I posted a summary of the first half yesterday, now it is time to bring it on home through to the end!  And the second half is where things get CRAZY.

And also crazy interesting from a statement on society perspective.  There is a long rant in the middle about social responsibility.  So that’s something for you to look forward too!

(Read part 1 here)

So, a bunch of Amrish goons were beating up Sunny in the middle of the street, when they were coincidentally interrupted by a car carrying the police commissioner.  Who doesn’t care about Raj Babbar being missing, not his problem!  Even though the guy telling him about it was almost beaten to death right in front of him like minutes ago, he still thinks this whole thing is made up and doesn’t believe anything Sunny is telling him.

Sunny returns to his house and talks this all over with Bhabhi.  While shirtless.  Like you do.  Bhabhi is almost beginning to think they should just forget about it, but Sunny is resolute!  And has a crazy good body!

But Bhabhi is not comforted by his body, and bursts into tears.  And while they cry, Amrish Puri is playing a piano alone in his mansion.  He’s so evil!  And then he decides to stroll down to the torture basement and watch his evil bearded torturer shock Raj Babbar. And then he makes an “Idea!” face.

He calls Sunny, tells him he can see his brother if he goes to a certain place at a certain time.  Just as he arrives, on the deserted street, a large red Tata truck appears and tries to run him down!  Do you think the Tata’s have to pay for this kind of product placement, or does it just happen?  Since their name is on every truck in India?  Sunny is running and running and trying to get away!  Finally, he gets off the road, the truck passes him, and a body falls out the back!  Raj Babbar!

Sunny grabs the body and is all sad, but then the truck comes by again and he gets all mad!  He starts shouting after it as it drives away, and then just generally out into the world saying “My brother is dead!  My brother was murdered!  Doesn’t anyone care!?!!”  Finally, breakdown over, he goes to a telephone booth and calls the avuncular uncle to tell him the news and ask what to do?  Uncle asks where he is, then promises he will come soon and pick him up!  Only, when headlights show up and illuminate Sunny holding his brother’s body, it’s the cops!

And, torture!  They beat and beat and beat and beat him and tell him to admit that he killed his brother!  But, of course, he won’t break.  He’s Sunny!  He never breaks.  All he says is “You will regret leaving me alive!”  I don’t know if that’s really a helpful comment when you are being tortured?  Seems like it would just make them torture you more, or else go “gee, you’re right, we shouldn’t leave you alive!”

And, court!  British style, so the accused is stuck on display the whole time on a little platform.  Bhabhi and Meenakshi are in the audience, both in white.  Well, Meenakshi is in white with little purple accents.  She’s just sort of sad, not a Widow.  And the first witness is avuncular uncle!  Oh good, this should go well!  But how is the movie going to keep going?  All he has to say is “Sunny called me and said he saw the body thrown from a truck.”  So he starts out, “Sunny called me and said his brother was dead.  I went there to see” (wait, no he didn’t go there!  What’s happening?  Did the continuity person get confused?) “and I found Sunny with his brother’s body” (okay, this bit is correct) “and he asked me to hide his crime because he had killed his brother.” WHAAAAAA-AAAAAT?!?

Avuncular uncle, what are you saying?  Meenakshi and Bhabhi react basically the same as me, standing up and protesting from the audience.  Meenakshi is so upset she runs out, which means Bhabhi is standing there alone to hear when uncle continues “It breaks my heart to say this, but I found my duty higher than my family.  The murder was because, what man can stand infedility in his wife?”  (Bhabhi looks like she might faint at the accusation) “That too, with his own brother!  Yes, I am saying that Sunny had an affair with his Bhabhi!”  And he says “Bhabhi” too, not her name, just to underline how this is the most shameful and worst thing ever, to have an affair with your brother’s wife.  Sunny is as upset as you would expect, screams out uncle’s name, and then RIPS THE RAILING OUT FROM IN FRONT OF HIMSELF AND THROWS IT ACROSS THE ROOM AT UNCLE!!!!

