Mohra

Mohra
Poster
Directed by	Rajiv Rai
Written by	Rajiv Rai Shabbir Boxwala
Produced by	Gulshan Rai
Starring	Naseeruddin Shah Akshay Kumar Suniel Shetty Raveena Tandon
Cinematography	Damodar Naidu
Edited by	Rajiv Rai
Music by	Viju Shah
Distributed by	Trimurti Films Pvt. Ltd.
Release date	1 July 1994 (1994-07-01)
Running time	177 minutes
Country	India
Language	Hindi
Budget	est. ₹ 3.75 crore[1]
Box office	est. ₹22.65 crore (equivalent to ₹120 crore or US$17 million in 2019)[1]

Mohra (transl. Pawn) is a 1994 Indian Hindi-language action thriller film directed by Rajiv Rai. It features Naseeruddin Shah, Akshay Kumar, Suniel Shetty and Raveena Tandon in the lead roles, with Poonam Jhawer, Paresh Rawal, Gulshan Grover, Raza Murad and Sadashiv Amrapurkar in supporting roles. The film went on to become the second highest-grossing Indian film of that year and was declared a Blockbuster. It has now gained the status of a cult classic film.

The film received nine Filmfare nominations in 1995. It was also the first collaboration between the trio of Akshay Kumar, Paresh Rawal and Suniel Shetty who went on to collaborate several times later on.^[2] Originally, Divya Bharti was cast as the female lead but she only managed five days working on the film before her death. Raveena Tandon was cast as her replacement.

The film is also remembered for its songs which became chartbusters in that year. The popularity of the song "Tu Cheez Badi Hai Mast Mast", which was picturised on Raveena Tandon, led to her being nicknamed The mast mast girl.^[3] The song was an adaptation of the popular Qawwali song "Dam Mast Qalandar Mast Mast" by Pakistani singer Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan.^[4] The film's soundtrack album sold more than 8 million units, making it the second highest-selling Bollywood soundtrack album of 1994, behind only Hum Aapke Hain Koun..!

Plot[]

Vishal, a convict is imprisoned for killing four criminals who brutally raped and killed his sister-in-law. He tries to get justice in court but fails, and the men are freed from prison with help of a corrupt lawyer. Then, the criminals visit Vishal's home because he tried to file a case against them. Driven by vengeance, they try to rape Vishal's wife, Priya, but she kills herself with a knife. Angered at all this, Vishal decides to take the matter into his own hands and murders the four criminals himself. He is sentenced to life in prison for the crimes.

When journalist Roma Singh visits the jail for a report that she's writing, a few of the convicts try to rape her. The attempted rape reminds Vishal of his misfortune, and he intervenes to save Roma. Roma hears Vishal's story and decides to help free him. She is heard by Mr. Jindal, (a blind businessman - owner of "Samadhan Newspaper" where Roma works) who reopens Vishal's case and convinces legal authorities to allow Vishal his freedom so that he can start living a normal life once again.

Once Vishal is freed, Mr. Jindal tries to recruit him as a hit-man. His responsibility is to kill some anti-social elements in the city, mainly the two powerful drug lords Jibran and Tyson and all the people who work for them. Jindal tells Vishal that these drug lords are responsible for creating people like the group of four men he killed in the first place, by bringing drugs to the streets and corrupting the locals with them. Vishal refuses at first as he has just got out of prison and now wants to live a normal life. However, the memories of his murdered family come back to haunt him as he spends a day alone in his home and he agrees to work for Jindal. Jindal convinces Vishal to kill Kamdev Kulkarni, the Commissioner of Police, at the end, pointing him to be the main culprit and protector of drug lords in the city. Vishal starts killing each of the drug-suspects, one from Jibran's gang and the next from Tyson's gang, to ignite the rivalry between them.

At the same time, a young and sincere Police Inspector named Amar Saxena, is trying to catch the drug-trading suspects. He is unhappy about the release of Vishal, who he believes deserves to be in prison because of the murders he committed. Things become even more complicated when Amar finds Vishal at most of the murder scenes of criminals involved in drug-trading. Meanwhile, Roma and Amar fall in love with each other and officially get engaged. Amar's colleague, Sub Inspector Kashinath Sahoo, is very greedy and becomes an informer for Jibran, one of the targeted drug lords. He discloses all internal matters of the police department to Jibran in return for money, that too as per the duration of his conversation throughout.

