Maidgethma Wonderfully offbeat film!

Roxie The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

Cristal The movie really just wants to entertain people.

Allissa .Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

silvan-desouza After KAALIA, Tinnu Anand returned with Big B with Shaheenshah(1988) which was his comeback since his brief exit for politics. Shaheenshah is however very overrated. The film starts off well with Amrish Puri staging a bank robbery with Prem Chopra being along with him(who is the manager in the bank) and Innocent Inspector Kader Khan who catches one of them in a bar is arrested in a case of bribe. He commits suicide leaving behind a son, predictabily Amitabh Bachchan who first is shown as a buffoon raving about his fake encounters but he has a disguise of Shaheenshah who kills people. The handling however is very corny, much akin to cinema in 80s It's very heartening to see Amitabh in the Paan Banaras waala style especially because he was past his prime, overweight and wrinkles but yet some scenes are good especially Shaheenshah beating Muqtar Singh.An ode is given to DON where Amitabh too ate paan and spoke in the dialect There are several stupid scenes like the entire climatic court scene which is too stupidDirection is okay Music is decentAmitabh Bachchan does show good comic timing and his role of Paan Speaking Cop(looks similar to DON)but as I said he was past his prime by then(late 40s) and he looks old and overweight.He is good as Shaheenshah though. Meenaxi is okay in her role, To see a talent of her calibre in such roles is odd, but anywayz bollywood had not yet seen her perform in Damini that time. Amongst rest Aruna Irani is good, Rohini Hattangudy(though younger to Bachchan) is good, Pran is good too, Kader Khan leaves a mark in a cameo Aftab is decent as the child artist of Amitabh, Amrish Puri, Prem Chopra are as usual, rest are okay

lalit oberoi Few days back i saw recently released super hero movie RA.One. And today i got opportunity to look at 80's Masala action movie Shahenshah, whose lead protagonist has shades of super hero. Movie engaged the viewer to glue on screen from start to finish. At the end of show, i simply mesmerized by movie.Today even with great level of technology, how movies are failing big time in execution and story telling. Even though 80's is not known for great movies, but Shahenshah was one of exceptional movies of 80's. Masala entertainment and Manmohan desai cinema are two sides of one coin, but this movie forced me to think that Masala is not necessarily the cinema which defies logic, even with logical consequences, a great action masala thriller can be made. This movie worked vastly in three departments : 1.Performance by Amitabh 2. Awesome dialogues 3. Commendable direction.Story is not new, but told in highly entertaining manner with some twists and turns. Story is about revenge drama, with a difference that protagonist is super hero. Vijay is police officer who double crossed the anti social elements by taking bribe from them while on duty, and demolish their nefarious designs in form of Shahenshah. No one knows real identity of Shahenshah. Vijay(Shahenshah) has one agenda in life, to clear the accusations against his father of taking bribe and take revenge from the man(J.K.) who forced him to commit suicide. Amitabh plays both roles as inspector Vijay (with funny bones) and Heart thumping Giant Shahenshah with utmost perfection.Leave alone stars of 80's, even if i think of all bollywood actors till today, i don't see if any one match the magic, perfection and persona of both characters played by Amitabh. Movie spell binds the audience from start to finish, story though same old revenge drama, still captivate due to brilliant script and awesome dialogues.Whenever Shahenshah comes on screen, magic is seen to believe. All those moments should be written in bold letters in cinema history. Never ever in my life i spell bind with presence and performance, in simple words, no one can turn the eyes from screen whenever Shahenshah comes to rescue. Amrish puri as villain is giant as well and complemented Amitabh equally. Minakshi Sheshadri looks hot and did fine job. Movie reached to pinnacle in climax. I never saw any climax as enthralling as this one. If i have to write top 10 climaxes in cinema history, Shahenshah would probably be in top. What a finale sir, great job. The entire scene from the point when inspector Vijay arrest Amrish puri and put him behind bar to the final court room drama, J.K set free by court and finally J.K. taken back to court by Shahenshah and brilliant turn of events there .. no one can keep eyes off screen in those last 20 minutes. Such a gripping moments and such a energetic performance by Amitabh.Finally, if any one want to see edge of seat masala genre blended brilliantly with Superhero concept, not going overboard for even a second, Please check this one. I promise you, you will feel sorry for contemporary filmmakers, they can't even come close with this school of film making. Superb entertainer .. 10/10 By me.

