh (Oberoi) is a trusted servant of Sanyal (Kamal Kapoor), a wealthy man whose life and only son and heir are being threatened by his own brother. Sanyal signs over all of his properties including large hotels to Bhim Singh's wife, Savitridevi, in the event of anything... Read review

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Advantages: Abhishek Bachchan
Disadvantages: a story that's been overused over the years

...the way it did. I can't give anymore away but suffice to say, the film dragged so much they could have cut out so much of the other unnecessary stuff and made the ending more believable to give the film at least some overall credibility! Run was directed by Jeeva (yes one of those people who just uses one name) who is most often a cinematographer, and even the films where he's been in charge of cinematography haven't been big hits. He is usually involved in South Indian films in Telugu or Tamil so not really that big in Bollywood (which are classed as North Indian films made in Hindi language). The story and screenplay for Run were by N Linguswamy and the film was produced by Sridevi who herself was a famous and successful Bollywood actress in the 80s and 90s. This is definitely not one of her successes! Run was released in 2004 and runs... Read review

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