Gupt: The Hidden Truth

Gupt: The Hidden Truth
Promotional Poster
Directed by	Rajiv Rai
Screenplay by	Rajiv Rai Shabbir Boxwala
Story by	Rajiv Rai
Produced by	Gulshan Rai Rajiv Rai
Starring	Bobby Deol Manisha Koirala Kajol
Cinematography	Ashok Mehta
Edited by	Rajiv Rai
Music by	Viju Shah
Distributed by	Trimurti Films
Release date	4 July 1997 (1997-07-04) [1]
Running time	174 minutes
Country	India
Language	Hindi

Gupt: The Hidden Truth (transl. Secret) is a 1997 Indian Hindi-language thriller film directed by Rajiv Rai and featuring Bobby Deol in the lead role, along with Manisha Koirala and Kajol. Distributed under the banner Trimurti Films,^[2] it also stars Paresh Rawal, Om Puri, Raj Babbar, Dalip Tahil, Prem Chopra, Sadashiv Amrapurkar, Sharat Saxena, Kulbhushan Kharbanda, Mukesh Rishi and Priya Tendulkar in supporting roles. The soundtrack of the film was composed by Viju Shah^[3]

Plot[]

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Governor Jaisingh Sinha is a prominent political figure. He presides over a meeting taken by influential industrialist Meghnad Chaudhry, socialist Union leader Vilas Rao and minister Mantriji among others. Jaisingh's stepson Sahil is an unattached and easy-going young man, who resents him.

Jaisingh's personal secretary Ishwar Dewan's daughter Isha is Sahil's beloved, with whom he reunites after a long time as Isha was sent to boarding school in past. They fall in love. Meghnad's daughter Sheetal is also in love with Sahil but he only merely considers her a very good friend.

Jaisingh announces Sahil's engagement to Sheetal, leading to an argument. Sahil declares his love for Isha to him who disagrees. In a fit of rage, Sahil tries to stab Jaisingh but is stopped by his mother Sharda. The next day, Sahil gets heavily drunk at the house of Dr Gandhi , Sinha's family doctor, who advises Sahil to accept Sheetal as his wife, reasoning that Sahil will lead a happier life with her. A drunk and still adamant Sahil returns home and finds, to his shock, that someone has stabbed Sinha. Before Sinha can reveal the name of the murderer, he dies, while Sharda arrives and, finding Sahil near his dead step-father holding a knife, assumes him to be the killer. Sahil is accused and taken to court, where many of his acquaintances and Sharda testify against him. Sahil is found guilty and sentenced to 14 years in prison. Just before Sahil is transported to jail, he hands over a necklace to Sheetal, implying that it was left behind at the scene by the killer. He asks her to keep it safe. He also tells her that he has decided to find the real murderer at any cost, having finally realized Sinha's love for him.

In jail, Sahil relates his story to an old prisoner, who believes him to be innocent. The prisoner tells Sahil that the jail only has one escape route - a sewage gutter pipe that can be accessed from a flush toilet located in an unused chamber of the jail. Sahil creates a problem with two other prisoners, causing the jailor to confine them in the chamber. After great effort, the three succeed in escaping the jail by sea, with a boat arranged by Sheetal.

Police Commissioner Patwardhan assigns an unbending and upright police officer, Udham Singh, to handle the case of Sahil's re-apprehension. Sahil secretly meets Isha at her home, where he calls Dr Gandhi for advice, and Dr Gandhi invites Sahil to his home. Sahil reaches the doctor's residence and is shocked to find that somebody has stabbed Dr Gandhi. Dr Gandhi's servant finds Sahil near the dead doctor and shrieks, forcing him to escape. Dr Gandhi's servant reports Sahil to the police.

Udham Singh interrogates Sheetal, with whom Sahil still maintains a good relationship. Sheetal confesses to having spent the previous night with Sahil and also helping him escape jail. Singh does not arrest Sheetal for these wrongdoings for the time being, since he is highly focussed on apprehending Sahil.