(like this)

So, that was exciting!  And, back to torture!  I guess they are still hoping Sunny will just confess and save them more trial.  But, nope!  It’s Sunny!  He never breaks!  Bhabhi, on the other hand, totally does.  We see her sitting at a table hearing over again in her head all the horrible things people said about her.  And then, funeral!  For Bhabhi, not Bhaiya.  Actually, not sure if Bhaiya ever got a funeral?  We sort of went straight from his death to torture scenes and skipped that bit.  But, right, Bhabhi is dead because she couldn’t bare the shame and killed herself.  But they let Sunny out for the funeral, which is nice.  Indian cops!  They may torture you, but at least they let you out for family events!  Oh, and Meenakshi is there too.  I guess even without the actual marriage, she is already being treated as one of the family.  And then we have another cool scene transition, as we look at Sunny’s face, closer closer closer, and then the flames below it (clearly Bhabhi’s funeral pyre) and then we pull out, and we are back in jail!  With his cellmates.  Who are all quiet and sympathetic.

And then we are back to the little jail jobs we saw over the opening credits.  Woodshop, tending the fire, laundry, etc.  And while Sunny works, his cellmates come up to him and say “Hey!  We want to help!  Can we join in your crazy revenge crusade?”  Sunny demurs at first, because he wants to keep all the revenge for himself, but then they convince him that they are all murderers, in jail for life, what harm would it do them to break out and kill a few more people?

They get their chance pretty quickly, both to break out and to kill.  Some prisoners are being sent out to clear the road in a storm.  They overpower the guards (including stabbing two of them through the heart.  I’m going to pretend that there is a whole backstory where they knew those guards in particularly were really really bad and deserved to die for some reason), and manage to take two of their guns.  These guards are terrible!  Not like morally necessarily (although, again, I hope the two dead guys were), but definitely professionally!

Even better luck, they happen across an army truck driving down the road and over-power those guys, take their uniforms and truck.  And all of this is then reported to the Police Commissioner by OM PURI!  Young Om Puri, back when he was skinny.  He is telling all this to the commissioner, and then they are joined by the Evil Cop who first took Sunny’s police report and ignored it, who goes over all the crimes of the escapees.  When he gets to Sunny, the police commissioner has a moment of remembering their confrontation, then shakes it off.  The Police Commissioner is kind of awful.

And, song!  Back in the bar that was run by Sketchy Guy, there is a woman in a sort of tribal-ish yellow outfit dancing on a stage, while evil Ghulam guy watches her.  But the song is interrupted by AN ARMY TRUCK DRIVING THROUGH THE WALL!!!  Sunny comes out of the truck (of course) and tells the crowd “If you love your life, leave this place.  Because in a few minutes, it will all be burned to the ground.”

(The dancers outfit is kind of like Bhagyashree’s here, but yellow.  And tighter)

And then there’s a fight scene that is almost really good.  I say almost because, although it makes a really interesting use of the space and operates on several levels (the roof, the second floor, and the ground), it doesn’t quite capture all the people involved.  It feels like whoever the camera happens to be looking at at the moment is the only one doing anything, and the rest of the time they are all just standing their motionless waiting for the camera to swing back to them.

At the end of it, of course, Sunny and his gang have prevailed and the Ghulam bad guy is all tied up and begging for mercy.  Awesomely, he is doing this crouching on the floor in the middle of open barrels filled with drugs.  They store their drugs just out in the open like that?  But it does allow for a really cool method of revenge, when Sunny orders him to eat the drugs.  He protests he will die if he does that, but then Sunny puts a gun next to his head, so he starts.

Murders over with, Sunny picks up the phone and calls Amrish.  Amrish is home in bed, meanwhile Sunny is sitting with his feet up, watching the bar burn, as promised.  He informs Amrish that his “dogs” are being burned along with their drugs and bar, and that Amrish will die himself within 24 hours.  Amrish, being a coward, then calls on the Police Commissioner, who orders Om Puri to oversee his protection.  But then I guess Amrish thinks better of it, plays his piano for a bit, and then orders all his goons to start a hunt through the city and find Sunny for themselves.  If I were his goon, I would resent having to stand there while he plays the piano for half an hour before he can make up his mind.

