Ramesh Sippy is an excellent director. Obviously he loves the Occidental world's cinema. So since his start he was determined on marring his commercial homeland cinema with the western in (Sholay), or James Bond in (Shaan). For the first half it runs as a crime comedy, with schemes and heists, then for the second as an action about a war between 3 heroes and one super-villain imported from many Bond movies; he lives on an island (Dr. No), has an office with sharks around it (The Spy Who Loves Me), disposes of a failure henchmen by exploding his chair (You Only Live Twice), and he's bald (Blofeld). Come with that some "Bondy" touches here and there : opening credits that roll while showing parts of the movie's events on a sexy girl's dancing body (From Russia With Love), the good guy fights a monster and beats it underwater (Thunderball), survives an alligator (Moonraker), and – sure – a theme song at the start and a ticking bomb at the end (nearly all of Bond movies !).The cinematography did grand. 2 shots were historically beautiful : seeing Abdul's character dead, and the leads' running to the helicopter at the end. Amitabh Bachchan is a walking movie industry, with unbelievable charisma and wit. Johnny Walker proved that he can make comedy and dance well. And Kulbhushan Kharbanda stole the show with sober cogent acting for what could have been a caricature of a character. It has smart editing and dexterous dialog, though still the movie's highest element is its hot and elegant directing. Sippy individualized every single sequence with distinct sets and visual details, being helped by towering budget. For instance : the amusement center's try of assassination, the stable's gunfight (which revived some of Sippy's love of Westerns), the port's murder, the thugs' home's fistfight.. etc. It reached its zenith at the last song Yamma Yamma, which managed to be one of the finest songs I have ever heard and watched. Yes, almost everything is top-notch. The ambition to overtop (Sholay), the most successful hit up to that point, is felt. But they forgot one factor : the script. While (Sholay) remade (The Seven Samurai) to Indianize a western movie, now (Shaan) remade many points of Bond to westernize an Indian blockbuster and give it another flavor. Thus it had a more than enough foreign atmosphere, looking strange sometimes, missed the human dimension, with light pain and more fun, and – unfortunately – suffered a load of cheese !Bone Cheese : There is absolutely no difference between Kapoor's and Bachchan's characters; they're the same happy-go-lucky guy, just one taller than the other ! The leading dual fight Shakaal, a *super* bad guy, the same way Sholay's leading dual was fighting Gabbar Singh; without appropriate advanced gadgets ! Flesh Cheese : A respectable officer has 2 crooks as brothers ? How come that none of his superiors blamed him for that ?! That officer decides to jump over a cliff to the sea while knowing that he's 300 km away from any land; so he thought he could swim that distance ?! The villain has a secret way to release the bonds around his victims' hands hidden under his main table, why ?! To use it whenever he's captured in his office, like what happened at last (SO FORCED !). The villain's toxic gas didn't harm the heroes (low quality gas ?!). The villain dies right beside the secret key to destroy his island (strange coincidence). While Shatrughan Sinha's character is a circus man, he can run a helicopter cleverly ?! The villain with all of that wealth, power, craziness is just a black market dealer ?? With his sophisticatedness he seemed as someone who wants to rule not the world but the galaxy ?!! And finally, the giddiest point ever : how come that our heroes flee from the exploding island while leaving at least 50 dancers, they used in their disguised entrance, behind them, including the legendary Helen herself ?! These are innocent people for god's sake, why to sacrifice them damn carelessly like that ??!!Lending the thick voice of R. D. Burman to Bachchan while Yamma Yamma was terrible decision; I was laughing out loud ! Bindiya Goswami wasn't fit for her role as a con woman who could dazzle men by her beauty (what beauty ?!). The charming Parveen Babi was infamously overweight, with no fresh performance. In terms of writing, the best addition this movie came up with was dividing James Bond, the forever *one* hero, into 3 guys. The beauty of unity is a favorite for me in the face of "Only One Man Can Do This Mission". It's someway the opposite of what Sippy did in (Sholay), when he remade the 7 Samurais with purely 2 guys. The matter of the evil man's last fate still worries Sippy. While making 2 ends for (Sholay); one where the violence wins which was canceled by the censor, then one where the law wins which was used, this round as if he wanted to revenge, declaring that killing must be faced with nothing but killing, and he did it rightly : Shakaal tries to kill the 4 leads, so they act naturally with self-defense, finish him with 3 bullets, and make Sippy eventually happy !It's an Indian good vs. bad blockbuster that visited Bond to borrow some super bad material. Well, nice visit but not nice fantasy altogether. Feature like harmonic was kind of missed. Though, despite (Shaan)'s faults it is better than many of Bond movies (at least it has a plot !). Yet, it's not (Sholay), just a big mild entertainment that flashes in your eyes to soothe your brain.