Having now been accused of two murders, Sahil's resolve to find the murderer is strengthened. He first suspects advocate Thanawala, because Thanawala had a very good chance of obtaining Sinha's property upon his death, provided Sahil is out of the picture. He enters Thanawala's office and brutally interrogates him. Thanawala reveals that while he did intend to usurp Sinha's property, he did not commit the murder. Sahil then goes to the docks to interrogate Chaudhry, whom he suspects because of his involvement in fraudulent business practices, that Sinha did not support, but Chaudhry claims innocence as well, and Sahil brutally beats up Chaudhry's brother during his escape . The next is Vilas Rao, the corrupt socialist Union leader who had a strained relationship with Chaudhry and Sinha, who is beaten by Sahil before pointing the finger at Mantriji, alleging that Sinha's murder was a political assassination. Sahil and Sheetal trick Mantriji into attending a ceremony and kidnap him. Udham Singh is also present there and realizes that Sahil is not the real murderer after noticing his strong resolve.

Udham Singh investigates further and finds that the murders have been committed with two knives of exactly the same build and shape, indicating that they could belong to a set. He finds the set of knives at Ishwar Dewan's house with two knives missing and arrests Dewan, who confesses to the killing of Sinha and Dr Gandhi. Dewan divulges to have murdered Sinha because he did not accept Isha as his daughter-in-law; and killed Dr Gandhi to cover up the first crime because the latter had realized his true intentions. At the same time, Sahil is interrogating Mantriji, but Sheetal arrives and tells him that the murderer is Ishwar Dewan, and Sahil releases Mantriji. Isha, however, is shocked and tries to attack Sheetal, and later rushes to meet her father. Sahil, having finally been declared innocent, returns home and reconciles with his mother.

Harsh plays with the necklace that Sahil had found at the first crime scene. The nature of this necklace is still unknown at this point since Sahil had not managed to open it, and none of the suspects recognized it. He opens the necklace with a screwdriver and shows it to Sahil, who finds his and Isha's picture inside. This leads to one shocking reality, and Isha is the real killer. In the meantime, Isha enters a drunk Udham Singh's house, stabs him multiple times, and closely escapes being spotted by Pandu and Neelkanth. Pandu rushes to the police station, while Neelkanth takes Udham Singh to the hospital.

Sahil, along with Pandu now reaches the police station and interrogates the incarcerated Ishwar Dewan, who admits that Isha was indeed the murderer. He reveals that while Isha loves him immensely, she has had a massive anger management problem since her childhood, particularly when it comes to Sahil. As a child, she had killed Dr. Gandhi's dog after it bit Sahil, following which she was sent to boarding school, despite Dewan's objections. Later, when she and Sahil reunited, her affection for Sahil grew to the point of possessiveness, and even more so after Sahil declared his love for her at his birthday party. She did not want to be separated from Sahil under any circumstance. After Sahil's argument with his father, Dewan and Isha had gone to meet Sinha the following morning, to request him to unite Sahil and Isha, whereupon the latter rejected them and asked them to leave. Isha was so enraged that she later stabbed Sinha to death. When Dr. Gandhi realized her intentions, she killed him as well. Dewan maintains that Isha killed the people who, in her opinion, were trying to keep her away from Sahil. She had considered revealing the truth and accept responsibility for the murders, but feared that Sahil would not accept her if she did so. Sahil is shocked beyond words, but understands that Isha will try to attack Sheetal next and calls her, asking her to lock all doors and entrances. He rushes to her house but is attacked by Babu Anna, an assassin earlier hired by Mantriji to kill Sahil and Isha. Sahil is injured, but manages to incapacitate Babu Anna and reach the house.

Sheetal takes Sahil's warning jokingly just as Isha arrives at her house. She is fooled by Isha at first, because the latter falsely apologises for her misbehaviour. Suddenly, Isha attacks Sheetal. Sahil arrives on time to save her and pulls Isha off Sheetal, who rushes into Sahil's arms. An enraged Isha tries to stab Sheetal again, but Babu Anna tries to intervene and is killed instead. An injured and somewhat drunk Udham Singh arrives with Neelkanth despite multiple attempts by Neelkanth to persuade him to rest, and shoots Isha, falling down the stairs to his supposed death. Isha begs Sahil for forgiveness, reaffirms her love for him, and dies in his arms.