And then, awesome song!  So good I am going to link to it below.  So, Sunny and the gang are hanging out in the burned out shell of the bar, and the dancing girl is still there, dancing for them.  I am very worried about this girl, alone with 4 guys who just escaped from jail.  And I think we are supposed to be worried about her.  The lightening and thunder are coming through the whole thing, there is a sort of sickly greenish lighting, and through out the song the guys come closer and closer and closer to her.  Which works great!  Because the song is being inter-cut with visuals of the police and the goons preparing their dragnet.  So the feeling of danger coming closer and closer and closer is threaded through out.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3JW3L-lMfIA

 

They don’t capture, them of course.  Nor is the dancing girl attacked.  The police arrive just as the boys leave, and she is still there, dancing.  Next we see evil avuncular uncle, asleep in bed.  He hears a noise, grabs the gun he has under his pillow, and goes to check.  Of course it is Sunny, and of course the gun does no good.  Sunny beats him up and kills him quick quick quick.  I don’t know if the stunt coordinator guy just got bored or what, but there really isn’t much to this scene.  And just as they are leaving the house, Amrish’s goons arrive.  There is a quick exchange of gunfire, they manage to plow through the goons, take their guns and ammo, and steal their car.  Boy, Amrish really needs to hire better people!  And the police commissioner probably should too.  Because here he is, pulling up at his house, going inside, and finding Sunny waiting for him.  With his goons, who have his wife and teenage daughter at gunpoint.

And we cut away from them, with Sunny eyeing the gun on the table, to see Amrish checking out the Uncle crime scene.  His chamcha who came with him gets all spooked, but Amrish is resolute!  He even yells at Om Puri for not doing a better job guarding the city.  Om responds by calling the Police Commissioner, who we now check back in on.  Thank goodness!  That was very stressful, wondering if Sunny was going to cross the line and harm people who only did wrong through indifference, not greed.  But, no, he has just tied up the commissioner and his wife and is watching them as the phone rings.

The commissioner answers the phone, with Sunny listening in and tells Om he is sick and will be working from home.  Om is all concerned and asks if he should stop by, and to me it sounded like “should I stop by and bring you soup?”  Om is way more concerned about his boss than I ever have been about mine!  Before he hangs up, one of Sunny’s gang slips the commissioner a note, telling him to ask Om to keep him informed as to Amrish Puri’s “program”.  And then he hangs up, looking all disgusted, and telling Sunny he shouldn’t make a game of the law!  Which just sets Sunny off, of course.  Bad hostage strategy dude!  Even I could have told you that!  You want to suck up to the guy with the gun, not insult him!  Sunny goes on and on about his brother and how Amrish Puri is protected by the law and all that.  And the commissioner looks a little ashamed.  And his wife looks a little “honey, how could you!” when Sunny gets to the part about begging for help and the Commissioner turning him away.

And back to Amrish and ensemble.  The cops are protecting them and Om is there checking in.  Amrish I guess couldn’t make the shoot that day, because Om is just talking to his chamcha who is humorously worried about being shot by accident.  I think this might be one of those comedy tracks I just ignore entirely.

Back to Sunny, who has finally gotten around to visiting the old apartment.  I can’t believe Om Puri didn’t think to have cops assigned there!  Even if you believe the false murderer story, wouldn’t he still want to visit the home where he started the affair with his Bhabhi?  The great love of his life?

Speaking of the great love of his life, there’s Meenakshi!  In the exact same outfit she was wearing when last we saw her!  5 years ago!  Is this a miracle of continuity because she wants to dress the same as he last saw her?  Or is it someone falling asleep at the wheel and not realizing they already used that outfit?  Meenakshi, meanwhile, is a perfect action film heroine.  She is still all in for Sunny, no matter what, ride or die.  She even offers that she was willing to come to his hostage situation at the commissioner’s house, there was no reason to meet him here!  But, she would like it if Sunny stopped the whole suicidal vengeance thing and thought about her a little, what would she do without him?  Well, presumably the same things she’s been doing for the past 5 years!

(this outfit.  I really like it, actually, I don’t think I’ve seen white with little purple accents before.  Maybe she just really likes it too and that’s why she keeps wearing it?)

