Virasat (1997 film)

Virasat
Directed by	Priyadarshan
Produced by	Mushir-Riaz
Written by	Kamal Hassan (story) Vinay Shukla
Starring	Anil Kapoor Tabu Pooja Batra
Music by	Anu Malik (songs) S. P. Venkatesh (Background Score)
Cinematography	Ravi K. Chandran
Distributed by	M.R Productions Pvt.Ltd
Release date(s)	30 May 1997
Running time	165 min.
Country	India
Language	Hindi / English

Virasat is a Hindi musical drama film by Priyadarshan that was released in India in 1997, produced by the Mushir-Riaz duo. It starred Anil Kapoor, Tabu, Amrish Puri, Pooja Batra, Milind Gunaji and Govind Namdeo. The story was by Kamal Hassan and Anu Malik was the music composer. This Movie was a remake of super hit Tamil film Thevar Magan

Synopsis

After completing his studies in London, Shakti Thakur (Anil Kapoor) returns to the small Indian town where his family resides. Accompanying him is his leggy girlfriend, Anita (Pooja Batra), whom he is in love with and wants to marry, much to the disapproval of his family. After a few days, Shakti starts to feel that nothing much has changed in this part of India and longs to leave. He tells his father that he would like to sell his share in the family land and would open Restaurant business and settle with his girlfriend, to this his Father(Amrish Puri) urges him to stay in the village and uplift it with his education, by saying "A men gets Education not to become a selfish being but to uplift his uneducated brothers and society". Shakti does not agree with his father and decides to leave. He is unable to bear the animosity between the townspeople in general and in particular between his Zamindar dad, Raja Thakur (Amrish Puri), and rival Zamindar Birju (Govind Namdeo), none other than Raja's crippled brother.

When Anita leaves town to meet her parents, Shakti wants to follow her; his plans change suddenly when his father passes away, and the region is ravaged by unprecedented natural calamities. At this moment Shakti realizes that his village needs him more than anyone else, He realizes that with his modern education he can uplift his backward village. During one of his attempt to solve village's problem he meets local town belle, Gehna (Tabu), who gave her heart to him years ago and hopes to marry him, with approval from his family. Anita returns to find that nothing is the same anymore. She finds that, Shakti has turned from her lover boy to a matured and responsible man, for whome his village's upliftment is everything. She returns home.

The film strongly depicts the true meaning of Education "A tool to uplift uneducated people and use education for social welfare".

Cast

• Anil Kapoor as Shakti Thakur
• Amrish Puri as Raja Thakur
• Pooja Batra as Anita
• Tabu as Gehna
• Milind Gunaji as Bali Thakur
• Govind Namdeo as Birju Thakur
• Satyen Kappu as Shurkyen
• Dilip Dhawan as Shakti's brother
• Neeraj Vora as Sukhiya
• Sulabha Deshpande as Bali's mother
• Rita Bhaduri as Mausi

Trivia

The film received almost no attention before its release. Even when it opened in cinemas, the halls were empty even though the critics were floored. Soon, word-of-mouth publicity attracted the crowds and the film became a hit. This film marked the comeback of Priyadarshan in Bollywood,after Gardish(1993). Kamal Hassan wrote the original story of this movie in Tamil called Thevar Magan & was credited also in Virasat.Music director Annu Malik reused some of the original tunes of Ilaiyaraaja from Thevar Magan.

Studded with astounding performances by Anil Kapoor, Tabu, Amrish Puri and Pooja Batra, Virasat is a cult classic.

Awards

National Award

• Best Female Playback Singer - K. S. Chithra - (Song: "Payalein Chun Mun")

Filmfare Awards

Virasat was nominated for nine categories at the Filmfare awards and won six of them. The awards it won are in bold.

• Critics Award Best Movie
• Critics Award Best Performance - Anil Kapoor & Tabu
• Best Supporting Actor - Amrish Puri
• Best Cinematography - Ravi K. Chandran
• Best Choreography - Farah Khan
• Best Story - Kamal Hassan
• Best Supporting Actress - Pooja Batra
• Best Actress - Tabu
• Filmfare - Best Female Playback Singer - Kavita Krishnamurthy for "Dhol Bajne Laga"
• Filmfare - Best Female Playback Singer - K.S Chithra for "Payalein Chun Mun"

Soundtrack

#	Title	Singer(s)	Length
1	"Payalay Chunmun"	Kumar Sanu, K. S. Chithra	06:50
2	"Tare Hain Barati"	Kumar Sanu, Jaspinder Narula	06:33
3	"Jayengi Pee Ke"	Abhijeet, Anuradha Sriram, Anu Sriram	06:31
4	"Ek Tha Raja"	Hariharan	03:52
5	"Sun Mausa Sun"	Vinod Rathod	06:45
6	"Dhol Bajne Laga"	Udit Narayan, Kavita Krishnamurthy	07:00
7	"Payalay Chunmun (Female)"	K. S. Chithra	02:16

External links

• Virasat at the Internet Movie Database