''Mafia '' is a 1996 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 crime 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

Aziz Sejawal Aziz Sejawal (also spelt Sajawal or Sajaawal) is an Indian film director of Bollywood films. He has worked with major Bollywood actors such as Dharmendra, Mithun Chakraborty, Madhuri Dixit, Amrish Puri, Om Puri, Aditya Pancholi, Jackie Shroff, J ...

. It stars

Dharmendra Dharmendra Kewal Krishan Deol (born 8 December 1935), known mononymously as Dharmendra, is an Indian actor, producer, and politician who is primarily known for his work in Hindi films. Dharmendra is widely considered one of the greatest, most h ...

Aditya Pancholi Aditya Pancholi (born 12 September 1965) is an Indian actor, producer and playback singer working in Hindi cinema. Early life Pancholi was born to Rajan Pancholi, the younger brother of Dalsukh Pancholi, the family being pioneers as directo ...

Jay Mehta Jay Mehta (born 18 January 1961) is an Indian businessman. He is the son of Mahendra Mehta and Sunayana Mehta and grandson of Nanji Kalidas Mehta, who own the Mehta Group which is spread over Africa, India, Canada and United States. He is the ...

, Somy Ali,

Gulshan Grover Gulshan Grover (born 21 September 1955) is an Indian actor and film producer who has appeared in over 100 films. He is popularly known as the "Bad Man" of Hindi cinema because of his ability to create an impact with his negative roles in films. ...

Mohan Joshi Mohan Joshi is an Indian film, television and theater actor. He has worked in Hindi, Marathi and Bhojpuri films. Career Joshi started his career as a theatre artist in Pune. He was noticed in the play ''Kuryat Sada Tingalam''. Along with A ...

and

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 ...

. The film was praised for its action sequences and cast performances, where it was declared a ''Hit'' at the box office. The film is an unofficial remake of the 1993 Malayalam film of the same name.

Plot

Gawda is an influential crime boss involved in illegal supply of arms and

drug smuggling The illegal drug trade, drug trafficking, or narcotrafficking is a global black market dedicated to the cultivation, manufacture, distribution and sale of prohibited drugs. Most jurisdictions prohibit trade, except under license, of many types ...

activities in

Mumbai Mumbai ( ; ), also known as Bombay ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial capital and the most populous city proper of India with an estimated population of 12 ...

, and also uses his influence to thwart communal riots and release convict prisoners. Having learnt about the rules of the

crime syndicate The Crime Syndicate or Crime Syndicate of America (CSA, with America sometimes spelled Amerika) is a team of supervillains featured in DC Comics. The team is composed of evil Multiverse (DC Comics), parallel-universe counterparts of the Justice Le ...

, Gawda's ex-henchman Moosa express his animosity to Gawda and decide to start his own syndicate business. However, Gawda kills Moosa and his daughter, but their deaths become the

headlines The headline is the text indicating the content or nature of the article below it, typically by providing a form of brief summary of its contents. The large type ''front page headline'' did not come into use until the late 19th century when incre ...

in the newspaper. The

commissioner A commissioner (commonly abbreviated as Comm'r) is, in principle, a member of a commission or an individual who has been given a commission (official charge or authority to do something). In practice, the title of commissioner has evolved to incl ...

assigns

Inspector Inspector, also police inspector or inspector of police, is a police rank. The rank or position varies in seniority depending on the organization that uses it. Australia The rank of Inspector is present in all Australian police forces excep ...

Bhagat Singh to investigate the case, but is later killed by Gawda with DCP Pawar's help. After learning his death, Bhagat's brothers Ajit, an army soldier and Jai, an unemployed man decide to take vengeance on Gawda and the

police corruption Police corruption is a form of police misconduct in which a law enforcement officer breaks their political contract and abuses their power for personal gain. A corrupt officer may act alone or as part of a group. Corrupt acts include taking ...

. How the brothers complete their vengeance forms the rest of the plot.

Background

This film is heavily influenced by 1990s

Hollywood Hollywood usually refers to: * Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California * Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States Hollywood may also refer to: Places United States * Hollywood District (disambiguation) * Hollywood ...

action films with a common theme of

and a

mafia "Mafia", as an informal or general term, is often used to describe criminal organizations that bear a strong similarity to the Sicilian Mafia, original Mafia in Sicily, to the Italian-American Mafia, or to other Organized crime in Italy, organiz ...

dominating the government, but using a comedic style. The music for the film is by the famous duo

Anand–Milind Anand–Milind is an Indian music composer duo consisting of brothers Anand Srivastava and Milind Srivastava. Born to composer Chitragupt, they have composed music for over 200 Bollywood films. The brothers debuted in 1984 with '' Ab Ayega Mazaa ...

, with lyrics written by

Sameer Samir (also spelled Sameer) is a male name found commonly in South Asia, the Middle East, and Central Asia. In Arabic, Samir () means "holy", "jovial", "loyal", or "charming". In Albanian, it literally means "so good" but loosely "exquisite", ...

