China Gate | |
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Directed by | Rajkumar Santoshi |
Screenplay by |
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Story by | Rajkumar Santoshi |
Produced by | Rajkumar Santoshi |
Starring | |
Cinematography | Piyush Shah |
Edited by | V. N. Mayekar |
Music by | Songs: Anu Malik Score: Vanraj Bhatia |
Production company | Santoshi Productions |
Release date |
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Running time | 175 minutes |
Country | India |
Language | Hindi |
Budget | ₹20 crore (US$2.4 million) |
China Gate is a 1998 Indian Hindi-language action film directed by Rajkumar Santoshi. It was released on 27 November 1998. China Gate follows the basic storyline of the classic Seven Samurai. The film was critically acclaimed for Santoshi's writing and direction. The song "Chamma Chamma" picturised on Urmila Matondkar became a chart buster and was used in Baz Luhrmann's film Moulin Rouge!. The film won Filmfare Award for Best Dialogue.
Plot
Colonel Krishnakant Puri and ten men from his unit were dishonourably discharged from the Indian Army for failing in the Mission China Gate. Krishnakant challenged the decision of the military high command and pursued the case in civil courts for 17 years, but the final verdict is given against him and his team. Frustrated, he is about to commit suicide when a young lady named Sandhya knocks on his door.
Having witnessed the brutal murder of her Forest Officer father, Sunder Rajan, at the hands of dreaded dacoit Jageera, Sandhya goes to the Colonel and asks for his assistance in bringing an end to Jageera's reign of terror in the Devdurg region. Krishnakant agrees to assist her and summons ten of his fellow officers and subordinates to assist him in this mission. They assemble at Devdurg with the necessary ammunition and arms to combat Jageera, not realising that Jageera has influence over the local police detachment, who will prevent Krishnakant and his men to possess any guns and weapons. This does not deter the men, and they continue to stay on in Devdurg. They gain the confidence of the villagers too.
The villagers do not know that Krishnakant and his men had been dishonorably discharged from the army for cowardice. At the time of the first encounter with the gang of Jageera, the team of Krishnakant realised that they are out of shape and have lost instincts and fighting capabilities due to age. With the permission of Col. Krishnakant, Major Gurung starts to train them again.
One day, Jageera captures them with the help of corrupt police officer Barot, but they escape finally and in turn capture Jageera. Col Krishan Puri and few officers intend to kill him, but leader Col. Puri hands him over to the police inspector Barot. As a result, Jageera is again set free and kills Maj. Sarfaraz.
Now the full team of Col. Krishnakant along with the villagers chase Jageera to take final revenge. They teach Inspector Baarot an ultimate lesson. Krishnakant gets to know that Sandhya and rest of the residents are held hostage by Jageera. Udit is able to save her. After the deadly fight, The five soldiers including Kewal kills Jageera only to avenge Sarfaraz's death.
The film ends with the full team setting out for next adventure to accomplish the new mission afterwards Udit becomes Sandhya's husband.
Cast
- Om Puri... Colonel Krishnakant Puri (Regiment of Artillery)
- Amrish Puri... Colonel Keval Krishan Puri (Grenadiers)
- Naseeruddin Shah... Major Sarfaraz Khan (Gorkha Rifles)
- Danny Denzongpa... Major Ranjit Singh Gurung (Sharpshooter)
- Samir Soni... Uditanshu "Udit" Tandon
- Kulbhushan Kharbanda... Major Kulbhushan Gupta (Planner)
- Tinu Anand... Captain Bijon Dasgupta (Batchmate of Major Gurung from NDA) (Explosive Expert) (Corps of Engineers)
- Viju Khote... Nb Subedar Ghanshyam (Regiment of Artillery) (Gunner)
- Jagdeep... Havaldar Ramaiyah
- Anjan Srivastav... Havaldar Dharti Kumar Pandey
- Mukesh Tiwari... Jagvira aka Jageera
- Paresh Rawal... Inspector Baarot
- Ila Arun... Gopinath's wife
- Shivaji Satam... Gopinath (Village Sarpanch)
- Razak Khan... Sadhuram (Lali's Uncle)
- Anupam Kher... Brigadier Anoop Kumar / Governor (Special Appearance)
- Girish Karnad... Forest Officer Sundar Rajan (Sandhya's Dad, Special appearance)
- Rahul Singh
- Mamta Kulkarni... Sandhya
- Benaf Dadachandji... Lali
- Harish Patel...Local Villager
- Shreechand Makhija...Local Villager
- Urmila Matondkar in a special appearance in the song "Chamma Chamma"
Production
The film was conceived as a tribute to Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai. The film was made on the budget of ₹20 crores, the most expensive Bollywood production at that point of time.
Soundtrack
The music for this movie was composed by Anu Malik and the item song "Chamma Chamma" became extremely popular, which was later used in Hollywood film Moulin Rouge! and was recreated for the film, Fraud Saiyyan.
All lyrics are written by Sameer
No. | Title | Singer(s) | Length |
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1. | "Hum Ko To Rahna Hai" | Sonu Nigam, Hariharan, Vinod Rathod | 7:11 |
2. | "Chamma Chamma" | Anu Malik, Sapna Awasthi | 5:53 |
3. | "Chamma Chamma, Pt. 2" | Vinod Rathod, Shankar Mahadevan, Alka Yagnik | 5:54 |
4. | "Is Mitti Ka Karz Tha Mujhpe" | Sonu Nigam | 3:14 |
5. | "Theme of China Gate (Instrumental)" | 1:02 |
See also
References
- ^ "Chasing An Epic". 7 December 1998.
- "THE HINDU ONLINE : Friday, November 27, 1998 Entertainment 09270223.HTM". Archived from the original on 5 June 2001.
- "China Gate - movie review by Pranay Bhagat - Planet Bollywood". Archived from the original on 24 September 2022. Retrieved 24 September 2022.
- "Elli AvRam steps into Urmila Matondkar's shoes for 'Chamma Chamma'". Mumbai Mirror. 20 November 2018. Retrieved 21 November 2018.
- "Elli AvrRam steps into Urmila Matondkar's shoes for Chamma Chamma remake for Fraud Saiyaan". Mid-day.com. 20 November 2018. Retrieved 11 January 2019.
- "Elli AvRam to recreate 'Chamma Chamma' for this Arshad Warsi film". Bollywood Hungama. 20 November 2018. Archived from the original on 23 January 2019. Retrieved 11 January 2019.
- "Elli AvrRam recreates Urmila Matondkar's iconic song Chamma Chamma - see photos". 22 November 2018. Archived from the original on 22 November 2018. Retrieved 22 November 2018.
- "China Gate's 'Chamma Chamma' to be recreated for Prakash Jha's Fraud Saiyyan". Mumbaimirror.indiatimes.com. 26 September 2018. Archived from the original on 12 April 2023. Retrieved 11 January 2019.
External links
- China Gate at IMDb
Films of Rajkumar Santoshi | |
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- 1998 films
- Films directed by Rajkumar Santoshi
- 1990s Hindi-language films
- Films scored by Anu Malik
- 1998 Western (genre) films
- Indian Western (genre) films
- Fictional portrayals of police departments in India
- Indian remakes of Japanese films
- Indian films about revenge
- Indian epic films
- Indian Army in films
- Siege films
- Indian action drama films
- 1998 drama films
- Films based on works by Akira Kurosawa
- Works based on Seven Samurai