Pitaah

2002 Indian film

4 January 2002 (2002-01-04) (India)

Running time

127 minutes^[1]CountryIndiaLanguageHindi

Pitaah (Father) is a 2002 Indian Hindi-language action drama film directed by Mahesh Manjrekar and produced by Avinash Adik. It stars Sanjay Dutt, Jackie Shroff, Nandita Das and Om Puri in pivotal roles. The film was not well received by critics and audience.

Plot

A small town in rural India gets to witness a confrontation between two fathers, one a rich, powerful, and cruel Zamindar Thakur Avadh Narayan Singh who wants the man who filed a police complaint against his two sons to be killed immediately. The other is Rudra, a poor laborer employed by Avadh, who wants justice when he finds out that his nine-year-old daughter, Durga, has been beaten and brutally raped by Avadh's sons, Bachhu, and Bhola.

His quest for justice is made harder due to a corrupt doctor, willing to change his medical report after he is bribed appropriately; and Police Inspector, Ramnarayan Bhardwaj, who is willing to drop any charges against Avadh's sons provided he gets his "dues" from the Thakur. These hardships force Rudra to take matters into his own hands and he kills the Thakur's sons when they arrive for their court date.

Rudra confronts the Thakur and apologises for his actions, he agrees to surrender himself to the police in return for his families safety. However, Avadh refuses to give in and Rudra kills his men. The Thakur is eventually killed by Rudra's wife Paro. Rudra then surrenders himself to the police and is given a six-month sentence. He is eventually released and reunites with his family, finally at peace.

Cast

Sanjay Dutt as Rudra
Jackie Shroff as Ramnarayan Bharadwaj, police officer (daroga)
Nandita Das as Paro
Om Puri as Thakur Avadh Narayan Singh
Mita Vasisht as Thakurain
Anupama Verma as Thakur's daughter
Siddharth Ray as Bacchu, Thakur's eldest son
Vineet Kumar Singh as Bhola, Thakur's youngest son
Sachin Khedekar as Shiva
Salil Ankola as Krishna, Shiva's Son and Thakur's daughter's love interest
Atul Kale as Villager
Anjan Srivastav as Senior Doctor
Ankush Chaudhari as Junior Doctor
Shivaji Satam as Railway Station Master
Mink Singh as Naina
Tanvi Hegde as Durga, 'Muniya' (Rudra's daughter)
Sagar Thawani as Lav, Durga's brother
Samrat Thawani as Kush, Durga's brother
Kalpana Pandit as Special Appearance (Song 'Meri Jawani')
Nilesh Diwekar as Bheema

Soundtrack

Music by Anand Raj Anand.^[2]

#	Title	Singer(s)
1	"Pitaah"	Udit Narayan
2	"Bituing Walang Ningning"	Sharon Cuneta
3	"Rama Bachaye"	Anuradha Sriram
4	"Sau Baar Janam Nahi"	Sukhwinder Singh
5	"Meri Jawani"	Sunidhi Chauhan
6	"Humko To Ishq"	Kavita Krishnamurthy
7	"Putra Pratishtha"	Rahul Ranade, Ravindra Saathe

Reception

A critic from The Times of India wrote that ". in short, pitaah is such a monotonous monotone about the strength of a father, it sends you rushing for a break. this, despite the snatches of seasoned performances by both sanjay dutt and nandita das".^[3] A critic from Rediff.com wrote that "Pitaah does not live up to the mark".^[4]

References

^ "Pitaah". British Board of Film Classification.
^ Verma, Sukanya (10 December 2001). "Pitaah is pitiful; Raaz has no secrets". Rediff.com.
^ Kazmi, Nikhat (6 January 2002). "Pitaah: A faint picture of fatherhood". The Times of India.
^ Pant, Seema (4 January 2002). "Where's the heart". Rediff.com.