''Gupt: The Hidden Truth'' (), shortly called ''Gupt'', is a 1997 Indian

Hindi Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...

-language

action thriller film The action film is a film genre that predominantly features chase sequences, fights, shootouts, explosions, and stunt work. The specifics of what constitutes an action film has been in scholarly debate since the 1980s. While some scholars such as D ...

directed by Rajiv Rai. The film stars

Bobby Deol Vijay Singh Deol (born 27 January 1969), better known by his screen name Bobby Deol, is an Indian actor who primarily works in Hindi cinema. A member of the List of Hindi film families#Deol family, Deol family, he is the younger son of actor Dha ...

Manisha Koirala Manisha Koirala (; born 16 August 1970) is a Nepali people, Nepalese actress who works in Cinema of India, Indian films, predominantly in Hindi and Tamil language, Tamil. Born to the politically prominent Koirala family, she is the daughter of ...

, and Kajol in the lead roles. Distributed under the banner of

Trimurti Films Trimurti Films Pvt. Ltd. is an Indian film production house founded by Gulshan Rai in 1970. After Rai's death, his son Rajiv Rai took over as the head of the company. The company's first production was ''Johny Mera Naam'' (1970). The company s ...

, it also stars

Raj Babbar Raj Babbar (born 23 June 1952) is an Indian Hindi and Punjabi language, Punjabi film actor and politician belonging to Indian National Congress. He is a three-time member of the Lok Sabha and a two-time member of the Rajya Sabha. He was the sta ...

Prem Chopra Prem Chopra (born 23 September 1935) is an Indian actor in Hindi films. He has acted in 380 films over a span of over 60 years. Life and education Chopra, the third of six children of Ranveerlal and Rooprani Chopra, a Punjabi Hindu family, was ...

Raza Murad Raza Murad (born 23 November 1950) is an Indian actor who primarily appears in Hindi films. He has acted in over 250 Hindi films and has also appeared in Bhojpuri, Punjabi and other languages and on Hindi television. Early life He is the so ...

Kulbhushan Kharbanda Kulbhushan Kharbanda (born 21 October 1944) is an Indian actor who works in Hindi and Punjabi films. He is best known for his role as the antagonist Shakaal in '' Shaan'' (1980), Starting off with the Delhi-based theatre group ' Yatrik' in the ...

Paresh Rawal Paresh Rawal (born 30 May 1955) is an Indian actor, comedian, film producer and politician known for his works primarily in Hindi cinema, Hindi films. He has Paresh Rawal filmography, appeared in over 240 films and is the recipient of various L ...

Dalip Tahil Dalip Tahil (born Dalip Tahilramani; 30 October 1952) is an Indian people, Indian film, television and theatre actor. He is best known for his work in ''Baazigar'' (1993), ''Raja (1995 film), Raja'' (1995), ''Hum Hain Rahi Pyar Ke'' (1993) and ' ...

, Sharat Saxena,

Sadashiv Amrapurkar Sadashiv Dattaray Amrapurkar (11 May 1950 – 3 November 2014) was an Indian actor, best known for his performances in Marathi and Hindi films from 1983 to 2013. He acted in more than 300 movies in Hindi, Marathi, and other regional languages ...

Om Puri Om Prakash Puri, (18 October 1950 – 6 January 2017) was an Indian actor who appeared in mainstream commercial Hindi films as well as Urdu, Malayalam, Bengali, Kannada, English, Punjabi, Gujarati, Telugu, and Marathi films, as well as ind ...

Mukesh Rishi Mukesh Rishi (born 19 April 1956) is an Indian actor and film producer who works primarily in Hindi and Telugu films. He has also appeared in Malayalam, Kannada, Punjabi, Marathi and Tamil films. He got his first break in Hindi in 1993 with ...

Priya Tendulkar Priya Tendulkar (19 October 1954 – 19 September 2002) was an Indian actress, social activist and a writer, who is most known for her eponymous role in the television series ''Rajani (TV series), Rajani'' (1985). Early life Priya displayed a ...

and others in supporting roles. The soundtrack was composed by Viju Shah. It is considered as one of the best thriller films from

Hindi Cinema Hindi cinema, popularly known as Bollywood and formerly as Bombay cinema, is primarily produced in Mumbai. The popular term Bollywood is a portmanteau of "Bombay" (former name of Mumbai) and "Cinema of the United States, Hollywood". The in ...

. At the 43rd Filmfare Awards, ''Gupt'' received 8 nominations, including Best Film and Best Director (Rai), and won 3 awards, including Best Villain.