But Sunny gets her meaning, and twists his veangence a little to say that it isn’t just for him and his Bhabhi and his Bhaiya.  It is because of all the other families being destroyed while the police stand by and do nothing!  Okay, so now he is our noble warrior doing what we cannot?  Okay, I can get behind that!

And now is as good a time as any to talk about the underlying philosophy of this movie.  It seems to be taking a stand of “when those in power don’t do their jobs, the Aam Aadmi is injured (“Ghayal” means “wounded”).  And if those in power still don’t do their jobs, the wounded ones will take on the pains of society and defeat evil.”  If you notice, there is a clear line through out the film drawn between 3 groups.  First, the actual evil people, Amrish and Ghulam and the Evil Cop and all the other minions.  These people are a poison on society, caring only for their own self-interest, and recklessly hurting others.  Second, the “wounded” ones, who range from saintly Bhabhi to the Sketchy Guy at the bar.  They are just trying to go about their lives when they come to the attention of the evil doers and are hurt by them.  And finally, the unaware ones, the great part of society (including the police commissioner and Om Puri) who have not yet been personally wounded, but have the potential to be injured, even if they don’t realize it.  Here, Sunny is acknowledging that what he is doing is beyond the scope of the law, is beyond what most people in society would be able to accept.  But, that is just because they do not yet realize the danger they are under everyday that Amrish Puri goes unstopped.  And the only way they could ever realize that danger is if they themselves were hurt by it.

After Sunny gives the mission statement for the film, we leave him and Meenakshi and check in on Amrish again.  Who wants to go out.  But Om forbids him, pointing out that Sunny is clearly suicidal in his determination to kill, so nothing besides staying here, surrounded by cops, can ever save him.  Also, it is implied that Om is beginning to wonder just why Sunny is so determined.  And then he calls the police commissioner, and we are back to House ‘o Hostages!

Amrish gets on the phone with the police commissioner, while skinny young Om leans against a desk in the background quietly pulling out a cigarette.  It’s kind of super cool.  He knows Amrish is yelling about him to his boss, and he doesn’t even care.  Police Commissioner really really doesn’t care, because he’s still got a bunch of guys with guns aimed at him and his family that he is way more worried about then some sort of complaint from the public about his underling.  And Sunny is listening on on the whole complaint, which includes detailed information about Om’s plan for getting Amrish out of the house.  They are taking him through the slums in a convoy.  Which is a great plan, so long as Sunny doesn’t know about it, and of course, now he does.

So, convoy!  Which is abruptly stopped when one of Sunny’s gang, dressed like a cop, knocks over his bike and blocks the road.  Om gets out to check on it, and while they are alone in the car, Amrish’s chamcha starts to panic and roll up the window.  And there is a neat shot through his window past Amrish and out Amrish’s window which slowly focuses in on SUNNY!  In a police uniform, raising his gun and aiming it right at Amrish!

There were enough neat shots at this point that I actually looked up the director.  It’s Rajkumar Santoshi!  Who has the oddest career.  His most beloved film is of course the cult comedy Andaz Apna Apna.  And his most successful recent film is the college comedy Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani (most famous as the movie where Ranbir and Kat fell in love).  But he also made this movie, and Lajja, the incredibly feminist fable.  So he swings between socially relevant action films and kooky comedies.  An odd career.  But now that I think about it, all of his films are very well-shot, so at least he is consistent in style, if not in content.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1H0vtkIiPbM

(and also in putting his heroes in ridiculous shirts)

Amrish and Sunny make eye contact, but the gun misfires!  The car is starting!  Sunny takes off after it!  He PUNCHES THROUGH THE WINDOW!  He’s got a hold on Amrish’s neck!  The car is still going, dragging him through the bazaar!  His buddies are putting down covering fire!  But, finally, the car knocks him off!  He takes off running through an open market!  His friend’s foot gets trapped!  He yells for Sunny to leave!  Sunny starts moving towards him with a shield, he can almost grab him and pull him free!  And the Evil Cop shoots him!  (the friend, not Sunny.  The movie isn’t over yet).  Even Om is kind of mad about this, saying “why the heck did you shoot him?  We could have taken him alive!”  To which Evil Cop goes “uhhhhhhhhh”, leaving unspoken “because I work for Amrish Puri and am actually trying to defeat them not capture them?”

