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''Maachis'' () is a 1996 Indian Hindi-language period
political thriller A political thriller is a thriller that is set against the backdrop of a political power struggle; high stakes and suspense are the core of the story. The genre often forces the audiences to consider and understand the importance of politics. Th ...
film written and directed by
Gulzar Gulzar (born Sampooran Singh Kalra; 18 August 1934) is an Indian Urdu poetry, Urdu poet, lyricist, author, screenwriter, and film director known for his works in Hindi cinema. He is regarded as one of greatest Urdu poets of this era. He starte ...
. The film stars Chandrachur Singh, Om Puri, Tabu, and
Jimmy Sheirgill Jimmy Sheirgill (born Jasjit Singh Gill; 3 December 1970), also known as Jimmy Shergill, is an Indian actor and producer who primarily works in Hindi and Punjabi language, Punjabi films. Sheirgill began his film career with the 1996 thriller ...
. The film is set against the backdrop of the Sikh insurgency in
Punjab Punjab (; ; also romanised as Panjāb or Panj-Āb) is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia. It is located in the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising areas of modern-day eastern Pakistan and no ...
during the 1980s. The plot delves into the personal and political turmoil faced by individuals caught in violence and explores themes of state repression, vengeance, and the
radicalization Radicalization (or radicalisation) is the process by which an individual or a group comes to adopt increasingly radical views in opposition to a political, social, or religious status quo. The ideas of society at large shape the outcomes of rad ...
of youth. The movie was released on 25 October 1996. ''Maachis'' received critical acclaim for its direction, story, screenplay, dialogue, and music. The film emerged as a commercial success at the box-office, grossing ₹6.19 crore against a production budget of ₹2 crore. At the 44th National Film Awards, ''Maachis'' won 2 awards – Best Popular Film Providing Wholesome Entertainment and Best Actress (Tabu). At the 42nd Filmfare Awards, the film received 10 nominations, including Best Film, Best Director (Gulzar), Best Actress (Tabu), and Best Supporting Actor (Puri), and won 4 awards, including Best Male Debut (Chandrachur) and R. D. Burman Award (Bhardwaj).


