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''Mohra'' () is a 1994 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 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 ...
film co-written, edited and directed by Rajiv Rai and produced by his father Gulshan Rai. It stars Naseeruddin Shah,
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 ...
, Sunil Shetty, Raveena Tandon, Poonam Jhawer,
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 ...
, Paresh Rawal, Gulshan Grover, and Sadashiv Amrapurkar. The film was also the first collaboration between the trio of
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 ...
, Sunil Shetty and Paresh Rawal, who went on to collaborate several times later on. Originally, Divya Bharti was cast as the female lead but she died very early in the production. Raveena Tandon was cast as her replacement, as was the case with the movie Dilwale, which was released earlier the same year. The film was reported to be inspired by the 1987 film '' Death Wish 4: The Crackdown''. while the climax was inspired by the 1992 Hong Kong film, '' Hard Boiled''. The film was remade in Bengali, in Bangladesh, as ''Gupto Ghatak'' (1998). The film was a major box office success, and went on to become the second highest-grossing Indian film of that year, only behind '' Hum Aapke Hain Koun''. It received nine Filmfare nominations in 1995 including Best film, Best director and Best Music director. Songs of the film also became huge chartbusters in that year. The film's soundtrack album sold more than 8million units, making it the second highest-selling Bollywood soundtrack album of 1994.


Plot

Vishal Agnihotri is serving a life sentence for murdering four criminals who raped and killed his sister-in-law, Rita. He has committed the crime after the four were acquitted by court with help from a corrupt public prosecutor and soon after when the criminals again attempted to rape his wife, resulting in her suicide. Journalist Roma Singh visits Vishal in prison and becomes a target of some of the convicts. Vishal comes to her rescue. Roma is determined to help him regain his freedom. She meets Inspector Amar Saxena to obtain Vishal's case file and love blossoms between them. Roma's boss, Mr. Jindal who is supposedly blind and the owner of ''Samadhan'' Newspaper, reopens Vishal's case by presenting new evidence to the legal authorities. The judge reviewing the case accepts the new evidence and Vishal is released. Jindal convinces Vishal that the city is full of crime and he wants him to eliminate mob bosses Jibran, Tyson and their associates, and Kamdev Kulkarni, the Commissioner of Police as well, for which he helped secure his release. Initially, Vishal refuses saying that he cannot commit murder again, but then returns to Jindal after reminiscing his past. Vishal begins eliminating everyone on Jindal's hitlist one after the other, alternating between Jibran's gang and Tyson's gang, in order to incite a rivalry between them. After being informed by Kashinath that Vishal is the hitman responsible for killing his gang members, Jibran calls Tyson to meet and clear up any misunderstanding. During the meeting, Vishal snipes Tyson's arm, causing both gangs to start a gang war in which most of the gangsters are killed. He then kills Tyson, but Jibran survives and stalks Vishal. Amar suspects and follows Vishal closely for the murders but is unable to get any evidence against him. Vishal then goes to Kamdev's house, the last target on Jindal's list, but overhears a conversation between a drunk Kamdev and Constable Kranti Kumar, when Kamdev reveals that the mysterious killer is actually benefiting society by eliminating criminals, which the police couldn't do because of the legal system. Vishal decides not to kill Kamdev, realising he is not a corrupt cop and Jibran notices this. Jindal gets infuriated with Vishal for not killing Kamdev. It is then revealed that Jindal is not blind and he was using Vishal as a ''Mohra'' (pawn) to eliminate his rival gangsters. Vishal is about to shoot Jindal, but Jibran arrives and saves Jindal. The story then flashes back to Jindal’s past. Jindal was a greedy and lazy person looking to make quick money, and had approached Jibran and Tyson to sell drugs for them and make more money, by impersonating Inspector Karan Saxena (Amar's father) and enabling the smuggling of drugs across the check post. When Karan found out, Jindal killed him and his wife Pooja. Jindal thereafter pretended to be blind to avoid suspicion and prosecution, and deceive Jibran and Tyson. Jindal and Jibran leave Vishal to die by placing a bomb next to him but he escapes. Amar breaks into Vishal's house and discovers a file with details of all of Vishal's targets. Amar locates Vishal at Roma's residence and reveals that he has the files, leaving no room for denial regarding the killings, and tells him to surrender, but an encounter escalates, resulting in Amar knocking Vishal out when Roma distracts them. Vishal is then taken into custody. Kashinath informs Jindal that Vishal is alive and will soon reveal the truth. Shortly Jindal reveals his true identity and attraction for Roma and demands she marry him. The sub-editor Siddiqui sees this, but is killed by Jindal. Kamdev releases Vishal. Vishal tells Amar the truth about Jindal and that Jindal is Karan's assassin. Amar, Vishal and Kamdev go to Jindal's office, but they find Siddiqui’s body instead. Jindal calls and says he has kidnapped Roma. Kashinath helps Vishal and Amar trace Jindal to an abandoned fort where drug lords have assembled. Amar and Vishal kill most of the drug lords. Jindal forces Roma to go with him but is confronted by Vishal. Jindal holds him hostage and tries to embarrass Amar at gunpoint, but Vishal breaks away and gets shot by Jindal, as Amar shoots Jindal. Vishal dies in Amar's lap, acknowledging that Amar was right and he chose the wrong path for himself, saluting him. Roma is shown married to Amar as the credits roll.