So, this upsets Sunny.  He goes back to the commissioner’s house and threatens him with a gun!  All mad with grief and stuff.  But the police commissioner’s wife pleads with him, and he backs off right away.  Aw!  He still respects a married woman.  Speaking of women, let’s check in with Meenakshi!  She is still wearing the exact same outfit!  How did no one notice this on set?  Is it supposed to be some sort of Draupadi like thing where she won’t change until the enemies are defeated?  And we are supposed to just intuit that?  She is also typing, because apparently she is a newspaper reporter?  Did we know that before?  I mean, it lines up with what we did know, she was living on her own and presumably working when she was dating Sunny back at the beginning.  And she gave him the tip about Amrish being at the awards ceremony, which seems like newspaper-y kind of knowledge.  I will accept this as a character trait that was in place all along and they just cut the one line of dialogue that referred to it.

She is also writing an article “exposing” Amrish Puri as a smuggler!  She couldn’t have written this 5 years ago and saved us all this grief?  Is there some other story in here about how Sunny spent five years building up his strength in jail while she spent 5 years slowly climbing to the top of her profession so she could finally print the article that would vindicate him?  If so, I think her long-term plan actually worked better than Sunny’s!  Because Amrish is Not.  Happy.  Om Puri, by the way, is once again listening to all his complaints while coolly smoking a cigarette.  Om Puri is kind of the coolest guy on earth in this movie.  He also advises Amrish maybe to not go after the pretty young female reporter just yet, as it probably wouldn’t be good for his image.

Om goes to confront her himself instead!  He’s all “You made the villain into the hero!”  And she’s all “NO!  YOU made the villain into the hero!”  And then she breaks down in tears.  Om gets an “oh, okay!  Now I get it!” expression on his face.  Did he really not know that the fugitive he was following had a fiancee?  But he rolls with the punches, and goes right into a “better that I capture him before he is killed!  If you love him, lock him up!” speech.

And you think he is leaving it at that (while Amrish, meanwhile, is plotting to kidnap her since the Evil Cop has told him what Om figured out), but actually Om has a plan!  He calls Meenakshi, who has FINALLY changed into a different outfit, and tells her that there was an accident, they need her to identify a body.  She freaks, hangs up, and immediately dials another number.  Meanwhile, Om is ordering his guys to trace the call.  Oh, that’s smart!  Good on you, Om!

Of course, she is calling the Police Commissioner’s house and asking to speak to Sunny.  They are just hanging out, at the table, both phones in front of them.  I really hope they are letting the Police Commissioner stand up and walk around occasionally.  It is really not good to sit that long.  Before Varsha can fully explain, the connection to the phones is cut on Om’s orders, and the boys realize that the game is up!

Are you ready for an on the nose scene?  Like, a super super on the nose scene?  Sunny and friends are taking their leave of the household, symbolically handing the keys to the house back to the commissioner’s wife.  But, Sunny says, if she wants to support them, she will keep the door locked until sunset (I guess to maybe help trick the cops into thinking they are still there?  Or to keep the commissioner inside?).  The wife says yes, she will do it, she heard his whole story and “Not only my blessings, but the blessings of all mothers go with you in your quest!”  Thank goodness Sunny is here to carry all of India on his very very broad shoulders!  And remember my thing about the 3 parts of society?  Clearly the whole being threatened by guns thing has converted the commissioner’s wife over to the second group, that has been touched by evil and is now all in for defeating it by any means necessary.

And, car chase!  So I guess keeping the doors locked didn’t do him much good after all?  The boys turn over their car, and then start shooting into the crowd and at the cops (are we sure these are still the good guys?).  One of them is taken!  Sunny is down to just one friend!  Thank goodness, it is the hottest one.  Actually, I’ve been imagining in my head a whole second story with this guy and the police commissioner’s daughter.  Love blossoming through violence and all that.  Like Hero (not Love Story of a Spy, the other two).  So thank goodness he is still around!

