Anjaam

Anjaam
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Rahul Rawail
Story by	Sutanu Gupta Gautam Rajadhyaksha
Produced by	Maharukh Johki Rita Rawail
Starring	Madhuri Dixit Shah Rukh Khan
Cinematography	Sameer Arya
Edited by	Suresh Chaturvedi
Music by	Anand–Milind
Production company	Shiv-Bharat films
Release date	22 April 1994
Running time	171 mins
Country	India
Language	Hindi
Budget	₹2.65 crore[1]
Box office	est.₹9.66 crore[1]

Anjaam (transl. Consequence) is a 1994 Indian Hindi-language psychological thriller film directed by Rahul Rawail. It stars Madhuri Dixit, Shah Rukh Khan, Tinnu Anand, Johnny Lever, Kalpana Iyer, Himani Shivpuri, Sudha Chandran, Beena, and Kiran Kumar, with a guest appearance by Deepak Tijori. The film's music was composed by Anand–Milind, with lyrics written by Sameer. The film is about a woman facing the brunt of her obsessive lover. It also focuses on the atrocities committed against women.

This was the first time that Dixit and Khan were paired together. Dixit earned a Filmfare Best Actress nomination for her role, but won the award for her performance in Hum Aapke Hain Koun..!. Khan again featured in a negative role for which he won the Filmfare Best Villain Award for his performance. He was nominated for the same award the previous year for his performance in Yash Chopra's Darr. Khan has bought the rights to this film under his banner, Red Chillies Entertainment.^[2]

Plot[]

Shivani Chopra (Madhuri Dixit) is an air hostess for Air India. She lives with her sister Padmisha (Sudha Chandran) and her brother-in-law Mohanlal (Tinnu Anand), who is a drunkard and bets all the money he can find on horse races. Shivani meets Vijay Agnihotri (Shah Rukh Khan), a wealthy industrialist who is instantly infatuated with her but she shows no interest in him. This doesn't stop Vijay who continues to pursue her but is rejected every time. Vijay informs his mother Padma (Beena) that he will only marry Shivani.

When they approach Shivani's family for her hand in marriage, they see that Shivani is already marrying Ashok Chopra (Deepak Tijori), an Air India pilot. Vijay is heartbroken, shocked, and disappointed while Shivani and Ashok get posted right after their wedding and move to America.

Four years later, Vijay could not forget Shivani and turned down all the marriage proposals brought by his mother. Shivani and Ashok have a daughter, Pinky (Baby Gazala). Shivani left her job as an air hostess and began volunteering at a hospital for the mentally and physically disabled. Vijay befriends Ashok in hopes of getting closer to Shivani. He plans to start his own airlines where he hires Ashok as a general manager with a high salary. Unaware of Vijay's intentions, Ashok doesn't believe Shivani who tries to convince him of Vijay's true face.

Vijay gives Shivani and Ashok a new company home, which after moving into, Shivani finds out she is pregnant. She shares the news with her husband but Vijay interrupts, revealing that he’s used Shivani’s photos as advertisements for the new airline. This enrages Shivani who demands Ashoke leaves the job and the new house, and that she will work to support the family instead.

Insulted and angered, Ashok slaps and disowns Shivani, who leaves the house. Vijay witnessing this has an episode and severely beats Ashok. When he is hospitalised, Vijay removes his oxygen mask in the presence of Shivani thereby killing him. She attempts to convince the police that Vijay is responsible for Ashok's death.

However, Vijay bribes his friend Inspector Arjun Singh (Kiran Kumar) to provide an alibi and is not charged. All this while, he begs Shivani to say she loves him. As she refuses, he beats her up and frames her for his attempted murder. She is sentenced to 3 years in prison as she could not prove her innocence. Pinky is placed in the care of Padmisha and Mohanlal. Mohanlal mistreats his wife and calls Pinky a burden.