Cast

* Naseeruddin Shah as Sandeep Jindal * Suniel Shetty as Vishal Agnihotri, Priya's husband *
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 ...
as Inspector Amar Saxena, Roma's love interest * Raveena Tandon as Roma Singh, Amar's love interest *Poonam Jhawer as Priya Agnihotri, Vishal's wife (special appearance) *
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 ...
as Jibran, a drug lord * Paresh Rawal as Sub-Inspector Kashinath Sahoo * Gulshan Grover as Tyson, a drug lord * Sadashiv Amrapurkar as Police Commissioner Officer Kamdev Kulkarni *Sonali Singh as Rita, Priya's sister (special appearance) *
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 Mr Singh, the Jailor and Roma's father * Avtar Gill as Inspector Karan Saxena, Amar's father *
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 ...
as Pooja Saxena, Karan's wife * Kunika as Flora, Tyson's mole * Tej Sapru as Irfan, Jibran's nephew *Dinesh Anand as Desai, Jindal's secretary * Razak Khan as Rizwan, Jibran's brother * Vishwajeet Pradhan as Jackson, Tyson's brother * Yunus Parvez as Siddiqui, an editor * Harish Patel as Constable Kranti Kumar *Vinay Sapru as Tony, Rita's friend * Gavin Packard as Douglas, a drug lord *John Gabriel as Ranpal *Anil Yadav as Minto *Anil Nagrath as Judge


Soundtrack

The music for the film was composed by Viju Shah, with lyrics by Indeevar and Anand Bakshi. ''Mohra'' was one of the most successful soundtrack albums of 1994, especially the song "Tu Cheez Badi Hai Mast". The track is set to Raag '' Bhimpalasi'' (known as '' Abheri'' in
Carnatic Music Carnatic music (known as or in the Dravidian languages) is a system of music commonly associated with South India, including the modern Indian states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Telangana and southern Odisha. It is o ...
), and is based on the popular Qawwali song " Dam Mast Qalandar Mast Mast" by Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. Initially, Viju Shah wanted Sapna Mukherjee to render "Tu Cheez Badi Hai Mast" but, upon Rajiv Rai's insistence, opted for Kavita Krishnamurthy instead. The song "Na Kajre Ki Dhaar" was composed in the 1970s by Kalyanji-Anandji, the father and uncle of Viju Shah, and sung by Mukesh, for a shelved film, meaning that the song was unreleased. Viju Shah added the song to this film, and got singers
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 ...
and
Sadhana Sargam Sadhana Sargam (née Ghanekar, born 7 March 1969) is an Indian singer known for her playback career in Indian cinema predominantly in Hindi, Marathi language, Marathi, Bengali language, Bengali, Nepali, Tamil language, Tamil and Telugu language, ...
to sing it. Anand Bakhshi had written the song "Ae Kaash Kahin Aisa Hota" for Dilip Kumar's unreleased movie "Kalinga", but was finally used in Mohra. Several of the songs took inspiration from artists from around the world including "Tu Cheez Badi Hai Mast" and "Tip Tip Barsa Paani". The film's soundtrack album sold 4.5 million units, making it the second highest-selling Bollywood soundtrack album of 1994, behind only '' Hum Aapke Hain Koun..!'' The soundtrack was #81 on the list of "100 Greatest Bollywood Soundtracks of All Time", as compiled by ''Planet Bollywood.'' The song "Tu Cheez Badi Hai Mast Mast" was remade as "Cheez Badi" for the 2017 film ''
Machine A machine is a physical system that uses power to apply forces and control movement to perform an action. The term is commonly applied to artificial devices, such as those employing engines or motors, but also to natural biological macromol ...
''. The song "Tip Tip Barsa Pani" was remade as "Tip Tip" for the 2021 film '' Sooryavanshi''. The background score consisted of plagiarised versions of "The Terminator theme" and "I feel you (Babylon Mix)" by Depeche Mode. Mohra (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)


Box office

It was the 2nd-highest-grossing film of 1994.


Awards

; 40th Filmfare Awards: Won * Best ChoreographyChinni Prakash for "Tu Cheez Badi Hai" Nominated * Best FilmGulshan Rai * Best DirectorRajiv Rai * Best ComedianParesh Rawal * Best VillainNaseeruddin Shah * Best Music DirectorViju Shah * Best LyricistAnand Bakshi for "Tu Cheez Badi Hai" * Best Male Playback Singer
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 ...
for "Tu Cheez Badi Hai" * Best Female Playback SingerKavita Krishnamurthy for "Tu Cheez Badi Hai"


References


Further reading

*


External links

* * * {{Authority control 1994 films Films about rape in India Films about women in India Films about the illegal drug trade Indian courtroom films 1994 action thriller films 1990s Hindi-language films Films scored by Viju Shah Indian action thriller films Indian remakes of American films Films directed by Rajiv Rai Cross-dressing in Indian films