Jibran, upon getting informed by Kashinath Sahoo that the hitman who is eliminating his gang members is none other than Vishal Agnihotri, calls Tyson to meet and ease out the misunderstanding. Vishal, secretly shoots Tyson at the meeting, making two gangs fall upon each other and get killed incidentally. Jibran gets wounded as Tyson shoots him but pretends to be dead, thereby saving himself from Vishal and watches Vishal shooting Tyson at point blank range. Finally, Vishal approaches to kill commissioner Kamdev, but overhears the conversation between a drunk Kamdev and Kranti Kumar (Assistant Sub Inspector), where Kamdev thinks that the unknown murderer is actually helping society to get rid of dirty elements, which the police could never do because of legal flaws and lack of proofs, and that innocent convicts like Vishal (whose career is virtually destroyed) should be recruited in the police force. Vishal has a change of heart and refuses to kill Kamdev.

Upon meeting his boss the next day at an outhouse, Vishal informs that while most of the anti-social elements have been eliminated, Kamdev will be spared. Jindal is enraged upon hearing Vishal's decision and reminds Vishal to only follow orders and not succumb to his feelings. However, Vishal confronts Jindal and demands to know the truth on why he has been forced to become a killer and who Jindal really is. Jindal strikes Vishal violently. Vishal attacks Jindal with a paper-weight, but Jindal dodges it. Vishal then realizes that Jindal is not blind and is the real antagonist pulling the strings the whole time. Vishal wants to kill Jindal instantly, but suddenly Jibran shows up and saves Jindal. Vishal is captured and imprisoned by Jindal.

Jindal reveals his past to Vishal. He idolized Jibran and Tyson in his youth, but wanted to become bigger than them, thus he made them his rivals. He also confesses that he murdered his wife Pooja and Inspector Karan Saxena (who happens to be Amar's father), to cover up the truth of his corruption, and faked his blindness to throw the police off his trail. Over the years, Jindal becomes wealthy and powerful through his underworld drug kingdom while maintaining his façade as a good natured blind businessman and owner of Samadhan. Jindal, who has now partnered with Jibran, leaves Vishal to die by rigging the outhouse with bombs.

However, Vishal narrowly escapes death and reaches Roma's house, asking for help. A few minutes later, Amar arrives and misunderstands the situation, blaming Roma to be in an unfair relationship with Vishal and refuses to listen to her. Vishal, upon being confronted by Amar, tries to tell the truth, but Amar is not ready to believe Vishal. Finally, both start fighting each other recklessly, and Amar hits Vishal, making the latter unconscious and throws him in jail.

Sub Inspector Sahoo, who is brought to Jindal by Jibran to give him important information about Vishal, tells him that Vishal is alive and will tell the entire truth to Amar and the Commissioner by the next morning. Jindal reveals his long-time attraction for Roma, thus unmasking his blindfold to Roma's utmost surprise and kidnaps her. The sub-editor Siddiqui, who tries to save her, is killed by Jindal.

Kamdev, arriving by the next morning, releases Vishal at his free will. Seeing this, Amar bursts out in a fury and accuses Kamdev to be an equally responsible culprit who helps gangsters all the time and protects them from being punished. Vishal confronts Amar and tells everything about Jindal in detail. Amar, who has searching for his father's murderer for a long time, promises to take revenge on Jindal.

Amar, Vishal and Kamdev go to Jindal's office to arrest him, but they find that Jindal has escaped. Jindal, at that instant, calls at his office and upon receiving the call, the trio discovers that Jindal has kidnapped Roma in order to forcefully marry her. Amar suspects an insider informing Jindal about their every single move, and that person is present among them. He blindly arrests Kranti Kumar, thereby letting Kashinath reveal his other side and getting caught red-handed. Now, being cornered, Kashinath has to reveal Jindal's location and helps Vishal and Amar trace Jindal to an abandoned fort where druglords from all over the country have been assembled to trigger a vicious and aggressive drug cartel from next morning, thereby partnering with Jindal, who will become the undisputed leader.

After a melee, Amar and Vishal kill most of the drug-lords, and Sahoo kills Jibran to save himself. Cornered, Jindal forces Roma to go with him but is confronted by Vishal. He tricks and shoots Vishal, grabs him at gun point, thus compelling Roma to stay back and makes Amar surrender his weapon. Deciding to sacrifice his life, Vishal forcefully takes control of Jindal's gun and makes Jindal mortally wound him, which shocks the villain. Amar, who is holding his weapon till then, kills Jindal immediately and avenges the death of his father just as Vishal dies in Amar's lap, saluting him for one last time.

