With a poll on IMDb's Classic Film board coming up for the best titles of 1989,I decided to search around for a Bollywood movie which I could view for the poll.Thanks to having enjoyed seeing the 1989 Curry Western Joshilaay,I decided to take a look at co-star Anil Kapoor's additional 1989 credits,and was delighted to stumble upon a fun sounding 1989 film,which led to me getting ready to meet Ram and Lakhan for the first time.The plot:Furious over being told by their uncle that he's going to place the ownership of his house to his son Thakur Pratab Singh,Bhanu and Bhishambar Nath decide to take advantage of their uncle's poor eye sight,by getting him to unknowingly change the house ownership to them in his will.Being desperate to use the house as a location for their criminal activates,Bhanu and Bhishambar kill their uncle,and then chuck Singh,his wife and his young sons Ram and Lakhan.Horrifed by what he has seen,Thakur fights to save his family from being thrown out of their house,but is pushed onto some tracks,and killed by a speeding train.Ignoring all of their tears,Bhanu and Bhishambar force Thakur's wife, (who keeps her husband's ashes secretly by her side) and children to live in a broken down cottage.Years later:Sicken by the memories of his dads murder,Ram becomes a police officer involved in the force's half-hearted attempts to take on the cities criminal underworld.Whilst Ram has followed a path of law & order,Lakhan has become a quick talker who attempts to make some fast cash on the streets on the city.Seeing a wanted ad with a huge reward,Lakhan decides to use his street smarts and quickly grabs the gangster.Believeing that he can be a far better cop than his brother is,Lakhan decides to become a police officer,but soon discovers that the smell of dirty money might be one that he cant resist.View on the film:For the films stylish appearance,co-writer/ (along with Ram Kelkar and Anwar Khan) director Subhash Ghai and cinematography Ashok Mehta give the title a rich,Gothic melodrama atmosphere,thanks to Ghai and Mehta using thunder and sharp shots of colour to show the ghost of Thakur being a presence that is strongly felt in the family.Along with the Gothic atmosphere,Ghai displays the movies strong action scenes in long tracking shots,which show the distances that the cities leading gangsters dirty money has covered.Despite the toe-tapping songs featured sadly not being subtitled,the screenplay by Ghai,Ram Kelkar and Anwar Khan is able to strike a superb balance between melodrama and a revenge-fuelled gritty cop battle,with the writers smartly using the cop threads of the film to keep the title moving from the lightly Gothic to the sickly sweet,over exaggerated melodrama.Being given an eye-catching intro,Anil Kapoor delivers an excellent performance as Lakhan,with Kapoor showing Lakhan's good intentions to get drowned by the tantalising corruption that he finds himself surrounded by.Walking the thin blue line,Jackie Shroff, (who was the directors second choice,after Shatrughan Sinha had turned down the role) crafts a terrific performance,with Shroff working brilliantly as a double team with Kapoor,thanks to Shroff showing a real fury which perfectly contrasts Kapoor's more laid-back attitude,as both brothers discover that instead of working on their own,they can take on the underworld as the ultimate team:Ram Lakhan.

As a child I loved Subash Ghai's films, I loved his Karz, Karma and Saudagar. Ram Lakhan is Subhash Ghai at his best. Unfortunately these days he has fallen on hard times, I thought Pardes was average, Taal was a bore, Yaadein was awful and Kisna was no better. The main influence for Ram Lakhan was the 1975 Yash Chopra classic Dewaar. Subhash Ghai however added his own unique touches to the story.The story was that of two brothers Ram and Lakhan (Jackie Shroff and Anil Kapoor) who live with their parents ( Dilip Tahil and Rakhee Gulzar) and their grandfather. Their grandfather dies but before he died he mistakingly signed an agreement saying that his property would go to Amrish Puri. They get forced out of their house and then Dilip Tahil dies leaving Rakhee to bring up her sons on her own.Years later Jackie Shroff becomes a police inspector and Anil Kapoor is a good for nothing. Seduced by money Anil Kapoor starts working for Amrish Puri and his smuggling racket. When Ram finds out they fall out. It soon transpire that Lakhan is only working for Amrish Puri so that he could get their house back. Cue lots of fun, songs and action. The songs are just fabulous. My favourites are My name is Lakhan or mere do anmol ratan. The scripting was great, all the actors performed well. Rakhee Gulzar as their Mother stole the show as the vengeful mother, in fact she got stuck in that role (Sugandh, Karan Arjun, Baazigar, Solider, Sham Ghanshyam). Awesome, simply awesome.

whatever happened to the legend who gave us masterpieces like Karz, Hero, Vidhataa??, even Raam Lakhan, Meri Jung, Karma, Sadaagar was quality fare, his decline started with Pardes, got worse with Taal & he became downright mediocre with Yaadein, a total insult to anyones intelligence, to make matters worse, he came up with Kisna after this, lets not even go there.anyways, back to Raam Lakhan, this was a lot of fun, i remember as teenager, we began worshiping anil after this & tezaab, every boy in school had a fringe just like him. he was phenomenal as lakhan. Jackie was passable as his brother & anupam hilarious. Madhur became everyones fantasy after this.Sigh...the good old days.

One of Bollywood's classics from the apt hands of Subhash Ghai, 'Ram Lakhan' tells the tale of two brothers Ram and Lakhan. Typical to its masala-based Bollywood style entertainment this movie has it all - romance, action, revenge, emotional quotient, music (a major plus point for Ghai for roping in seasoned Laxmikant Pyarelal duo) and the very vital entertainment factor that worked so well back then and still does.Jackie Shroff and Anil Kapoor give extremely competent performances cast opposite Dimple Kapadia and Madhuri Dixit respectively. Rakhee Gulzar plays the mother who waits eagerly to avenge her husband's unjust death. A complete family entertainer, 'Ram Lakhan' is a Subhash Ghai classic.A must watch.