At the end, Mantriji is also brought to the hospital, with Neelkanth warning everyone to not indulge in dishonest practices and telling them to spend the rest of their lives in hospital, as all of them are permanently handicapped. During the credits, it is hinted that Sahil and Sheetal get married.

Cast[]

• Bobby Deol as Sahil Sinha
• Manisha Koirala as Sheetal Choudhry
• Kajol as Isha Diwan, Ishwar's daughter
• Om Puri as Inspector Udham Singh, an honest and upright police officer
• Raj Babbar as Governor Jaisingh Sinha, Sahil's step-father, Sharda's second husband
• Paresh Rawal as Ishwar Diwan, Isha's father, Jaisingh's personal secretary
• Sadashiv Amrapurkar as Inspector Neelkanth Dixit, a meek police officer assisting Udham Singh
• Ashok Saraf as Havaldar Pandu, a naïve constable assisting Neelkanth Dixit and Udham Singh
• Prem Chopra as Mantriji, a corrupt minister
• Kulbhushan Kharbanda as Dr. Gandhi, Jaisingh's family doctor
• Dalip Tahil as Meghnath Choudhry, Sheetal's father, Surbhi's husband, an arrogant and powerful businessman
• Raza Murad as Thanawala, Jaisingh's lawyer
• Sharat Saxena as Vilasrao, a cruel and disliked union leader
• Harish Patel as Phoolchand, Mantriji's merry secretary
• Mukesh Rishi as Babu Anna, Mantri's bodyguard, sent to kill Sahil and Isha by Mantriji
• Tej Sapru as an abusive Jailer in the central prison
• Anjan Srivastav as Commissioner Patwardhan
• Vishwajeet Pradhan as a Bounty hunter, who wants to make a quick buck by capturing Sahil and getting the reward for doing so
• Dinesh Hingoo as Thanawala's servant
• Priya Tendulkar as Sharda Devi Sinha, Sahil's mother, Jaisingh's wife
• Bob Christo as Boat organiser
• as Harsh Sinha, Sahil's half-brother, Jaisingh, and Sharda's son.
• Aparajita as Surbhi Choudhry, Sheetal's mother, Meghnath's wife

Music[]

The music was composed by Viju Shah and the lyrics were written by Anand Bakshi. The title track of the film, "Gupt Gupt", samples the electronica track "Deep Forest" from the eponymous album by Deep Forest and the titular tracks from Mike Oldfield's seminal prog-rock orchestral debut Tubular Bells (revisited and sampled numerous times since). "Duniya Hasino Ka Mela" was sampled from "Masturi" included in the new age album Kojiki by Japanese keyboardist Kitarō.

The songs were shot at various locations in India including Munnar in Kerala, Manali and Rajasthan.^[4]

Shah's work on the soundtrack was well received. It won the Best Background Score and Shah was nominated for the Best Music Director whereas Alka Yagnik was also nominated for the Best Female Playback Singer for "Mere Khwaabon Me Tu".

Critical reception[]

Gupt received positive reviews from critics upon release. Fullhyderabad.com gave it a 7.5/10 rating and wrote, "It is a slickly-made film with stylish cinematography, beautiful locales, and pretty good performances. It falls in the genre of thriller movies and fares much better than any of its sorry predecessors did. The director, Rajiv Rai is not over-awed by the subject and so does not make a hosh-posh out of the whole thing."^[5] Mohammad Ali Ikram of Planet Bollywood praised the suspense and music.^[6]

Boxoffice[]

Gupt was released on 4 July 1997 at 250 screens in India.^{[citation needed]}

On the opening day it collected ₹9.6 million and by the opening weekend it had grossed ₹27.8 million. The first week collections were ₹53.45 million with an India gross of ₹317.2 million. Worldwide gross collections were ₹332.3 million, with an overseas gross of US$425,000. The adjusted net-gross of the film is ₹1.68 billion.

It was also the fourth-highest grossing of the year after Dil To Pagal Hai, Border and Pardes.

Awards and recognition[]

Kajol became the first actress in the history of the Filmfare Awards to win the Best Performance in a Negative Role.^[7]

43rd Filmfare Awards:

See also[]

• Red herring (narrative)
• Twist ending

References[]

External links[]

• Gupt: The Hidden Truth at IMDb