Shivani meets Nisha (Himani Shivpuri), her cellmate who was wrongly accused of murder in a case of dowry. They share their pain in prison under the watch of a brutal prison warden (Kalpana Iyer), who would the prison inmates into prostitution for political leaders at night. In an attempt to escape from prison, she makes a complaint about the brutality of her prison guard but her plea is ignored. Instead, Inspector Arjun revealed to the warden it was Shivani who filed a complaint against her illegal activities.

Mohanlal forces Padmisha to disown Pinky, but she refuses. In response, he kicks both Padmisha and Pinky out. Vijay accidentally kills Shivani's sister and daughter by running his car over them. Shivani learns about their deaths and realises Vijay is the one who killed them. She decides to go to any length to avenge her family.

One day, Shivani vomits during a politicians' visit to take a prisoner for the night. When the prison guard learns that Shivani complained, she gives her a severe beating and throws her into a dark isolation cell, which causes her to have a miscarriage. With all of her loved ones have passed away, Shivani was numb to the world. Her only motive to live now was exacting revenge on all the people that wronged her.

She begins with the prison guard by planning a night-long worship event at the jail, staging an alibi for Shivani. She sneaks away and kills the prison warden by dragging her to the gallows and hanging her. As there is no evidence and a strong alibi, Shivani is not convicted for it.

Three years later, Shivani is released from prison. First, she kills Mohanlal by choking him with rupee notes and chewing off a significant amount of flesh from his arm. Inspector Arjun suspects Shivani for the murder. While Shivani is mourning her daughter at her grave, Inspector Arjun steps right on her grave to rudely intercept her. He chases her and attempts to rape her in a barn, but Shivani overpowers him and sets the barn on fire, leaving him to die.

Shivani visits Vijay's home but came to know that Vijay and his mother moved out of there two years ago. She decides to dedicate her life to serving the disabled at the hospital she used to volunteer at. The doctor there suggested she stay at their new sanatorium in Tikamgarh. When she gets there, she finds out that the sanatorium was built by Vijay's mother. Shivani found Vijay in a paralysed state at the sanatorium, losing his ability to move due to the car accident which killed Shivani's sister and daughter. She volunteers to rehabilitate him.

Vijay gets cured with Shivani's love and attention. Vijay tells Shivani once again to say she loves him and to marry him, as she has no other options in life. Shivani embraces him before stabbing him. She confesses that she nursed him to health for one purpose: to kill him, as it is a sin to kill an incapacitated person who cannot defend himself. In their scuffle, they end up dangling from a cliff with Vijay hanging onto Shivani's foot. Vijay says that if he falls to his death, he shall take Shivani with him. Deciding that it is more important for Vijay to die than for her to live, Shivani lets go, causing both of them to fall to their deaths.

Cast[]

• Madhuri Dixit as Shivani Chopra
• Shahrukh Khan as Vijay Agnihotri
• Deepak Tijori as Ashok Chopra, Shivani's husband (guest appearance)
• Tinnu Anand as Mohanlal Singh, Shivani's brother-in-law and Padmisha's husband
• Sudha Chandran as Padmisha Singh Shivani's sister and Mohanlal's wife
• Beena Banerjee as Padma Agnihotri, Vijay's mother
• Johnny Lever as Champa Chameli
• Himani Shivpuri as Nisha, Shivani's friend and confidant in prison
• Kiran Kumar as Inspector Arjun Singh
• Baby Gazala as Pinky Chopra, Ashok's and Shivani's daughter
• Kalpana Iyer as Prison Warden
• Dinesh Hingoo as Minister

Production[]

Anjaam marked the first of many collaborations between Dixit and Khan.^[3]

Soundtrack[]

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
Planet Bollywood	[4]

Rakesh Budhu of Planet Bollywood gave the album 7.5 stars stating, "Anjaam's tunes are overall a mixed fare but the songs that were sweet and melodious were enough to project the soundtrack to higher standards. The only song that is sung by Abhijeet in this album, "Badi Mushkil Hai", is considered one of the most melodious songs till date".^[4]

Track listing[]

Awards and nominations[]

References[]

External links[]

• Anjaam at IMDb