In the island village of Mandwa, the school teacher Dinanath Chauhan (Chetan Pandit), highly respected by the villagers, tries to dissuade them from giving away their lands on lease to Kancha (Sanjay Dutt), the son of the village head who plans to start a drug mafia. Knowing this, Kancha decides to get rid of the school teacher. He ambushes and murders a young girl inside the school, framing Chauhan for the murder. With the support of the villagers, Kancha then kills Chauhan by hanging him to death from a tree which is witnessed by young Vijay Chauhan (Arish Bhiwandiwala), the son of the teacher. Vijay Chauhan along with his pregnant mother Suhasini Chauhan (Zarina Wahab) leaves the village. Destitute, they find shelter in the city of Mumbai but Vijay harbours intentions to go back to Mandwa and kill Kancha.

Each time I watch this and as it gets older and older, I happen to come to admire this classic more and more, a lot of which though can be put down to myself being a huge fan of Sanjay Dutt and quite an admirer of Hrithik Roshan too (his best film in my opinion. Awesome performance by him!). I know people have this habit of over-rating things from the past, but in my opinion there is no match at all between this and the one in 1990. This classic is a story of blood and flames, of emotions and vengeance, respect and hatred, above all, immense brutality. This beats any of the million Bollywood films, particularly made in the 1980s and 1990s, that revolve around the hero wanting to avenge his father's killing.From Vijay to Gaitonde sahib to Kaali to Lala Rauf, everyone was brilliant but a special mention should go to Kaancha. What a stunning performance! It goes down as one of the best performances ever in the negative roles. His reciting the Bhagavad Geeta throughout the film and coming up with his own twisted interpretations itself was a unique idea that added so much to his role, coupled with the way he looked. Can't help but think that his role was somewhat inspired from the historical description and depiction of the Pharaoh who opposed Prophet Moses. Just a thought.....As for the emotions aspect, not too many scenes would touch you as much as the the scene from this film does when Shiksha visits Vijay for the first time to meet him, and then that brilliant song "Abhi mujh mey'n kahi'n..... " Truly depicts in a great way as if Vijay had found his world.The 'Agneepath' poem by Harivansh Rai Bachchan is such an inspirational one that I couldn't resist basing one of my own poems upon it, titled as "Walk in the sunshine." So I have got bit of a personal attachment too with this film due to that.If I had to come back to the film from 1990, I don't want to go into any deeper details given that the review by itself is about the 2012 film, but in short I would just add that I felt really annoyed and irritated with the way Amitabh Bachchan spoke in the film, and the same applies to Mithun Chakraborty's role - a South Indian Pathan (considering his background shown and the way he talked)! Kaancha's role however in that too was well performed by Danny Denzongpa, who was in general a very good actor. The mere look on his face made him look like a villain.

The old Agneepath, released in 1990, was not a commercial success because it was ahead of its time. However, the film received critical acclaim and Amitabh Bachchan had a National Award bestowed upon him for one of his best ever performances. Due to the fact that the film failed at the box office and shattered the hopes of Yash Johar, Karan Johar's father, his son decided to burden débutant director Karan Malhotra with the task of doing justice to the original. Let's consider the extent to which this film works and the flaws in it.The story, first of all, is simply one of revenge. Vijay Chauhan (Hrithik Roshan) witnesses the humiliation and subsequent murder of his father as a child, masterminded by the ruthless Kancha (Sanjay Dutt). This provides him with the desire for revenge. He wishes to establish himself in the underworld with the aim of facing Kancha to exact his revenge some day. However, law and morals appear to stand firmly in his path. Is he successful? Director Karan Malhotra deserves praise for a thorough exploration of the themes central to the film.Hrithik Roshan has once again shown why he is one of the finest actors in the industry today. His character is dissimilar to Amitabh's in the original. I don't think this is a National Award winning performance, but it will definitely contend for the Filmfare Awards next year.Priyanka Chopra plays the bubbly Kaali with finesse. She provides apt seasoning in the form of humour. However, her character seemed grossly underdeveloped for one in such role in the film.Sanjay Dutt, as Kancha, is one of the most naturally evil-looking villains to ever be conceived. His sheer bulk coupled with his strange mannerisms makes his presence felt on screen. After the Vaastav, the Munna Bhai films and so on, this is yet another highlight of his career.We see Rishi Kapoor in a supporting role as the cunning Rauf Lala. Surely, all the awards for best supporting actor, including the National Award, must be handed to him come awards season next year. There's nothing more to say.Om Puri is a very fine actor; there's no two ways about that. He delivers a sincere performance but could have done with more screen space. On one hand he seems to be wasted but on another his contribution is important to the plot.Special mention goes to Arish Bhiwandiwala who is the young Vijay Chauhan. An impressive performance by a child artist.The cinematography by Ravi K. Chandran, a cinematographer who has worked with the likes of Mani Ratnam, is eye- catching.He manages to capture the locales perfectly in every scene to adhere to the goings on.There are a few scenes, such as the scene in Rauf's 'market' with him and Hrithik, the murder of Hrithik's father and the climax that leave a lasting impression. A treat for the viewers.However, the original Agneepath was more violent than this. I felt that this needed to be more violent in order to be adequately moving for a film whose name translates as 'path of fire'.There are an unnecessary number of sub-plots in the second half that disrupt the course of the movie as set up by the first half. Consequently, the viewer hardly reacts to the outcome of the climax.Finally, the arrogance and swagger of Amitabh's character in the original was missing here. His presence isn't felt as much as a result.Overall, this film is a good tribute to the original that's not to be missed for its four aces: the first half, Hrithik, Rishi and Sanjay. Highly recommended!! 8/10

For all the talk of the new one being better/different from the original one, this one was very disappointing. Basically despite the honest effort that Hrithik tries to put in, he just could not match the angst and presence that big B had, even in his twilight years. That kind of summarizes it all. Lethargic direction, reasonably cinematography, passable acting, clichés thrown all over it. In the original one there was a build up to the climax with Vijay and Kancha but in this one the anticipation and angst never really got there. And without angst, there is really no Agneepath, notwithstanding the compulsory poetry rendition in the finale.