Everyone has his own favourite Sunny Deol-Raj Kumar Santoshi film. Mine is Ghatak, a rock-solid emotional seesaw with searing action sequences shot with an eye on the sky, Ghatak was planned as a larger-than-life follow up to Santoshi-Deol’s Ghayal. Ghatak, which release in 1996, was a better film, in every aspect including Sunny’s tonally modulated performance, his best to date.
Although Ghayal was the bigger success Ghatak also got its audience. It is a taut emotional thriller, a father-son story featuring Amrish Puri as the father and Sunny Deol who travel to the corrupt city for the former’s medical treatment.
The basic plotline of Ghatak was uncannily similar to another film released during the same year entitled Chaahat (directed by Mahesh Bhatt) where Anupam Kher and Shah Rukh Khan played the father and son.
While Chaahat was a flop, Ghatak was one of the big successes of 1996.
It was originally planned with Kamal Haasan and Amrish Puri as the son and father. Santoshi even shot a poster with Kamal Haasan. But then, the distributors insisted on a change of hero as Kamal Haasan , in spite of the success of Ek Duuje Ke Liye , did not have a captive audience in the Hindi belt.
Sunny Deol who was miffed at being sidetracked by Santoshi even after the historic success of Ghayal, quietly stepped into Ghatak for old time’s sake.
Looking back, Sunny Deol says, “Ya, Ghayal was a huge boxoffice hit. Ghatak was not that big. Kya karen? These things happen. One can’t predict or plan these things. Maybe you are right. Ghatak was a better film. But Ghayal worked better. I enjoyed working in both tremendously. My scenes with Amrishji (Puri) who platyed my father, were very strong.”
Ghatak is the story of the Varanasi-based idealistic freedom fighter Shambhunath(Amrish Puri) and his wrestler son Kashinath (Deol). The two must travel to Mumbai for Shambunath’s medicare when he suddenly falls ill with throat cancer.
Amrish Puri who prided himself for his baritone didn’t miss the irony of it. After every interview he would tell me, “Beta, after you publish the interview please erase the tape. I don’t want my voice being misused.”
Says Raj Kumar Santoshi proudly, “Yes, Puri Saab was rightly very protective of his voice. We cast him deliberately a man of immense ideological conviction being felled by a disease that snatches away his biggest asset. Ghatak came right after the blockbuster Ghayal. Sunny and I wanted to do something equally powerful after Ghayal. Ghatak turned out really well. Aapse kisne kaha Ghatak nahin chali? It may not have turned as big as Ghayal. That kind of success is not possible on repeat. Ghatak made back its investment. I would count it among my best works.”
