Baazigar

Ajay gets close to the daughter of a wealthy businessman, then to another one. By the end of the first half the audience understands what he is doing: this is not a love story but a planned revenge, and the hero commits murder. The film is not interested in solving the crime. It is interested in who the audience will hold on to: it stands on the killer's side and only later supplies the past that justifies him. A leading man being so openly a murderer was not usual in Indian cinema at the time. The form is nineties Bollywood: songs, large family scenes and a running time close to three hours. The switches between thriller and musical are still strange and still effective. The source is a loose rewriting of the 1991 film A Kiss Before Dying, itself adapted from Ira Levin's novel. The directing duo Abbas-Mustan made it. The part was turned down by Akshay Kumar, Anil Kapoor and Salman Khan before Shah Rukh Khan took it and built his career on it. The film was the biggest hit of 1993, won four Filmfare awards, and brought Khan his first Best Actor prize. Shilpa Shetty made her acting debut in it. Who it is for: viewers who like nineties Bollywood and villain-hero narratives. Who it is not for: anyone looking for logic. The plot runs on coincidence and the women are largely instruments.