''Main Khiladi Tu Anari'' () is a 1994 Indian action comedy film directed by Sameer Malkan. The screenplay is written by

Sachin Bhowmick Sachin Bhowmick (17 July 1930 – 12 April 2011) was an Indian Hindi language, Hindi Screenwriter, film writer and Film director, director. Writing was his main work and he wrote stories or screenplays for over 94 films. He is best remember ...

. Starring

Akshay Kumar Akshay Hari Om Bhatia (born Rajiv Hari Om Bhatia; 9 September 1967), known professionally as Akshay Kumar (), is an Indian actor and film producer working in Hindi cinema. Referred to in the media as "Khiladi Kumar", through his career span ...

, Saif Ali Khan, Shilpa Shetty and Raageshwari in the lead roles and Shakti Kapoor, Johnny Lever and Kader Khan in supporting roles. The film became one of the five highest-grossing Indian films of the year. The film is partly inspired by the 1991 American film '' The Hard Way''. The film's success cemented Saif Ali Khan and Akshay Kumar's status as Bollywood's leading men, and a successful pair of bankable stars following '' Yeh Dillagi'' (1994), which was their first collaboration. Kumar in particular, who also had 1994 hits like ''

Mohra ''Mohra'' () is a 1994 Indian Hindi-language action thriller film co-written, edited and directed by Rajiv Rai and produced by his father Gulshan Rai. It stars Naseeruddin Shah, Akshay Kumar, Sunil Shetty, Raveena Tandon, Poonam Jhawer, Ra ...

'', '' Suhaag'', and '' Elaan'', gained a considerable fan following, especially among the youth. He became renowned for his thrilling action scenes featuring

martial arts Martial arts are codified systems and traditions of combat practiced for a number of reasons such as self-defence; military and law enforcement applications; combat sport, competition; physical, mental, and spiritual development; entertainment; ...

and

hand-to-hand combat Hand-to-hand combat is a physical confrontation between two or more persons at short range (grappling distance or within the physical reach of a handheld weapon) that does not involve the use of ranged weapons.Hunsicker, A., ''Advanced Skills in ...

; his daring stunts; his athletic dance moves and his rugged, macho good looks. Khan's performance in the film earned him a Best Supporting Actor nomination at the 40th Filmfare Awards. The film was remade in Telugu as ''Hello Guru''.

Plot

One of the most respected inspectors, Arjun Joglekar, is killed by drug dealer and gangster Goli. Mona, a cabaret singer and Goli's mistress, agrees to testify against Goli and is placed into witness protection by Inspector Karan, Arjun's younger brother, who aims to fight any injustice and avenge his brother's murder. When Goli finds out about Mona's forthcoming testimony which would expose his real identity, he tracks her down and kills her and Karan, despite being present at the scene, is unable to do anything. Karan approaches the DCP for a warrant to arrest Goli but, the DCP refuses, saying it will be futile since Goli is an influential person. Deepak Kumar, who is the most romantic actor around, is frustrated with his roles and for being type-cast as a

romantic hero The Romantic hero is a literary archetype referring to a character that rejects established norms and conventions, has been rejected by society, and has themselves at the center of their own existence. The Romantic hero is often the protagonist i ...

. He would like to do something different and bring some change and excitement to his dull and boring existence. To change his monotonous life, he gets drunk and drives around. He is arrested by the police and brought to his rowdy producer. Karan also arrives at the place to confront the producer for molesting a girl who had come to him earlier for a job. When the producer refuses to comply and calls goons to threaten Karan, the latter thrashes them all, impressing Deepak, who would like to study his behaviour so that he can use this as a background for his next movie. Karan meets Basanti, who looks identical to Mona. He tells Deepak that the latter can hang around him if Deepak can get Basanti to act as Mona. Deepak trains Basanti and presents the new "Mona" to Karan. Karan places Basanti at the Moonlight Hotel as an amnesiac Mona, where she can report Goli's criminal activities. While Karan and Basanti fall in love with each other; Deepak falls in love with Karan's sister, Shivangi, which makes Karan mad and he tries to get rid of Deepak and almost succeeds in doing so. However, Deepak finds out and angrily confronts Karan, and leaves the house. Karan's sister is heartbroken; his sister-in-law makes him realize his wrongdoing. A remorseful Karan goes to Deepak and apologizes to him; Deepak forgives him and the two make up. Meanwhile, Goli has started seeing Karan as a thorn in his illegal activities and decides to have him killed. However, constable Ramlal, who is loyal to Karan, spots the assassin and takes the bullet. Karan is unable to save Ramlal, who dies in his arms making Karan even more determined to get Goli. Goli finds out the truth about Basanti, who tells him that Karan has already found some incriminating evidence against him and will be presenting it in court. Goli calls Karan and tells him to hand over the evidence to him in exchange for Basanti's life. Deepak meets Goli to give him some films supposedly containing the evidence Goli wanted and tells him to hand over Basanti before Karan comes with the police to arrest him. However, Goli reveals to have also kidnapped Karan's sister and sister-in-law, much to Deepak's shock and dismay. Karan, who has been hiding with a gun some distance away, starts shooting at Goli and succeeds in gunning down many of his henchmen, while Deepak tries to escape with the three ladies in a car. Unfortunately for them, the car breaks down and Karan's location is also revealed, resulting in all of them getting captured. Goli holds Deepak, Basanti, Karan's sister and sister-in-law hostage and tortures Karan for the evidence. Karan pretends to faint and gets into a brutal fight with one of Goli's henchmen (the same one who killed his brother) and ultimately kills him. He then opens Deepak's bonds and a huge fight ensues between the duo and Goli and his cronies, which ends with Goli's death at Karan's hands. In the end, everyone goes to watch Deepak's new movie. Halfway through the movie, Karan realizes that Deepak's dialogue resembles the same things he once himself had said to Deepak and walks away in a huff. Outside the hall, he meets Deepak, and the two share a smoke with Deepak accidentally setting fire to his own pants but douses it immediately. The two friends share a laugh as the film ends and the credits roll in.