But not for long!  Om is chasing chasing chasing Hot Guy through alleys and manages to grab him and put his foot on his neck (Not like that!  Om isn’t a high kicker.  The kid is lying down on the ground while he is doing it).  But!  Sunny shows up last minute and thrusts Om against the wall, telling him that he (Om) doesn’t care, the Law doesn’t care, but Sunny will have justice.  And thank goodness my video skipped at this point so I had to rewind and rewatch, because it wasn’t until the second watch that I noticed the coolest part of this scene.  On the wall behind Sunny are wanted posters for all the other guys. They are sort of blurred out, but it is obviously them.  Very nice “even though he is alone he is not alone” moment.  Oh, and he doesn’t kill Om, although he could, because, as he says “I may be a murderer, but I’m not an animal like Amrish Puri!  I won’t kill without reason.”  See?!?!  See the 3 groups again?!?  The “wounded” ones who are standing with him through their images may murder, but only out of their inner pain and the unfairness of the world and their “wounds”.  But the evil ones are just Animals who harm everyone else and never feel pain themselves.  And them Om is the unaware neutral person, although conversations like this are making him more and more aware.

And then Sunny goes striding off to burst into Meenakshi’s really super nice apartment.  It’s ground floor, with this huge half circle window taking up one whole wall, and this gorgeous view of trees and a garden outside.  But, the chairs are all turned over and stuff.  So I guess, even though she wasn’t in any danger when their phone call got cut off, which is what made Sunny think she was in danger, she is in danger now.  And, yep, here are all of Amrish’s goons, coming out and surrounding him.  For just a second, it looks like he might actually be in danger.  But, Nah!  Hot guy is there for back-up, shoots someone at the pivital moment, which allows Sunny to shoot everyone else.  Boy it must be nice to be Sunny!  Nothing can ever hurt you!  Well, not physicially.  Horrible horrible things happen to you emotionally.  So I guess maybe it isn’t so great to be Sunny.  Scratch that.

Speaking of, NO!  HOT GUY!  He was nobly shot in the melee.  Sunny is very upset about it and tenderly closes his eyes.  Hot Guy’s, that is, not his own.  But no time to mourn, he has to chase down the killer!  In a really really good scene!  Which I bet Vidhu Vinod Chopra watched when he was planning out 1942: A Love Story.  Sunny has a machine gun in his hand and is running running down the street.  The killer is running ahead of him.  Suddenly, his view is blocked by a small peaceful protest march, with a police escort, walking down the street shouting out anti-corruption slogans.  The killer hides in the marchers, Sunny runs along the side looking for him, finally diving into the middle and dragging him out!  The protestors scatter, and Sunny shoots him with a machine gun!

So, in 1942: A Love Story, if you remember, through out the film we see the peaceful torch carrying marchers strolling through town.  They cut through the middle of our hero’s love story, separating him from his girl.  They also interfere with the secret assisination plan.  They are always there, as a mute reminder of the turmoil of the country and the silent supporters of our hero’s actions.  And the way it is filmed, with the crowd of all in white marchers cutting through the center of the screen and breaking up the connection between characters, is very similar to this.

(check out the last minute of this song.  And also take a moment to appreciate how stunning Manisha Koirala was)

This is almost the same, but not quite.  Notice, these protestors aren’t helping the hero, or turning him back towards his quest, they are actually helping the victim.  The peaceful marchers are shown as taking the easy way out, enjoying protection of the police, unable to realize they have a viper in their nest, and terrified as soon as real action threatens.  Instead of being silent supportive reminders of why we fight, they are reminders of why we HAVE to fight.  Because the regular man certainly won’t, they are content to merely march and chant slogans, and not really do anything.  Unlike Sunny, who fights corruption with machine guns.

Meanwhile, Om is finally doing something useful!  As is the comedy chamcha.  Om has put it together that the Chamcha is terrified of Sunny, and is using that, and the threat of removing police protection, to get him to write a confession that gives all the details of what Amrish has been doing.  Which is perfect timing, because the Police Commissioner is finally back at work and yelling at everyone about how horrible they all are at their jobs and how it is unbelievable that Sunny is allowed to just machine gun people in the street.  Which, I mean, he’s not wrong!