Plot

The story is set during the mid-to-late 1980s in
Punjab Punjab (; ; also romanised as Panjāb or Panj-Āb) is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia. It is located in the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising areas of modern-day eastern Pakistan and no ...
, India, a period marked by violent
insurgency An insurgency is a violent, armed rebellion by small, lightly armed bands who practice guerrilla warfare against a larger authority. The key descriptive feature of insurgency is its asymmetric warfare, asymmetric nature: small irregular forces ...
triggered by Operation Blue Star, the assassination of Prime Minister
Indira Gandhi Indira Priyadarshini Gandhi (Given name, ''née'' Nehru; 19 November 1917 – 31 October 1984) was an Indian politician and stateswoman who served as the Prime Minister of India, prime minister of India from 1966 to 1977 and again from 1980 un ...
, and the subsequent 1984 Sikh Massacre. The narrative unfolds through a series of intense flashbacks. Jaswant Singh Randhawa and his sister, Veerendar "Veeran," live peacefully with their elderly mother, Biji, in a rural village. Kripal Singh, Jaswant’s childhood friend and Veeran’s fiancé, lives nearby with his grandfather. Their tranquil existence is shattered when Assistant Commissioner of Police Khurana and Inspector Vohra arrive in search of Jimmy, who is accused of attempting to murder a member of the
Indian Parliament The Parliament of India (ISO: ) is the supreme legislative body of the Government of the Republic of India. It is a bicameral legislature composed of the Rajya Sabha (Council of States) and the Lok Sabha (House of the People). The President o ...
, Kedar Nath. When interrogated, Jaswant plays a prank by leading the police to his puppy, Jimmy. Infuriated by his defiance, Khurana and Vohra take Jaswant into custody. Kripal desperately searches for Jaswant, visiting several police stations but finding no trace of him. After 15 days, Jaswant returns home, severely beaten and scarred from brutal police torture, all for a harmless prank. Kripal, outraged by the police brutality, seeks help through legal channels but finds no justice. Frustrated, he decides to track down his cousin Jeetay, who is connected to militant groups. Kripal’s search leads him to a highway restaurant (dhabha), where he encounters Sanathan, a militant who had planted a bomb on a bus. Kripal asks for Sanathan's help, and Sanathan reluctantly agrees, allowing Kripal to travel with him, a "Commander," and other militants in a truck loaded with bombs. Once they arrive at the militant hideout, Kripal explains his situation. The Commander reveals that he killed Jeetay for being a police informant. Despite Kripal’s plea for assistance, the Commander rebukes him, stating that they are not professional killers and that if Kripal wants justice, he must take matters into his own hands by killing Khurana by himself. Kripal gradually earns the trust and respect of the militant group. Sanathan explains that Kripal's fight is not about nationalism or religion, but about defending fundamental civil rights and resisting a corrupt system that victimizes the innocent and devalues ordinary citizens. It is revealed that Sanathan himself is a survivor of the communal violence during the
Partition of India The partition of India in 1947 was the division of British India into two independent dominion states, the Dominion of India, Union of India and Dominion of Pakistan. The Union of India is today the Republic of India, and the Dominion of Paki ...
in 1947 and lost most of his family in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots. He asserts that the ruling class manipulates society by dividing it along religious lines for political gain. Kripal trains with the group and plans the assassination of Khurana. After a year of preparation, he successfully kills Khurana in a crowded marketplace. Horrified by his actions, Kripal visits Jaswant and Veeran one last time before going into hiding, but both are appalled at what he has done. When Kripal returns to the hideout, he finds it deserted. After staying undercover for a while, he is contacted by a group member who signals that he should prepare for a move. The Commander escorts him to a new hiding place in
Himachal Pradesh Himachal Pradesh (; Sanskrit: ''himācāl prādes;'' "Snow-laden Mountain Province") is a States and union territories of India, state in the northern part of India. Situated in the Western Himalayas, it is one of the thirteen Indian Himalayan ...
and informs him that the police have connected him to Khurana’s murder, tracing it back to the incident involving Jaswant. As Kripal settles into life on the run, he realizes there is no returning to normalcy. He finds solace in the militant group, which is preparing for a new mission and awaiting the arrival of a missile specialist. Kripal briefly considers applying for a local job, but Sanathan warns him that he is now branded a high-profile terrorist by the media, a convenient target for police looking for promotions. One of the group members, Kuldip, narrowly escapes a police encounter while transporting explosives and is left shaken. Desperate to escape, he begs Sanathan for permission to return home, promising to emigrate to
Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...
. Reluctantly, Sanathan agrees. However, unbeknownst to the group, Kuldip is killed by a bomb hidden in his backpack as he heads home. Kripal also learns that one of his comrades, Jaimal Singh, is the same Jimmy the police had been hunting all along. Soon after, the group's awaited missile specialist arrives, and to Kripal's shock, it is none other than his fiancée, Veerendar "Veeran" Kaur. The two finally speak privately, and Kripal is devastated to learn that after Khurana's assassination, Jaswant was taken in for questioning, brutally beaten, and ultimately driven to commit suicide while in jail. Their mother passed away shortly after hearing the news, leaving Veeran alone. Subjected to daily harassment by Inspector Vohra, Veeran decided to follow Kripal’s path and reunite with him in the militant cause. As they spend more time together, Kripal and Veeran begin to rekindle their relationship. Veeran quickly becomes an integral part of the group, bringing a sense of normalcy and the simple pleasures of daily life to the otherwise hardened outlaws. She forms close friendships with the group members, particularly Sanathan and Wazir. The group's next mission is to assassinate MP Kedar Nath, who survived Jimmy's previous assassination attempt, during his visit to a local Sikh shrine. In the midst of their stay together, Kripal and Veeran decide to marry in secret. Unbeknownst to Kripal, Veeran quietly takes his
cyanide In chemistry, cyanide () is an inorganic chemical compound that contains a functional group. This group, known as the cyano group, consists of a carbon atom triple-bonded to a nitrogen atom. Ionic cyanides contain the cyanide anion . This a ...
pill, a last-resort measure carried by each member in case of capture. While scouting the Sikh shrine for surveillance, Kripal unexpectedly spots Inspector Vohra, overseeing security for Kedar Nath's visit. Kripal tracks Vohra to his residence but is caught in the act of attempting to kill him and arrested. One of the group's members witnesses Kripal entering Vohra's residence. Based on the fact that Kripal did not take his cyanide pill, Sanathan becomes convinced that Kripal has betrayed them to the police. He accuses Veeran of helping Kripal and orders her to be placed under house arrest. On the day of the mission, Sanathan orders the group to proceed and instructs Wazir to kill Veeran. However, Veeran manages to escape and slain Wazir. Meanwhile, Jaimal and Sanathan begin the mission. Jaimal is killed as he stops Kedar Nath's motorcade on a bridge, but Sanathan succeeds in firing the missile and blowing up Kedar Nath's car. Now, on the run, Sanathan is hunted not by the police but by Veeran herself. In a final confrontation deep in the woods, Veeran kills Sanathan. Veeran, still unrecognized as part of the militant group, visits Kripal in prison. During a seemingly innocent embrace, she discreetly passes him the cyanide pill. The film concludes with Kripal lying peacefully dead in his prison cell, having taken the cyanide. At the same time, Veeran is shown sitting upright in the back of a moving pickup tractor, blood streaming from her nose, indicating that she has taken the cyanide pill, too.