Biswajit Tripathy Shenshaah is the first ever Superman kind of movie made in India. Like Superman he has a dual life. In first he plays the role of Inspector Vijay (he loves to have the same name in most of his movies), the other being Shenshaah, a menace for the evil.As the Police Inspector he is corrupt so that he can get close to the baddies of the city and then controls them as Shenshaah. Like the usual Superman movie, there is a heroine who loves Shenshaah not Vijay. And in the typical fashion as in SUperman movies, evil is finished at the end. Here the villain played by Amrish Puri is hanged inside the courtroom by Shenshaah. Shenshaah played by Amitabh Bachchan; this is one of his memorable roles ever. Meenakshi Shesadri plays the love interest of Shenshaah. Rohini Hattangadi plays the role of Vijay's mother. She has done justice to her role.

Simon Booth Sundays is quite often Amitabh Bachchan day for me these days. It's the only time in the week I can find 3 hours to sit down and watch a Bollywood movie, and my Indian star of choice is definitely Amitabh.A righteous police officer is framed by the villains he is investigating, and in shame he hangs himself. His son grows up to be a policeman too, but rather unexpectedly he turns out to be something of a coward and a simpleton who takes bribes. At least - that's what he wants you to believe! For by night he adopts a different persona - the one man crime fighting machine, SHAHENSHAH! Endowed with unstoppable power (for reasons never explored) and quite the worst outfit in movie history, Shahenshah is judge, jury and executioner for the criminals the law can't touch.Amitabh Bachchan gets to play something of a dual role again, reprising the betel-chewing simpleton character and the tough hero characters he's played plenty of times before. It's a good chance to show his range as an actor, but by 1987 there is no question that he was past his prime (and optimum weight) for the angry young man sort of role that made him popular (yet of course still not matured enough for the cool sophisticat Bachchan of today). SHAHENSHAH doesn't ask much of the veteran actor, and certainly can't be considered one of his best roles.The plot for the movie is rather full of holes, but basically addresses a theme that I find to be exceedingly common in Indian cinema - the failure of the police and politicians to protect the citizens of the country. If Bollywood cinema is to be believed, corruption must be a significant problem, and there is a clear wish for a 'strong hero' that will fight on the side of the poor and the innocent. Preferably quite violently SHAHENSHAH has a fairly stock villain character, played by Amrish Puri in what may be his 1,000,000th villain role - a role he could do in his sleep with his face. He gets up to the usual sorts of crimes - drugs, murder, bribery and trying to force poor people off their land. Oh, and he is the man responsible for dad's death, naturally. There's also a love interest, played both sassily and sexily by Meenakshi Sheshadri, who thankfully gets a lot more to do than just dance and look pretty in a good role. Mix in patriotic mothers, virginal sisters and noble reporters and you get an idea of what to expect.There's not a lot of depth or subtlety to the plot, and I'm not sure quite how it gets stretched out to fill 185 minutes. There's quite a few lengthy songs of course, and quite a few action scenes of the "Amitabh waves a fist and 5 guys somersault away in slow motion" type, but few fresh or exceedingly interesting ideas.The movie definitely looks stuck in the 80's, and unfortunately by the latter half of that decade Amitabh Bachchan's star was definitely fading. SHAHENSHAH is a far cry from such great movies as DON and SHOLAY. It manages to be moderately entertaining, as any movie containing such a basic mix of ingredients will be, but I can't imagine it getting a second watch any time.