Om Puri stops him in his tracks though, by pointing out that Amrish Puri has been doing horrible things for years, and where were the police then?  And the Commissioner says “Yes, I knew all along” (?????????) “But I couldn’t do anything, because there are powers higher than me.”  Om is having no patience with this prevaricating!  Pointing out that in that case, this is all the police’s fault!  They put the wrong man in jail and were helpless against the right man.  Police Commissioner agrees, and promises they will do better from now on.  Well, that’s nice!  But Bhabhi is still dead and her reputation ruined, and Raj Babbar is long dead, and poor Hot Guy is dead now too!  I mean, I think Hot Guy actually deserved to be in jail, I remember his introduction being an admission of killing a whole bunch of people.  But at least he would have been in jail and still Hot instead of dead and cold.

Meanwhile, remember Meenakshi?  Who got kidnapped like 20 minutes ago?  She’s tied up in the torture room, just like Bhaiya was.  Well, without the torn shirt, this is a family film!  Her dupata is slightly disarranged, but that is as far as it goes.  Amrish is all threat threat threat, evil laugh evil laugh evil laugh.  But she surprises him by joining in the laughter!  He has a great “uh, what’s happening?” expression on his face when she does it.  And then she gives the standard 80s action heroine speech, about how just you wait, her man is on the way, and it’s going to be soooooooo bad for anyone who stands against him!  And right on time, there’s Sunny!  With a million bullets and guns!  Storming the fort!  Where is this supposed to be, anyway?  There’s like a parameter fence and a watch tower and all sorts of stuff we never saw in the establishing shots for Amrish’s house.  Maybe it’s the backyard?

(the top of the poster image is from this scene.  The bottom is from the other scene that is coming in a bit)

Sunny shoots shoots shoots, and all his bullets find their targets, and none of the bad guys manage to hit him.  And he storms all the way into the torture dungeon!  With so much water on the floor!  Why?  Is it possible there is just a leak down there?  And that’s why the use it for torture instead of storage?  But then!  He is confronted by super bad guy torturer who is using Meenakshi as a human shield and holding his knife to her throat!  Sunny drops his gun, the bad guy throws Meenakshi aside and throws his knife!  Which Sunny ducks without even really trying.  I think this may be the worst bad guy of all!  Worst as in bad at his job, not as in evilest.  Why would you throw away your knife?  And, come to think of it, he’s terrible at torture too.  Both Meenakshi and Raj Babbar were able to keep their secrets secret.

And, hand to hand combat!  Sunny, PICK UP THE GUN!  You don’t have to punch him to death, you have bullets!  But he does punch him to death, of course, and then still doesn’t pick up the gun, and grabs the knife instead, and uses that to chase down Amrish.  It is a cool visual though, Sunny with a torn shirt, holding a huge knife and running down the hall after Amrish.

(The knife looks good with the rest of the ensemble, but wouldn’t a gun be better?)

Somehow, Amrish runs faster than him (I mean, he does have less bulk to move) and gets to the car.  And Sunny gets to another car!  And we have yet another car chase!  Which ends when they both plow into a carnival.  Amrish gets out, with a couple of goons (not sure where they came from), and guns.  Sunny, of course, just has his knife.  The cops come running up (finally!), and Amrish shoots them!  Why?  We the audience know that there is evidence against him, but how does he know?  Last he heard, the cops were helping to protect him.  Maybe it’s just evil villain instinct?

Speaking of instinct, the crowd is instinctively trying to get the heck out of the way!  Parents grabbing kids, folks leap off of rides, and so on.  But Amrish shoots off his gun and orders them, “Nobody move!”  Wait, where is he going with this?  His goon goes to help Amrish with crowd control, but Sunny leaps up behind and knifes him!  Then disappears back into the crowd.  See, this is why I think Amrish should let them all go!  Make it easier to find your enemy.  But Amrish goes another way and grabs a small child to use as a hostage.  The mother is hanging onto his leg, begging for mercy, and he is kind of kicking her off.  Finally, he breaks free and is standing in the center of a ring of people, holding a gun to the kids head, and giving Sunny until he counts to 3 to come out.  This is a little Sholay like, right?  When Jai had to come out of hiding in the middle of the Holi fight?

