There are two exact sequences from old Agneepath in this newer version, one exact dialogue scene and few same sequences handled differently. Rest portion has been changed, in terms of settings and screenplay. Dialogues are fresh too. Yet, the film fails because the vision of new director 'Karan Malhotra' is just too weak.

The main plot is the same, Vijay (Hrithik Roshan) as a small child watches his father Master Dinnanath Chauhan (Chetan Pandit) die in front of him by conspiracy set against him through Kaancha Cheena (Sanjay Dutt). Vijay seeks revenge now, and as he grows up he aims to become stronger to fight against Kaancha Cheena one day, to get back his village Mandwa which Kaancha has taken away.

The main reason why this new version of Agneepath not working for me is, the different vision I have from Karan Malhotra. Karan presents Vijay a lot more emotional with the anger stored inside that unleashes at various moments. I strongly believe a revenge film should refrain from emotional moments as much as possible, but that's not the case here. Here, we see Vijay having problems to marry Kaali, breaking in tears watching his sister, or pre-climax scene with Kaali.. Infact, when a grown up Vijay for first time goes to Mandwa to meet Kancha, the emotional expression over-takes the anger, a big fail!

The film doesn't begin in right way either for me, not for the story.. the role of Master Dinnanath Chauhan. Chetan Pandit was good, not denying it.. but the impact of a master was missing so as to pity his death later. Thats why I felt, a very good contender for Master's role was in the film itself i.e Sachin Khedekar. Instead we see Sachin typecasted in a role that resembles Singham! Bad work on the characters by the casting person ....

There are various scenes where Karan fails as a director for me, one was Vijay-Kaancha first meet.. there had to be some dialogues there, instead a hug and breaking into Chikni Chameli song. Then, the famous sequence 'Vijay and his mom at dining table', more blame to Piyush Mishra here, as the writing was bad. I could like only the one moment in this scene, where Vijay breaks down eating rice.. with Kaali for not getting a single loving moment, the hug from his mother. And then, the climax.. I agree with Karan has the arguement that Kaancha is heavily built.. hence Vijay has to struggle, but he clearly over-did the no of times Vijay gets stabbed... you just can't misuse the word 'cinematic liberty' to such a large extent.

Sanjay Dutt as Kaancha Cheena was a very big dissappointment. Again, Karan Malhotra the culprit.. he fails to extract the kind of performance he should had. The look is stunning, but what about the dialect ? Such terrible dialogue delivery, and going into Vaastav mode again and agian.

Also, what was the point of repeating certain dialogues 5-6 times 'aatma na marti hai' or 'poochna toh mujhe hi padega', 'main maaru'. And, evil characters especially Kaancha and Surya (Pankaj Tripathi) have a habit of laughing a lot before/after speaking a dialgoue, what for ?

Kaali (Priyanka Chopra), her performance is good, though at times she goes into 'Pinky' mode of Kaminey. But, the way it was told Vijay-Kaali would be much more than old one, I thought they would present the romantic story beautifully, and it doesnt happen here. Infact, if they kept Kaali out of the screenplay, the film would had become slightly likeable as the mammoth 3 hrs length would had decreased, plus few emotional sequences out!

The best addition done into the film is 'Rauf Lala' (Rishi Kapoor), his performance is way above Sanjay Dutt. And, the writing is terrific here. Watch him in the conversation scene with Kaancha, or the one with his son Mazhar Lala (Rajesh Tandon) and the selling of a girl on both occasions. Not just his look, but the way Rishi has moudled himself into the character, clear effort is visible and it pays off brilliantly.

The screenplay would had worked better with some unwanted characters and scenes taken away, plus it would had then reduced the amount of time where we see Kaancha missing! You can't let the main villian stay away from limelight for too long. Editing by Akiv Ali is fine. Cinematography by Ravi K Chandran is superb, specially love the sequence where Vijay comes to Mandwa, and walks around the village.

Dialogues are ordinary, you miss punchlines from the movie when you come out, only one stays with you 'kamzor n pahelvaan one'. Costumes  from Manish Malhotra are another good highlight of the movie, Vijay in shirt mainly light colours, mostly white. While Kaancha always in black, and Priyanka mostly colourful sarees, love that red one.  Rishi Kapoor, in a typical pathan kind of attire. Background score is very loud, though in a way suits the film which is presented in same manner too.. yet what I miss is some good background themes throughout the movie. If you carefully notice, the old agneepath's theme is used twice here, re-worked.. specially like it when its used during young vijay's pistol scene with police.

'Shah ka Rutba' and 'Deva Shree Ganesha' are best used songs in the album, and they were my favs too.. so happy about it. Abhi mujh mein kahin fails to make any mark on me. O Saiyyan is used as a background. Gun gun guna is very well choreographed, yet it comes at a time when the story is just trying to pace up.. and as a result song slightly becomes mis-fit. Chikni Chameli is worst used song of the film, no proper scenes kept to lead to the Katrina's item number. As a result, if they had removed this song, it would had made no difference, Kaancha could had asked Vijay at bargad ka pedh 'kuch toh chahte hoge', and Vijay replied 'Mandwa', and directly cut to Kaancha beating Vijay. Common Sense a good film-maker/writer should have!

Katrina Kaif is amazing in the special apperance of 'Chikni Chameli', lovely choreography. Om Puri kinda of repeats the Don2 character, but this time he appears more interested in his character, his urge to raid Mandwa scene the best of all.

Zarina Wahab, was turning to be my fav since My name is Khan, but here she completely dissappointed me. Below the par performance. Rajesh Tandon is fine, Deven Bhojani over-does his problem act in the film. Arish as young Vijay was good, if I compare to old agneepath's Vijay, he is no where close.. but as a newbie, I quite liked his performance. Special mention to the scene where he points gun to a police inspector.

Hrithik Roshan has 3-4 best scenes in the film, one is when he feels its time to become stronger, second is when he is in boat and emotionally looking around at Mandwa village, once his homeplace. And lastly, 'Naam vijay chauhan, vijay dinna-nath chauhan poora naam'.. he doesn't copy Amitabh here, delivers dialogue in his own way.. and the anger with the gulaal red colour on face as he walks off, probably best scene of the movie. But, the dialogue should had ended at poora naam, and not extended further.. Clear case of over-trying by Karan Malhotra. And the scene, where his anger for Rauf Lala unleashes, Note how his walk slowly transforms into a angry run.. another of those fav moments from the film.

The best thing about Hrithik's portrayal of Vijay is, very rarely you feel he is even trying to copy Amitabh, as he is totally different. Most of the times, he emotes with his eyes. His performance is best until he meets Kaancha in the story. After that he falters, some blame to Karan for trying to keep his emotional side visible, and some to Hrithik because he shivers his face a lot during angry scenes, a thing that is getting monotonous about him whenever you see him in such a situation of a film. Even in the final poem reciting scene, he fails big time.


Overall, Agneepath is a weakly directed movie from Karan Malhotra, you may like the film if you connect with his vision. I couldn't and hence I disliked the film. Too many flaws in the film, with 3 hr movie length. The style in the film should had come naturally, instead here we see lots of shots where actor walks towards camera, build up shot of grown up Vijay etc etc. Karan Johar had a dream to make this cult film of his father a big hit, he has got his dream fulfilled, only wish he chose a good director too.. who would had given proper justice to the film. Its only Rishi Kapoor and parts of Hrithik Roshan's performance that pleased me..


Verdict : Average