Plot

Governor Jaisingh Sinha, a respected leader, is in talks about FDI with key figures, including industrialist Meghnad Choudhary and socialist leader Vilas Rao. Meanwhile, his stepson Sahil, who never accepted him as his father, lives a carefree life and is in love with Isha, the daughter of Sinha’s secretary, Ishwar Dewan. They were childhood friends but got separated when Isha was sent to boarding school. Trouble starts when Sinha announces Sahil’s engagement to Sheetal, Choudhary’s daughter, without his consent. Furious, Sahil argues with Sinha and, in a moment of rage, tries to stab him but is stopped by his mother. He storms out and drowns his anger in alcohol at Dr. Gandhi’s house, who advises him to reconsider his feelings. When Sahil returned home, he found Sinha fatally stabbed. Just before dying, Sinha tries to say something, but Sahil can’t understand. His mother sees him holding a knife near the body and assumes the worst. Sahil is arrested, and in court, everyone testifies against him. He is sentenced to 14 years in prison. Determined to prove his innocence, Sahil escapes with Sheetal’s help. Inspector Uddham Singh is put on the case. Sahil secretly meets Isha and later goes to Dr. Gandhi for help, only to find him murdered, too. Now accused of two murders, Sahil investigates those who could have a motive—Thanawala, Choudhary, and Vilas Rao—but finds no proof. Along with Sheetal and Isha, he abducts Minister Sadanand Bose ("Mantriji") to force the truth out, but it leads nowhere. Uddham Singh, however, notices an important clue: Two identical knives were used in the murders. This leads him to Dewan’s house, where the same set of knives is found, with two missing. Dewan is arrested and confesses—but not to the murders. He reveals that the real killer is his daughter, Isha. Sahil confused, realizes the truth when he finds a locket in which Sinha was clutching at his death—it has pictures of him and Isha. Dewan explains that Isha has had severe anger issues since childhood. She once killed Dr. Gandhi’s dog after it bit Sahil. Years ago, Sinha and Dr. Gandhi sent her away to boarding school to keep her away from Sahil. On the day of Sinha’s murder, Isha and Dewan had gone to plead for Sahil and Isha’s marriage, but Sinha insulted them and rejected the idea. Enraged, Isha killed him. When Dr. Gandhi found out, she killed him too. Sahil rushes to save Sheetal, realizing Isha will come after her next. At Sheetal’s house, Isha pretends to apologizes but suddenly attacks her. Just then, Sahil arrives, and a fight breaks out. An assassin hired earlier to kill Sahil and Isha tries to intervene but gets killed. In the final moments, a wounded Uddham Singh arrives and fatally shoots Isha. Before dying, Isha asks Sahil for forgiveness. The film ends with Sahil moving on, now with Sheetal by his side.

Cast

as Sahil Sinha *

as Sheetal Chaudhary * Kajol as Isha Diwan *

as Minister Sadanand Bose *

as Advocate Mushir Thanawala *

as Dr. Shubham Gandhi *

as Ishwar Diwan *

as Meghnad Chaudhary * Sharat Saxena as Vilasrao Mhatre *

as Inspector Neelkanth Pandey *

as Inspector Udham Singh *

Ashok Saraf Ashok Saraf (born 4 June 1947) is an Indian actor and comedian, known for his work in Marathi and Hindi films along with theatre in both languages. Saraf has received several awards including eleven Maharashtra State Film Awards and four Filmfar ...

as Constable Pandu *

as Governor Jaisingh Sinha (Special Appearance) *

as Babu Anna (Special Appearance) *

Harish Patel Harish Patel (; born 5 July 1953) is an Indian character actor. He has appeared in a variety of Hindi films, but in recent years has begun to appear in American projects like reimagination of ''Four Weddings and a Funeral'' on Hulu and the MCU ...

as Phoolchand Raje *

Tej Sapru Tej Sapru (born 5 April 1955) is an Indian actor. He is the son of D. K. Sapru and Hemvati, both of whom were actors in the Hindi film industry. He has appeared in a number of Bollywood films between the 1980s and 2010s, including '' Tridev'', ...

as Jailor *

Anjan Srivastav Aanjjan Srivastav (born 2 June 1948) is an Indian film, television and stage actor, associated with Indian People's Theatre Association (IPTA) in Mumbai Mumbai ( ; ), also known as Bombay ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capi ...

as Police Commissioner Manoj Patwardhan *

Vishwajeet Pradhan Vishwajeet Pradhan (born 11 September 1965) is an Indian actor who predominantly works in Bollywood films, theatre and television. He is well-known for his role as Pakistani Captain in Kya Dilli Kya Lahore and as Thakur Rudra Pratap in Ek Boon ...