. The film features songs such as "Dil Mera Deewana Dhahdke", "Duniya Nazaray", "Yeh Dil Yeh Paagal Dil" and "Is Ladki Ne Mera". The film premiered on 24 May 1996 and was released by Prathima Films. It has since been released on DVD by Eros Entertainment.

Cast

Source *

as Fauji Ajit Singh *

as Inspector Bhagat Singh *

as Jai Singh * Somy Ali as Kiran Pawar *

as Police Commissioner Pawar *

as DCP Bapat *

as Parab Anna *

Charan Raj Charan Rajkumar is an Indian actor, director, film producer, and writer who works in Kannada, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Odia and Hindi films. Career Charan Raj is a versatile actor who is popular for his villainy and character roles in South ...

as Gawda *

Pramod Moutho Pramod Moutho (Pramod Sharma; born 7 May 1955) is an Indian film and television actor. He has appeared as a villain in number of noted Bollywood films, like '' Khalnayak'' (1993), '' Dilwale'' (1994), ''Raja Hindustani'' (1996), ''Mehndi'' (19 ...

as Minister Praja Swami *

Ishrat Ali ''Sarkar'' () is a 2005 Indian Hindi-language political crime thriller film directed by Ram Gopal Varma. The film stars Amitabh Bachchan, Abhishek Bachchan, Kay Kay Menon, Katrina Kaif, Tanishaa, Supriya Pathak, Kota Srinivasa Rao, and Anupam ...

as Moosa *

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 Kalyanji Bhai Matke *

Subbiraj Subbiraj Kakkar popularly known as Subbiraj was an Indian character actor in Hindi-language films and television. His maternal uncle was veteran actor Prithviraj Kapoor and thus Raj Kapoor, Shammi Kapoor and Shashi Kapoor were his cousins. Car ...

as Acharya *

Babu Antony Babu Antony (born 22 February) is an Indian-American actor and martial artist, who works primarily in Malayalam cinema. He has also acted in several Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Sinhalese, Hindi and English films. He started his career doing anta ...

as Chhote * Ali Asgar as Jai's Friend *

Arun Bakshi Arun Bakshi is an Indian film and television actor and also a singer. He has acted as a character actor in over 100 Hindi films, and as a playback singer has also sung 298 songs. He has also worked in Punjabi and Bhojpuri cinema. He also playe ...

as John T. Dalla *Ramesh Goyal as Praja Swami's driver * Ahmed Khan as Military Official AK Malhotra *

Mehmood Junior Naeem Sayyed (15 November 1956 – 8 December 2023), known professionally as Junior Mehmood, was an Indian actor, singer, Marathi film director, and producer. The name Junior Mehmood was given to him by Mehmood Ali. Life and career Sayyed act ...

as Hariya *

Ghanashyam Nayak Ghanashyam Nayak (12 May 1944 – 3 October 2021) was an Indian drama, film and television actor. He first achieved fame as a child artist, in the 1960 movie Masoom, and the song "Nani Teri Morni Ko Mor Le Gaye". His last memorable role was of ...

as Constable *

Robert The name Robert is an ancient Germanic given name, from Proto-Germanic "fame" and "bright" (''Hrōþiberhtaz''). Compare Old Dutch ''Robrecht'' and Old High German ''Hrodebert'' (a compound of ''Hrōþ, Hruod'' () "fame, glory, honour, prais ...

as Gawda gang member *Siddhant as Gawda gang member *

Sanjeeva Sanjeeva may refer to: * Sanjeeva Edirimanna, Sri Lankan politician, member of the Sri Lankan parliament * Sanjeeva Kaviratne (1969–2014), Sri Lankan politician, member of Parliament * Sanjeeva Nayaka, Indian lichenologist *Sanjeeva Ranatunga (bo ...

as Madan Kavva * Kishore Bhanushali as Constable in Bhagat Singh's station

Soundtrack

The soundtrack album of the movie, composed by

has a number of striking songs formulated by

and performed by some big-time playback singers of the period, notably

Kumar Sanu Kedarnath Bhattacharya (born 20 October 1957), professionally known as Kumar Sanu, is a leading Indian playback singer who primarily sings in Hindi film songs. He is widely regarded as the Melody King of Bollywood. He holds the record for winn ...

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 ...

and a few others. The movie has pleasant tracks; "Dil Mera Deewana Dhadke", being a fine sensual number with analogous beats of

percussion instrument A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a percussion mallet, beater including attached or enclosed beaters or Rattle (percussion beater), rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or ...

s. The track is peculiar to steamy numbers presented during that phase of Bollywood, with slow and measured use of instruments, chiefly

tabla A ''tabla'' is a pair of hand drums from the Indian subcontinent. Since the 18th century, it has been the principal percussion instrument in Hindustani classical music, where it may be played solo, as an accompaniment with other instruments a ...

, as an example, in the song Roop Suhana Lagta Hai.

References

External links

* {{IMDb title, id=0400617, title=Mafia
Film trailer
1996 films 1990s Hindi-language films Indian action films 1996 action films Films scored by Anand–Milind Films directed by Aziz Sejawal