Arjun (played by Sunny Deol) is a hard hitting movie about how a jobless youth (who fights against oppression by hoodlums) is exploited by the politicians to achieve their own mean and throw him like a waste and, how Arjun realizes it and brings them to justice.
Rahul Rawail's no nonsense and crisp direction; well written screenplay and dialogues of Javed Akhtar and, first rate acting of Sunny Deol, Anupam Kher and Prem Chopra leaves a lasting impression and, makes the movie watchable more than once.
In a way, Arjun is Sunny Deol's first movie as full fledged action hero and, it is also one of his best films. Though the character Arjun does not have many emotions and expressions to display, but still the level of Sunny Deol's acting is on par with or even above his later movies Ghayal and Damini (for which he has received Filmfare awards). Dimple Kapadia as love interest of Sunny Deol does not has much to do.
A. K. Hangal, Shashikala and Supriya Pathak, as father, stepmother and sister of Arjun, respectively have done a good job, especially, Shashikala with mouthful of venomous words makes sure you hate her. Raj Kiran's acting as upright police officer is OK.
Apart from Arjun, the other two main characters of the movie are the corrupted rival politicians Trivedi (played by Prem Chopra) and Chowgule (played by Anupam Kher) of the same party. Both Prem Chopra's and Anupam Kher's acting performance is highly commendable. Especially, Anupam Kher playing the role of Chowgule, a shrewd politician hiding himself as idealogical social worker steals the show. For instance, watch the change in his expressions when Arjun gives him the document that can be used as an evidence against Trivedi. Other noticeable performances are given by Raja Bundela (jobless youth and friend of Arjun), Annu Kapoor (secreatary of Chowgule) and Paresh Rawal (as henchman of Trivedi).
R. D. Burman's music is not up to the mark. Out of the four songs "Duniya Maane Bura to" and "Bhuri Bhuri Aankhon" are the most noticeable ones. The background music barely leaves any impression, at places one gets traces of the background music of Sholay (For instance, when Arjun and his friends beat the hoodlums for the first time).
Javed Akthar's dialogue and screenplay is good, audible and provides humour (at right places), but it is not up to the level of his previous work (Sholay, Deewar etc).
Arjun is the best directorial work of Rahul Rawail until now. His crisp direction keeps the audience attention throughout the movie and succeeds in delivering the "real" intended message of the movie. One of the memorable piece of direction is Chowgule and Trivedi bargaining at an elliptical shaped table. Watch them arguing while walking from one edge of the table to the center of the table and then reconciling as they walk to the other end of table.
Overall, Arjun is a "must" watch movie of Hindi cinema. It is much better than loads of movies that bollywood churns out about corrupt politician and underworld.
PS: Arjun was remade as "Satya" in Tamil language where the character of Arjun was played by Kamal Hasan. Given a choice between Hindi and Tamil version, I would strongly recommend the Hindi version.
Rahul Rawail's no nonsense and crisp direction; well written screenplay and dialogues of Javed Akhtar and, first rate acting of Sunny Deol, Anupam Kher and Prem Chopra leaves a lasting impression and, makes the movie watchable more than once.
In a way, Arjun is Sunny Deol's first movie as full fledged action hero and, it is also one of his best films. Though the character Arjun does not have many emotions and expressions to display, but still the level of Sunny Deol's acting is on par with or even above his later movies Ghayal and Damini (for which he has received Filmfare awards). Dimple Kapadia as love interest of Sunny Deol does not has much to do.
A. K. Hangal, Shashikala and Supriya Pathak, as father, stepmother and sister of Arjun, respectively have done a good job, especially, Shashikala with mouthful of venomous words makes sure you hate her. Raj Kiran's acting as upright police officer is OK.
Apart from Arjun, the other two main characters of the movie are the corrupted rival politicians Trivedi (played by Prem Chopra) and Chowgule (played by Anupam Kher) of the same party. Both Prem Chopra's and Anupam Kher's acting performance is highly commendable. Especially, Anupam Kher playing the role of Chowgule, a shrewd politician hiding himself as idealogical social worker steals the show. For instance, watch the change in his expressions when Arjun gives him the document that can be used as an evidence against Trivedi. Other noticeable performances are given by Raja Bundela (jobless youth and friend of Arjun), Annu Kapoor (secreatary of Chowgule) and Paresh Rawal (as henchman of Trivedi).
R. D. Burman's music is not up to the mark. Out of the four songs "Duniya Maane Bura to" and "Bhuri Bhuri Aankhon" are the most noticeable ones. The background music barely leaves any impression, at places one gets traces of the background music of Sholay (For instance, when Arjun and his friends beat the hoodlums for the first time).
Javed Akthar's dialogue and screenplay is good, audible and provides humour (at right places), but it is not up to the level of his previous work (Sholay, Deewar etc).
Arjun is the best directorial work of Rahul Rawail until now. His crisp direction keeps the audience attention throughout the movie and succeeds in delivering the "real" intended message of the movie. One of the memorable piece of direction is Chowgule and Trivedi bargaining at an elliptical shaped table. Watch them arguing while walking from one edge of the table to the center of the table and then reconciling as they walk to the other end of table.
Overall, Arjun is a "must" watch movie of Hindi cinema. It is much better than loads of movies that bollywood churns out about corrupt politician and underworld.
PS: Arjun was remade as "Satya" in Tamil language where the character of Arjun was played by Kamal Hasan. Given a choice between Hindi and Tamil version, I would strongly recommend the Hindi version.