Movie Review: Sadak (1991)

The autobiographical Mahesh Bhatt did a Scorsese, but the music made up for it.

Source: IMDb

Sadak is the story of a suicidal and insomniac taxi driver Ravi (Sanjay Dutt) who hustles all night long to sleep and escape his nightmares. On one night shift, he meets Pooja (Pooja Bhatt) and it is typical love at first sight. He later comes to know that Pooja has become a reluctant prostitute at the brothel of the evil eunuch Maharani (Sadashiv Amrapurkar). What happens next? Watch on YouTube.

No points for guessing that the film's plot blatantly lifts that of Martin Scorsese's 1976-film Taxi Driver, albeit it shows the hero in a more positive light than the grey psychology of Travis Bickle (Robert De Niro). Unlike Bickle, Ravi does not frequent red light theatres; but like him, he is a jobless vigilante, a rebel with a cause.

Sadak also plays on the pluralistic pallette of religions in India. While the "good Muslim" character of Salim bhai (Avtar Gill), the taxi owner was not a new occurrence for Bollywood, the climactic scenes of Ravi being crucified like a messiah was something I had not seen before in Bollywood. 

My hyperlink brain leads me from secularism to bhajans to T-Series. And T-Series gave us the "soul-stirring music of Sadak" by none other than Nadeem-Shravan. The songs were hits and remain chartbusters to date. Yes, "Tumhein Apna Banane Ki Kasam" was one motivation for me to watch the film. 

The soul-stirring music of Sadak 
Source: Amazon

Not motivated enough by the music? Yes, sometimes good soundtracks scam people into a bad film. But Sadak is memorable for being Sadashiv Amrapurkar's most terrifying and terrific performance till date, fetching him a Filmfare Award for Best Villain. This stereotypical evil eunuch trope continued well into the late 90s with Ashutosh Rana's award-winning portrayal of Lajja Shankar Pandey in Sangharsh (1999), crafted out of Buffalo Bill from The Silence of the Lambs (1991).

The rest of the stars did everything they were already famous for. Pooja Bhatt played the submissive, helpless lead and Dutt exuded his hunky post-rehab glow and strength. This was his second phase of stardom, and he made the most of it.

Signing off the review by imagining Robert De Niro and party dancing to "Rehne ko ghar nahin, sone ko bistar nahi, apna khuda hai rakhwala, ab tak usi ne hai paala!" Yes, Travis, I'm talking to you.