as Hunter *

Dinesh Hingoo Dinesh Hingoo (born 13 April 1940) is an Indian actor who played comic and supporting roles in Hindi films. He has appeared in over 300 films, from ''Taqdeer (1967)'' to ''Be Careful (film), Be Careful (2011)'', and is known for his laughter an ...

as Thanawala's Servant *

as Sharda Sinha *

Aparajita Aparajita was an able Shilahara ruler of north Konkan branch from 975 CE – 1010 CE. Chhadvaideva was followed by his nephew Aparajita, the son of Vajjada. Aparajita was an ambitious king. He sought to extend his sphere of influence by ...

as Surbhi Chaudhary * Harsh Lunia as Harsh Sinha *

Bob Christo Robert John Christo, was an Australian–Indian civil engineer and actor in Hindi films. Starting with Sanjay Khan's '' Abdullah'' (1980), he went on to act in over 200 Hindi films in the 1980s and 1990s, including '' Qurbani'' (1980), '' Kaali ...

as Boat organiser

Music

The music was composed by Viju Shah and the lyrics were written by

Anand Bakshi Anand Bakshi (21 July 1930 – 30 March 2002) was an Indian poet and lyricist. He won Filmfare Award for Best Lyricist 4 times during his career. He wrote over 6000 film songs in more than 300 films. Early life Anand Bakshi (Bakshi Anand Pr ...

. The title track of the film, "Gupt Gupt", samples the

electronica Electronica is both a broad group of electronic-based music styles intended for listening rather than strictly for dancing and a music scene that came to prominence in the early 1990s in the United Kingdom. In the United States, the term is mos ...

track "Deep Forest" from the eponymous album by

Deep Forest Deep Forest is a French music project that originally began as a duo consisting of Michel Sanchez (musician), Michel Sanchez and Éric Mouquet. They compose a style of world music, sometimes called ethnic electronica, mixing ethnic with electro ...

and the titular tracks from

Mike Oldfield Michael Gordon Oldfield (born 15 May 1953) is an English retired musician, songwriter and producer best known for his debut studio album ''Tubular Bells'' (1973), which became an unexpected critical and commercial success. Though primarily a gu ...

's seminal

prog-rock Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog) is a broad genre of rock music that primarily developed in the United Kingdom through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early-to-mid-1970s. Initially termed "progressive pop", the ...

orchestral debut ''

Tubular Bells Tubular bells (also known as chimes) are musical instruments in the Percussion instrument, percussion family. Their sound resembles that of church bells, carillons, or a bell tower; the original tubular bells were made to duplicate the soun ...

'' (revisited and sampled numerous times since). "Duniya Hasino Ka Mela" was sampled from "Matsuri" included in the

new age New Age is a range of Spirituality, spiritual or Religion, religious practices and beliefs that rapidly grew in Western world, Western society during the early 1970s. Its highly eclecticism, eclectic and unsystematic structure makes a precise d ...

album ''

Kojiki The , also sometimes read as or , is an early Japanese chronicle of myths, legends, hymns, genealogies, oral traditions, and semi-historical accounts down to 641 concerning the origin of the Japanese archipelago, the , and the Japanese imperia ...

'' by Japanese keyboardist

Kitarō Masanori Takahashi (高橋正則, ''Takahashi Masanori''; born February 4, 1953), professionally known as , is a Japanese musician, composer, record producer, and arranger noted for his electronic-instrumental music, and is often associated w ...

. 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 Alka Yagnik (born 20 March 1966) is an Indian playback singer who works predominantly in Hindi cinema. One of the most prominent singers of 1990s era Bollywood, she has received several accolades, including two National Film Awards, two Ben ...

was also nominated for the Best Female Playback Singer for "Mere Khwabon Me Tu".

Box office

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.

Accolades

Kajol became the first actress in the history of the Filmfare Awards to win the Best Performance in a Negative Role. 43rd Filmfare Awards:

References

External links

* {{Rajiv Rai 1997 films Trimurti Films 1990s Hindi-language films Indian action thriller films Indian crime thriller films Indian mystery thriller films Films scored by Viju Shah Indian psychological thriller films 1997 action thriller films 1997 crime thriller films 1990s mystery thriller films 1997 psychological thriller films Films directed by Rajiv Rai Films shot in Manali, Himachal Pradesh Films shot in Idukki Films shot in Munnar Films shot in Rajasthan