Ghulam   Producer: Mukesh Bhatt Director: Vikram Bhatt Starring: Aamir Khan, Ranee Mukherjee, Deepak Tijori, Rajit Kapoor, Mita Vashist, Sharat Saxena, Guest App. Dalip Tahil Music: Jatin Lalit Lyrics: Indeevar, Sameer, Nitin Raikwar, Vinu Mahendra Genre: Action Recommended Audience: General Film Released on: 19 June 1998 Reviewed by: Avinash Ramchandani  - Rating: 7.0 / 10   Let us know what you think about this review

Just seven years ago, a movie with Aamir Khan, Deepak Tijori, and a fairly new actress (Ayesha Jhulka) and music by Jatin-Lalit released. The result: Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar. This year, the same pair of actors and music director combine with

Rani Mukherjee to come up with Ghulam, director Vikram Bhatt's latest venutre. A song even resembles the fabulous "Pelha Nasha" of seven years ago, but the movie doesn´t resemble JJWS… not even a little bit.

Violence and rage is the name of this movie, with a short love story twisted somewhere in the middle. Siddharth (Aamir Khan) is a Mumbai tapori, a boxing champion. His brother, Jai, makes money through a former boxing champion who now rules the community through terrorizing people and stealing money from innocent merchants. Siddharth saw his father´s death when he was a child; this mentally effected him throughout his life. His father´s words remained with him, though he had only been with his father for a little while. Siddharth meets a young woman, Ayesha (Rani Mukherjee) who rides with a motorcycle gang and Charlie (Deepak Tijori). This is a flavor for some comedy and a brilliant scene in which Siddharth is running towards a train and as the train is only a few feet away he jumps out of the way.

Siddharth and Ayesha meet for the first time and fall in love, and the typical love story follows. Siddharth meets another person who reminds him of his father, Hari. He learns a bit more from this man of wisdom and helps him in his truth. How he does this and the how the message of Hari and his father is carried out should be witnessed in the movie.

Overall, the movie bores at times and excites at times. Certain things catch the viewer's attention while others don't. In the acting department, Aamir Khan is terrific. His emotions are more dramatic and exciting than any other actor in the industry, today. It´s too bad that the movie was not as exciting as his acting. Rani Mukherjee does a good job, and her acting has improved dramatically since her debut in Raja Ki Aayegi Baarat. All the other actors perform brilliantly, but the movie doesn´t come to the actor´s standards. The songs are perfect for the movie, even Aamir Khan´s "Aati Kya Khandala" works perfect with the movie. Jatin-Lalit have come up with some ear friendly tunes to match the feel of the film.

The one thing that is lacking in this movie is direction. The use of a better director would have created a better movie. Vikram is not in superlative form. The same could have been said for Fareb, Vikram Bhatt´s last direction venture, in which the acting was brilliant (for newcomers Milind Gunaji, Faraaz Khan, and Suman Ranganathran) and the direction was below par.