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KUDRAT ("Nature") (1998)
Directed By Raj N. Sippy
Music: Rajesh Roshan Starring: Akshaye Khanna, Urmila Matondkar, Aruna Irani, Paresh Rawal, Kader Khan
Running Time: 140 Minutes
CineRating: 3.5 out of 10
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Not to be confused with Chetan Anand's 1981 film of the same title, Raj N. Sippy's Kudrat is a considerbly more slapdash effort that pairs together stars Akshaye Khanna (Taal) and Urmilla Matondkar (Mast) in a storyline that resembles little more than a clumsy patchwork of two radically different films.
After returning home from America, Vijay Varma (Khanna) becomes smitten with a snobby rich girl named Madhu (Urmila), who attends the same school he does. The pair antagonize one another at first, as Vijay takes exception to the way Madhu flaunts her wealth, and she retaliates by tricking him into believing that she's in love with him. However, Madhu eventually has a change of heart when she realizes that Vijay really does love her. Her father (Paresh Rawal, of Nayak) is outraged by Vijay's less-than-respectful behavior toward his daughter, but suddenly changes his stance when he comes face to face with the young man. He quicky gives the go-ahead for the pair to get married. Unfortunately for Vijay, both his parents and Madhu's father are hiding a tragic secret from him -- one that will destroy his wedding plans and threaten to keep Madhu from his arms forever.
For the bulk of its running time, Kudrat is content to be a typical piece of Bollywood romantic fluff, with the usual "boy meets girl, boy loses girl" plot that typifies the bulk of Bollywood cinema. However, in its last hour, Kudrat takes a turn for the morbid as it transforms into a bloody revenge melodrama when Vijay learns the truth behind his family's dark past. Needless to say, the shift from sappy romance to violent action film is achieved with a startling absence of cohesion, wit and complete believability.
Akshaye Khanna plays his role with a commendable amount of straight-faced sincerity, while Urmila is her usual energetic presence, particularly in the song-and-dance numbers. Still, while she's certainly no pushover in the looks department, the petite Urmila always seems slightly miscast as the sexy siren type -- perhaps it's because she has a rather pleasant and earthy quality and bears more than a passing resemblance to a young Andrea Martin of SCTV fame (although a friend likens her more to an Indian Sarah Michelle Gellar).
Despite its sloppily constructed storyline and flat direction, Kudrat is still a mildly amusing goof of a film, with a few good (unintentional) laughs, one entertaining song-and-dance number ("Ishq Bhala Kya Hai"), and one near-brilliant one. The elaborately choreographed "Ab Tak Hai Puri Azadi" (a popular song whose incarnation here annoyed some viewers because the line "Pen Di Takki" was changed to the more politically correct "Chiddi Ki Dukki") is almost worth the price of the DVD, with the infectious song perfectly complemented by the dueling dance troupes of Akshaye and Urmila (and marred only by the needless cutaways to the angry reaction shots of a supporting character). You get the feeling that the bulk of the film's budget and schedule were devoted to the filming of this one sequence. If the rest of the film had only half as much creativity as displayed in this one scene, Kudrat could'a been a contender.
The DVD for Kudrat features a mostly sharp, letterboxed transfer but sports a brief audio glitch that garbles the sound on two occasions.
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DVD Specs:
Eros/DEI DVD
Removable English Subs (none for the songs)
Trailer for Shaheed-e-Mohabbat
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