Often looked down upon as a Hindi remake of The Silence of the Lambs, Sangharsh will always be remembered for Ashutosh Rana's menacing portrayal of Lajja Shankar Pandey--a religious fanatic who slaughters children with the hope of gaining immortality. Such was the raw intensity in his portrayal of a disgusting child killer that it pretty much sealed the fate of his acting career as a villain. Yes, extremes often don't go well with the Indian audiences. In Dushman, his previous outing, he had played a rapist and a killer but here he seems to have gone a bit too far. Besides, strong negative roles are not easy to come by in Hindi cinema. So, we never get to see the same Ashutosh Rana again on the celluloid! The loss, of course, was entirely ours.
In Sangharsh, Akshay Kumar too delivers the finest performance of his acting career. Playing the complex part of the quick-witted Professor Aman Varma, Akshay seems to be exploring a completely different side of his acting repertoire. For once, he lets his eyes do most of the talking. The scenes he shares with Preity Zinta are quite solid. It is a pity that some of them are directly borrowed from The Silence of the Lambs. Nonetheless, the acting efforts are commendable. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, it was Preity Zinta who had started the trend of playing strong female characters in Hindi cinema; and it all started with Sangharsh wherein she plays a gritty CBI Officer.
Overall, Sangharsh is a very difficult film to watch. It's uncommon for Hindi films to have such high graphic content. Rana's ferality, Akshay's intensity and Preity's vulnerability make it a memorable film. The climactic sequence featuring the trio is both scary and adrenaline-pumping. The songs, although they are very good, somewhat compromise the movie's suspense element. Also, the romance between Akshay and Preity looks a bit out of place. But there is no denying that it's presented in a refreshing manner. Sangharsh is not meant for the faint-hearted. Viewer discretion is strongly advised.
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Keywords: serial killer
Plot summary
CBI officer Reet Oberoi sought assistance from a jail convict Professor Aman Varma to bring Lajja Shankar Pandey; a religious fanatic to justice. Pandey is responsible for abducting children and sacrifice them. But Aman is not willing to co-operate with Reet and instead scuffs at her which leads her into serious problems not only by the police but with some public personalities and the parents of the children affected by Pandey's behavior.
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Movie Reviews
Sangharsh will always be remembered for Ashutosh Rana's menacing portrayal of Lajja Shankar Pandey
Silence of the Lambs
Tanuja Chandra after DUSHMAN returned with Sangharsh, The film starred Akshay and Preity Zinta alongwith newcomer Aman Verma and Ashutosh Rana. Sangharsh is a rip off of Silence of the Lambs. The film does employ bollywood diktats like songs, dances, some weird get ups for escaping.etc but yet it's a good film The film starts off well, Akshay's introduction is good and then Ashutosh Rana scenes too are amazing. The film does suffer from normal bollywood twists as I mentioned above but yet the dramatic scenes are superb
Direction is superb by Tanuja Chandra, sadly she disappeared now Music is amazing, Mujhe Raat Din is superb song by Sonu Nigam, Pehli Baar is amazing too
Akshay Kumar tries very hard, those were the days when he was struggling as an actor after being proved a non actor, he tries very hard which shows but yet a better performance Preity Zinta who was 2 film old gets a complex character as in most tanuja films she does an amazing job Ashutosh Rana is the best, though his role is similar to DUSHMAN yet he acts superbly Alia Bhatt played young Preity in the film, rest mostly Bhatt regulars like Vishwajeet Pradhan are good
Akshay's over-excitement on Prity ruins the seriousness
It could have been far better if it doesn't follow typical bollywood old fashioned excitement on the girl the hero loves. If there is no love between the two protagonists, it could be near great. It deserve 4, but additional 3 comes for Asutosh Rana, the brilliance.