And then it gets really really Sholay like because, Ferris Wheel shot!  If you remember, towards the end of the Holi fight, there is this great shot from the top of the ferris wheel, with the camera looking down on the abondoned carnival below, and rocking a little with the motion of the wheel.  Same thing here, except awesomer!  Well, not awesomer, that would be blasphemy, nothing can be awesomer than Sholay, but as awesome.  Because it’s actually a point of view shot, because Sunny is hiding on the top of the Ferris Wheel!  And as Amrish reaches 3, Sunny jumps down like 30 feet, grabs the kid, rolls away, hands the kid to its Mom off, and then beats Amrish up!  Okay, I don’t think that would work, on so many levels, but it looked super cool!  And, yay!  Amrish is defeated!  Except, boo!  The cops are here!

Sunny has Amrish in a death grip by the neck, which is of course another Sholay reference, back to Thakur Sahib’s whole “that’s not an arm around your neck!  It’s a noose!” thing.  But the cops, lead by Om, come running up and grab him all over.  Like, a dozen cops are struggling and holding on to him trying to drag him off Amrish, while Amrish is getting all pop-eyed again, but out of lack of air, not anger.

(Now we are at the bottom image)

They finally pull him free, after much longer than you would think.  Really, we were watching cops and cops and cops piling onto Sunny and trying to pull him away for a good 3 minutes.  Why?  This movie is too tightly put together for anything to be pointless.  I think, going back to the idea of the 3 groups in society, this is supposed to be the neutral 3rd group taking back control and power from the wounded 2nd group.  Which is the point of the whole film, not for Sunny to get vengeance, but for society to wake up and realize what is happening and take responsibility for it.  But Sunny is a hero, so he doesn’t want to give up control to others, so this is the internal struggle within him as he is forced to accept that other people can take charge now and he doesn’t have to do everything.  At least, that’s how I read it.

Finally, the cops manage to drag away Amrish in handcuffs, and get Sunny down to the ground.  At the same time Meenakshi manages to break free of the crowd and run over to him.  Wait, Meenakshi is there?  Shouldn’t she be like in the back of an ambulance getting checked out by paramedics?  80s heroines are made of tough stuff!

Although she is all sad and sympathetic and clutching Sunny.  No, wait, she’s not clutching him.  She’s SLIPPING HIM A GUN!  Damn, MEENAKSHI!  You are making today’s heroines look like some stupid Hollywood heroines with the screaming and the high heels!

Sunny raises the gun, and aims directly at Amrish as he is being dragged away by the cops, and shoots him a million times!  While Police Commissioner and Om watch and go “whaaaa?”  And then Om walks slowly over, with his gun outstretched, and takes Sunny’s gun away from him, using a handkerchief, so clearly it will be used as evidence against him.  Sunny gives it up without protest, Meenakshi hugs him, they smile.  These people have lost all sense of proportion!  The murders and the lifetime in jail and all that, and it’s still the happiest day of their life because Amrish Puri has been shot!

They walk off, all happy, with the cops escorting them.  And, as they pass the little girl who’s life Sunny saved like five minutes ago, she starts to applaud!  This is a terrible child actor, by the way.  The whole time Amrish was holding her, she just looked kind of bored.  And now she is applauding like “Yay!  Candy!” not like “yay!  honoring the guy who saved my life!”  Anyway, the rest of the crowd starts applauding too, Meenakshi tugs on his shoulder, and Sunny gives this great innocent young smile, like this applause of the crowd has finally given him back his youth.  But in my interpretation, it was actually three things that happened to make him feel happy again, not just this applause.  First, the moment when he is dragged off Amrish, and the cops take over.  Then, calmly handing the gun over to Om Puri, accepting the police responsibility.  And finally, now, free of responsibility to society, able to appreciate societies gratitude and understanding with a clear mind.

And as they walk away, Sunny’s shirt torn off from the fight (another Sholay reference?), we have the final reminder of what brought us all this wonderment.