International Khiladi Hindi Movie

[Temika]

Therecan be no argument around the fact that, over the years, the films that Bollywood has produced have changed vastly - be it in terms of the storyline or the technical aspects. Thankfully, the industry has stopped passing off anything and everything as films. However, when you take a walk down memory lane, you will realise how much filmmakers took the audience for granted and passed off illogical and cringe-worthy stuff as films in the 80s and 90s.

So, when you call a film International Khiladi, there definitely has to be an international element in the film. In this case, it is rendered by a horde of skimpily dressed vicious foreign women wrestlers who miss no opportunity to beat up the protagonist. They work for Thakraal (played by Gulshan Grover), whose Hindi-English language is quite irritating throughout the film. If this was done to add some humour on screen, it failed massively. Also, any guesses what their names could have been? Champa, Chameli, Lily, Shanta and we are not even joking. Oh, also the film has been shot in Toronto. If that qualifies for an international-standard film, that is.

There is a particular song in the film called Kudi Kunwari, which will leave you horrified. Why, you ask? Well, here are the lyrics: "Tu ladki gori chitti hai, Teri behena moti kali hai, Kyun bani na tu dulhan meri, Kyun bani tu meri sali hai." We are just going to leave you with that.

At first we get a scene from the conference of the biggest criminals in each country, and some cops talking about blowing it up. Do they ever? Of course not. The criminals are selecting a boss. Democratically, via vote. You know, as you do, when you're members of the underworld. You're all about democratically elected representation. Who gets picked? Who d'you think?

Then there's a cop who discovers a dead body in Devraaj's place and they also find Payal, the sister of the dead person, played by Twinkle Khanna, who in court accuses Devraaj of rape, but says they were also in love. At this point you're thinking, "Wait, it's that kind of movie? Well, he is a bad guy, but goddammit, really?"

The backstory tells us that Amit (played by Rajat Bedi, ie THAT GUY WHO REALLY LOOKS LIKE SHAHRUKH KHAN), the cop we saw earlier, is friends with the dead guy (pictured here, not yet dead). And he's really in love with Payal. Payal dances, he watches with that ridiculous almost-Shahrukh face of his.

Then we enter a god-awful "comedy segment" where Payal and her colleague Focus (YES REALLY, oh wait he's played by Johnny Lever so surely that makes sense? not really) want to interview Devraaj. Comedy hijinks! You know, if this wasn't the WORST criminal on the planet, who could easily get you killed.

Oh yeah, Gulshan Grover plays Thukkral, who is the criminal boss of Pakistan and has got bit of a beef with Devraaj. Colour us all surprised. He speaks in the most ridiculous English/Hindi mix, and I mean ridiculous. He says "I-ko" instead to "mujhko". He says things like "mere dil toh garden-garden hota hai". I just can't even.

So he finally gives in and comes out to chat to her, and of course ends up falling in love with her journalistic integrity. They never actually end up doing the interview, it's almost as if it doesn't matter. (There is a song, though. Of course there is!)

Payal confronts Devraaj about this, so he is forced to bare his TERRIBLE BACKSTORY of woe and death and how basically he is the most noble, ethical person there is, and really the cops are the ones going around raping and murdering, under the protection of corrupt politicians. In a world like this, aren't the criminals really the good guys?

Well, it turns out Devraaj finds out that Payal's brother is an undercover cop infiltrating Devraaj's organisation, so he tortures the brother and then despite loving Payal, molests her in front of her brother and then kills him and then (the implication is) rapes her.

Almost-Shahrukh really wants Payal to live in his creepy Payal-worship shrine (read: house) but Payal cannot stop thinking about the fact how they dragged her brother's dead body to Devraaj's house and then framed him for her rape.

Amit (Almost-Shahrukh!) dragged her brother's body to her house and told her that Devraaj's men killed him, so they must make sure that Devraaj's gets the death penalty for this crime, and Payal was like, okay, what's the harm in a little framing the man I love for rape that never happened when my beloved brother is dead, probably killed by the man I love.

Devraaj escapes jail because even the police know now that he is the Good Guy and does a cool press conference, essentially saying he will find Amit and Payal and give a reward to whoever tells him where they are, and then somebody calls him, and says "They're in Toronto," so being the INTERNATIONAL khiladi that he is, Devraaj flies to Toronto.

Then we enter the climax of the film, which is ..quite something else. First Amit shows up, wanting to kill Devraaj. Payal protects him. Thukkral shows up to tell everybody that he killed Payal's brother! Shock of shocks!

Turns out Amit is NOT okay with Payal loving Devraaj and anyway, he's the one who killed her brother (we're told in flashback) and then just asked Thukkral to work with him and say he's the one who killed the brother in front of Payal and then he shoots Thukkral and wants to kill Devraaj and run off with Payal but this does not quite work out.

And then Payal ends up falling out of the plane, with no parachute (though she is wearing a mysterious backpack but apparently did not plan to fall out of a plane, that silly girl!), and so Devraaj jumps after her, with parachute, and Amit heads to the cockpit to turn the plane around so he can kill them both WITH THE PLANE.

I think it'll take me about a lifetime to digest this viewing experience.. I thought I was made of such strong stuff, and then. Fake rapes! ROLLERSKATES! Plane fights. Plane crashes to the face! Happy ending!

I'm sure they could've had some objective measurement, like who's got the most countries' police after them, or whatever, but no - a paperslip vote seemed the best policy in the end, all things considered..

Hee hee..I loved your narrative..

But why they "didn't dance" in the climax? sad :(

How much i felt the same about the movie when I first saw it...The movie could be named as "roller skates khiladi" lemme think ,more :)

OMG....I just watched it (Netflix)... while also intermittently reading your report, which I came upon while googling around trying to find cast info in Leeka, Sheela and Break or whatever those gold-lamee glad lady bodyguards were...partly cuz somehow fascinated wi Like you said....I just don't even know....you also just have to move it that almost Shahrukh's costumes and voice and whole Payal-worship-den were very similar to real Shahrukh's in Darr...my all-time favorite Indian "Cape Fear" ...thanks for the write up. What was Akshay thinking with this one??

The K-State student chapter of the Society for the Promotion of Indian Classical Music and Culture Amongst Youth, an official student organization, will host an evening of history and Indian classical music from 6-8 p.m. April 9 in the K-State Student Union's Big 12 Room.

The event will include a screening of the Indian movie "Shatranj ke Khiladi" by Satyajit Ray, an internationally acclaimed filmmaker. To quote Martin Scorsese, "His work is in the company of that of living contemporaries like Ingmar Bergman, Akira Kurosawa and Federico Fellini."

Set in 1856, "Shatranj ke Khiladi" shows the life and customs of 19th century India on the eve of the Indian rebellion of 1857. The movie focuses on the events surrounding the British annexation of the Indian state of Awadh, "Oudh", the politics of colonial expansion by the British East India company and the deluded divisions of Indian monarchs.

The student chapter is committed to the promotion of Indian classical music among students and the Manhattan community. We organize concerts, workshops and movie nights featuring Indian classical music. Come be a part of a music tradition from one of the most ancient and diverse cultures of the world.

3a8082e126