Cast

* Tabu as Virender Kaur a.k.a. Veeran * Chandrachur Singh as Kripal Singh a.k.a. Pali * Om Puri as Sanatan *
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 ...
as Commander * Kanwaljit Singh as Inspector Vohra * S M Zaheer as Khurana *
Raj Zutshi Rajendranath Zutshi (born 4 February 1961) is an Indian film and television actor. Personal life Zutshi was born on 4 February 1961 in Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir (state), Jammu and Kashmir, India into a Kashmiri Pandit family. Raj Zutshi is a ...
as Jaswant Singh Randhawa a.k.a. Jassi *Banwari Taneja as Kripal Singh's Grandfather *
Jimmy Sheirgill Jimmy Sheirgill (born Jasjit Singh Gill; 3 December 1970), also known as Jimmy Shergill, is an Indian actor and producer who primarily works in Hindi and Punjabi language, Punjabi films. Sheirgill began his film career with the 1996 thriller ...
as Jaimal Singh a.k.a. Jimmy * Ravi Gossain as Kuldeep * Suneel Sinha as Wazir Singh a.k.a. Wazira * Amrik Gill as Nanoo * Navnindra Behl as Veeran's mother


Release

''Maachis'' was originally scheduled to be released on October 18, 1996, but its release was delayed by a week to 25 October 1996.


Controversy

Maachis was banned in
Malaysia Malaysia is a country in Southeast Asia. Featuring the Tanjung Piai, southernmost point of continental Eurasia, it is a federation, federal constitutional monarchy consisting of States and federal territories of Malaysia, 13 states and thre ...
by the censor board on grounds that "it may hurt religious sentiments." Part of the song Chhod Aaye Hum is inspired, without credits, by the Oscar-winner composer Nicola Piovani's main theme of the italian film Caro diario, by
Nanni Moretti Giovanni "Nanni" Moretti (; born 19 August 1953) is an Italian film director, producer, screenwriter, and actor. His films have won accolades, including a at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival for ''The Son's Room'', a Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize ...
.


Accolades


Soundtrack

The score and soundtrack for ''Maachis'' were composed by Vishal Bhardwaj, with lyrics written by
Gulzar Gulzar (born Sampooran Singh Kalra; 18 August 1934) is an Indian Urdu poetry, Urdu poet, lyricist, author, screenwriter, and film director known for his works in Hindi cinema. He is regarded as one of greatest Urdu poets of this era. He starte ...
. The soundtrack album includes several background score pieces from the film, complementing its intense narrative and themes. The song "Chhod Aaye Hum" marked the debut of KK as a playback singer in Hindi cinema.


Notes


References


External links

* {{Gulzar 1996 films 1990s Hindi-language films Films about terrorism in India Films featuring a Best Actress National Award–winning performance Films about massacres of Sikhs Films scored by Vishal Bhardwaj Films directed by Gulzar Best Popular Film Providing Wholesome Entertainment National Film Award winners Fiction about the insurgency in Punjab Fictional portrayals of police departments in India Fictional portrayals of the Punjab Police (India) Films about religious violence in India