The film ends with Amar getting rewarded by the government for his bravery and Roma's father announcing the marriage of Amar & Roma in the next month. Just then, Kashinath Sahoo, who nearly escaped suspension, enters the scene and mimics himself blindfolded, much like Jindal's way, while the others laugh at him and tell him to mend his ways. Kashinath replies by saying that he is trying to convince the government to pay more salary to police officers in the wake of rising inflation, so that they do not have to accept bribes to make ends meet.

Cast[]

• Naseeruddin Shah as Mr. Kushal Jindal, owner of "Samadhan Newspaper" and a ruthless drug lord
• Suniel Shetty as Vishal Agnihotri, an ex-convict
• Akshay Kumar as Inspector Amar Saxena
• Raveena Tandon as Roma Singh, Amar’s lover and rising journalist
• Paresh Rawal as Sub-Inspector, Kashinath Sahoo, a corrupt police officer
• Sadashiv Amrapurkar as Kamdev Kulkarni, Commissioner of Police
• Gulshan Grover as Tyson, the drug lord, competing with Mr. Jindal
• Raza Murad as Jibran, another drug lord, the rival of Tyson, also competing with Mr. Jindal, who later becomes his ally
• Kulbhushan Kharbanda as Jailer, Roma's Dad
• Avtar Gill as Karan Saxena, Amar Saxena's dad
• Razak Khan as Rizwaan (Jibraan's younger brother)
• Kunika as Flora (Tyson's kept)
• Tej Sapru as Irfan (Rizwan's son)
• Vishwajeet Pradhan as Jackson (Tyson's younger brother)
• Gavin Packard as Mr Douglas (Special Appearance)
• Yunus Parvez as Siddiqui
• Priya Tendulkar as Pooja, Jindal's wife (Special Appearance)
• Vinay Sapru as Tony, lover of Priya's sister
• Harish Patel as Kranti Kumar
• John Gabriel as Rampal (Special Appearance)
• Poonam Jhawer as Priya, Vishal Agnihotri's wife (Special Appearance)

Soundtrack[]

The music for the film was composed by Viju Shah, with lyrics by Indeevar and Anand Bakshi.^[5] Mohra was one of the most successful soundtrack albums of 1994, especially the song "Tu Cheez Badi Hai Mast". The track is based on the popular Qawwali song "Dam Mast Qalandar Mast Mast" by Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan.^[4] Initially, Viju Shah wanted Sapna Mukherjee to render "Tu Cheez Badi Hai Mast" but, upon Rajiv Rai's insistence, opted for Kavita Krishnamurthy instead. The song "Na Kajare Ki Dhar" was originally composed by Kalyanji-Anandji, but wasn't released as the movie was shelved in 1980. The song was originally sung by Mukesh.

The film's soundtrack album sold more than 8 million units,^[6] making it the second highest-selling Bollywood soundtrack album of 1994, behind only Hum Aapke Hain Koun..!^[7] The song "Tu Cheez Badi Hai Mast Mast" was remade as "Cheez Badi" for the 2017 film Machine.^[8]

Track list

Boxoffice[]

Mohra is a Action Film which was released on 1-Jul-1994 at 220 screen layouts.

On first weekend it collected (₹1,59,00,000) and worldwide first week it collected (₹2,87,79,000). Worldwide first week collection was (₹5,73,77,000) and Adjusted netgross collection was (₹2,06,83,28,190). Total netgross collection was (₹12,01,25,000) and the film was "All Time Blockbuster" at Box Office India.

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
IMDb	7/10

it was 4th-highest-grossing film of 1994.

References[]

Further reading[]

• Chowdhury, Purna (2010). "Bollywood Babes: Body and Female Desire in the Bombay Films Since the Nineties and Darr, Mohra and Aitraaz: A Tropic Discourse". In Mehta, Rini Bhattacharya; Pandharipande, Rajeshwari V. (eds.). Bollywood and Globalization: Indian Popular Cinema, Nation, and Diaspora. Anthem Press. pp. 62–65. ISBN 978-1843318330.

External links[]

• Mohra at IMDb
• Mohra at Bollywood Hungama
• Mohra at Rotten Tomatoes