So Mahesh
Manjrekar has proved that he can deliver the goods. Well,
he did strike gold with his Vaastav. Followed it by a
superb Astitva but a disappointing Jis Desh Mein Ganga
Rahta Hai. The fact that the latter did better than the
former is a usual Bollywood mystery though.
Now he is back with his buddy, Sanjay Dutt in a tale of
good versus evil and Sanjay once again palys a cop after
his superb performance as one in the recent Mission
Kashmir.

Prithvi Raj (Sanjay) is a honest and daring cop, feared
by most of the others due to his tough and hard to crack
nature. Prithvi leads a happy family life too with his
wife (Mahima) and his sister.
He begins off his campaign on a
promising note by pitting himself against a powerful goon
Iqbal (Mukesh Rishi). However though his business is
destroyed, he ends up being impressed by the honesty and
courage of the cop and soon becomes a loyal aide to
Prithvi Raj. This relationship is one that reminds
viewers of the Amitabh-Pran one in a similar flick,
Zanjeer a decade back.
The turning point in Kurkshethra comes when the Chief
Minister's son rapes a girl. Prithvi decides to bring
justice and so his battle begins with the money, power,
and influence of the political leader putting his own
life and that of his family members at stake.
Once again a tale where the question is put before the
viewers: Will justice prevail?
Kurukshetra might be like one of your typical action
drama of the eighties. However it still strikes because
it is one of those action movies which relies more on
effective dialogues rather than those boring action
sequences.

Manjrekar is a talented director and he has given this
movie his style of treatment that sets it apart from the
rest of the pack. No matter how regular the storyline and
subject looks, but it will keep you interested as if you
are experiencing the whole thing for the first time.
Manjrekar to begin with, like Astitva, sticks to the main
subject and does not go wayward with unnecessary scenes.
And he does not make the mistake like the one in Jis Desh
Mein Ganga Rehata Hai, that is to stuff in songs here and
there. So he rightly ropes in names like Sukhvinder,
Kashmira, and Suman Ranganathan to do the songs thus
avoiding the lead cast looking silly in dance numbers.
The
dialogues are hard hitting and powerful, and had it not
been so, the movie would have fallen flat on its face.
Besides the dialogues, the major plus factor of this
movie is the cast and their fabulous acting display.

It is nice and refreshing to see Sanjay Dutt on the good
side of the law especially after a decade of watching
acting him as a ganster. As far as Mahima is concerned,
after a series of impressive guset appearances in various
movies notably Dhadkan, she finally gets a meaty role
here.
Om Puri like usual does a tremendous job in his role as
the Chief Minister. Sanjay Dutt and Om Puri compliments
each other in such a fine way. And equally cast in an
important role is Shivaji Sattam. We also Mukesh Rishi
coming in yet another substantial role which he plays
well.
Ofcourse the movie also comes with flaws too. The songs
are not the charbusting kind and is only just about
average. Moreover,being the kind of movie it is, towards
the end it takes the predictable route. Therefore the
climax might not provide the viewers with anything new.
And the screenplay also seems to loosen a bit around this
time. Action also tends a get a bit heavy too towards the
end. But these things are unavoidable when it comes to
churning up a successful action movie.
Music by Himesh Reshammiya is just about average with
none of the songs having the chartbuster potential.
However despite
the movie being a mishmash of several action movies that
we have seen over the times, Kurukshetra will find an
audience to appreciate it, especially the front benchers.
But the big question is that will it be enough??