Cast

as Inspector Karan Joglekar * Saif Ali Khan as Deepak Kumar * Shilpa Shetty as Mona / Basanti (Dual role) * Rageshwari as Shivangi Joglekar * Shakti Kapoor as Goli * Kader Khan as Ram Lal / DCP (dual role) * Goga Kapoor as Damodar * Johny Lever as Dhansukh * Mukesh Khanna as Arjun Joglekar *

Raveena Tandon Raveena Tandon (born 26 October 1972) is an Indian actress primarily known for her work in Hindi films. Considered as one of the leading actresses of the 1990s and early 2000s, Tandon is a recipient of several awards, including a National Film ...

as herself (special appearance in the song "My Adorable Darling") * Beena Banerjee as Seema Joglekar * Anant Mahadevan as himself * Shiva Rindani as Goli's henchman/assassin * Prantik khan as Pratik * Pronoy dey as pronoy

Production

Soundtrack

The music of the film was scored by

Anu Malik Anwar Sardar "Anu" Malik (born 2 November 1960) is an Indian music composer, singer, music arranger and score composer. He is the recipient of a National Film Award and three Filmfare Awards, who primarily composes music for the Hindi film ...

. Singers

Asha Bhosle Asha Bhosle (; ; born 8 September 1933) is an Indian playback singer, entrepreneur, actress and television personality who predominantly works in Indian cinema. Known for her versatility, she has been described in the media as one of the ...

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 ...

, Abhijeet Bhattacharya,

Udit Narayan Udit Narayan Jha (born 1 December 1955) is an Nepali and Indian playback singer whose songs have been featured mainly in Hindi cinema, Hindi films. He has also sung in various other languages including Telugu language, Telugu, Kannada, Tamil ...

Pankaj Udhas Pankaj Udhas (17 May 1951 – 26 February 2024) was an Indian ghazal and playback singer known for his works in Hindi cinema, and Indian pop. He started his career with the release of a ghazal album titled ''Aahat'' in 1980 and subsequently rec ...

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

Alisha Chinai Alisha Chinai (born 18 March 1965) is an Indian pop singer known for her Indi-pop albums as well as playback singing in Hindi cinema. She began her singing career with the album ''Jadoo'' in 1985, and by the 1990s she had become known as the ' ...

rendered their voices in this album. The lyrics were penned by Rani Malik, Rahat Indori,

Hasrat Jaipuri Hasrat Jaipuri, born Iqbal Hussain (15 April 1922 – 17 September 1999), was an Indian poet, who wrote in the Hindi and Urdu languages. He was also a renowned film lyricist in Hindi films, where he won the Filmfare Awards for Best Lyri ...

, Maya Govind, Zameer Kazmi and Anwar Sagar. "Churake Dil Mera" and "Zara Zara" were the most popular songs from the soundtrack. "Zuban Khamosh Hoti Hai" was picturised, but not included in the final version of the film. It became one of the best-selling Bollywood soundtrack albums of 1994, selling between 3.2million and 3.5million units. Two songs from the soundtrack, "Chura Ke Dil Mera" and "Main Khiladi" were recreated in '' Hungama 2'' and '' Selfiee'', respectively.

Reception

It was the first

Bollywood 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 ...

action film to be reviewed by

martial arts film Martial arts films are a subgenre of action films that feature martial arts combat between characters. These combats are usually the films' primary appeal and entertainment value, and often are a method of storytelling and character expression a ...

critic Albert Valentin on the now defunct Kung Fu Cinema site. He rated the film 3.5 out of 5 stars. He notes that, while the plot is largely borrowed from '' The Hard Way'', ''Main Khiladi Tu Anari'' "kicks it up a notch due to the presence of one of India's biggest action stars, martial artist Akshay Kumar", comparing his martial arts skills to

Jean-Claude Van Damme Jean-Claude Camille François Van Varenberg (, ; born 18 October 1960), known professionally as Jean-Claude Van Damme (, ), is a Belgian martial artist and actor. Born and raised in Brussels, his father enrolled him in a Shotokan karate schoo ...

and praising his stuntwork, and concluding that it "is a fun action-comedy" film.

Awards

; 40th Filmfare Awards: Nominated * Best Supporting Actor - Saif Ali Khan * Best Comedian - Kader Khan * Best Music Director -

* Best Female Playback Singer -

for "Chura Ke Dil"

References

External links

* {{Khiladi series 1990s Hindi-language films 1990s buddy comedy films 1990s buddy cop films 1990s police comedy films 1990s police procedural films 1994 action comedy films 1990s Indian films Fictional portrayals of the Maharashtra Police Films about actors Films about filmmaking Films scored by Anu Malik Films set in Mumbai Films set in a movie theatre Films shot in Mumbai Films with screenplays by Sachin Bhowmick Indian action comedy films Indian buddy comedy films Films about assassinations Indian crime comedy films Police detective films Indian thriller films Indian detective films Films about the illegal drug trade Films about witness protection Films about murder Films about lookalikes 1990s martial arts comedy films Indian martial arts films Hindi films remade in other languages Indian remakes of American films Hindi remakes of English films