If you compare this movie with other Ramesh Sippy movies like Akayla (Amitabh, Meenakshi, Amrita, Jacjie and Aditya), Bhrashtachar (Rekha, Rajnikant and Shilpa in her debut role), Zamaana Deewaana (Shah Rukh, Raveena, Shatru and Jeetendra), Andaz (Hema, Rajesh and Shammi) this is an absolute classic. If you compare it to Seeta aur Geeta (Hema, Sanjeev, Dharmendra) and Saagar (Rishi, Dimple in her topless scene, Kamal) this movie is OK but if you compare it to Sholay it is a letdown (but which movie isn't. Ramesh Sippy as a director is in good form (not topform). R.D. Burman gave a better soundtrack than in Sholay which songs like Jaanu meri Jaan, Yamma Yamma and others. Amitabh Bachchan is THE HERO with support from Shashi kapoor, Shatrughan Sinha, Sunil Dutt (in a special appearance) , Raakhee, Jhonny Walker, Parveen Babi and Bindiya Goswami. Kulbhushan Karbanda makes a mark as Shakal bur he is no Gabbar Singh. This movie can be best describes as Sholay in the city. If you don't expect a Sholay this movie certainly entertains. The story is about three brothers Sunil Dutt ( a police officer), his wife Raakhee, his two brothers Amitabh and Shahsi who are two conmen. On their wedding anniversary Sunil and Raakhee get shot by Shatrughan but they survive. Half an hour later Sunil does get killed. Now Amitabh and Shahshi get serious and want to take revenge on the killers. They get unexpected help from Shatrughan who has become a good man. Thgether these three tackle Shakal with help from their girlfriends and Shatru. No super plot but like almost all Ramesh Sipy films the execution is perfect. A flop when released but a cult movie now. Definitely worth a watch and far far much better then the crap action movies that come out now. Definitely worth a watch, not only for Amitabh Bachchan -the only great Indian Actor (except for Rishi Kapoor) but the supporting cast is good as well. Watch out for the scene with Amitabh and Prakash Mehra's Raquela Padmini Kapilla in a special appearance. This scene is hilarious. All in all a very good movie

"If you have read my reviews for Elaan-e-Jung or Return of Jewel Thief, you already know that I survived the end of Shaan. Yes, Sippy and I had planned a sequel - Shahkaal vs Gabbar - but the box office put paid to our plans of world domination." - Shahkaal circa 2005.Ramesh Sippy is among the best Indian directors of the 70's and 80's but has had a very sporadic output in the late 80s and 90s. Like many other directors of his time, he was caught in the downward spiral of Amitabh Bachchan's box office draw in the late 80s and 90s caused by the star's increasing desire to not allow himself to be overshadowed by other actors or a plot.Shaan was the first film to be a victim of this phenomenon. Amitabh did not have a strong counterfoil to balance his antics in the film and the film did not do well as a result. Technically, it is among the most slickly filmed and edited films of its time, and has a very good case - Amitabh, Shatrugan, Sunil Dutt, Kulbhushan, etc. The film has an excellent soundtrack and the first hour is very good with Sunil Dutt subduing a desperado aptly named Durjan by his parents. However, the film is a little too long and Bindiya Goswami puts in a very cloying performance.The most important flaw is that fans did not react well to Kulbhushan Kharbanda's breakout portrayal of the villain Shahkaal. On a personal note, I must admit that I did not appreciate his confused and tentative portrayal of Shahkaal either. It was a weak follow-up to Amjad's formidable Gabbar Singh, and really, the real Shahkaal is much more scary that Kulbhushan made him out to be. No nervous patting of a bald pate, no infinite chances for tricky opponents, no getting fooled by people masquerading as gypsy dancers, and most importantly, no rubber crocodiles in his den. On the other hand, they did get the attire and epaulets right, as well as the undersea lair with the sliding doors, and self-destructing island bit. Fans were also confused with how this Shahkaal fit in with Ajit's podiatrist plagued Shahkaal from the classic Yaadon ki Baraat (separately reviewed) Just fyi, these days, Shahkaal is semi-retired and living in the suburbs of Navi Mumbai in a modest 1-room chawl flat. The neighborhood kids laugh at his baldness and ironically shout "Shahkaal" behind his back and run away - not knowing that he is actually an aged super villain. The depreciation in the rupee and falling interest rates have hit his ill-gotten gains badly, and he should never have invested in the Harshad Mehta stocks. The same thing happened to Amitabh - but alas no TV comebacks for Shahkaal. There is no honesty among thieves any more. If anyone reads this, and is looking for a genuine super-villain, Shahkaal still has his chops. Send a telegram and he can help you plan something big. If nothing else, throw a few CIDs to ravenous marine life, sharpshoot at a ferris wheel, fry a few henchmen (MacMohan and Sudhir are available) in their round table seats, and catch up on old times. Fie on you - Kulbhushan for your craven performance!

5 years after the breakthrough success of SHOLAY, director Ramesh Sippy once again teamed up with Amitabh Bachchan - and this time they're taking no prisoners. SHAAN is a grandly conceived epic of action, adventure, comedy, romance, drama and a bald supervillain who keeps a man-eating crocodile in his underground lair.Amitabh Bachchan and <some other guy> are bad guys! But they're not the kind of bad guys you hate... they're the lovable rogue types. They're con-men, but they only con other bad guys. Their policeman brother knows this, and when he arrests them it's really for their own good. When they get out of jail he's there as a brother to support them, and they earnestly decide to try and go straight. But their plans of living an ordinary life are foiled when they get caught up in the investigation of super-villain Shakal, a bad guy in the best James Bond tradition played brilliantly by Kulbhushan Kharbanda. The good bad guys have to go up against the really bad bad guys!SHAAN is like every movie ever made all rolled up into one, and barrelled through at a pace that makes the 195 minute running time seem very brief. It rides a little roughly, with some pieces of plot development and editing that challenge logic and continuity, but with tons of energy and enthusiasm. It's not as carefully crafted as the masterful SHOLAY, but it does provide the same kind of fun and thrills that make DON such great entertainment. It's a grandly ambitious movie that sometimes skirts the line between genius and simple madness very closely. It's the kind of movie they just don't make anymore!A movie so grandiose can only work with a cast up to the task, but Amitabh rises to the occasion, oozing cool and commanding the screen most of the time. As with SHOLAY though, the bad guy nearly upstages the heroes - he definitely has all the best lines (plus an island fortress surrounded by sharks!).SHAAN may borrow most of its elements from other movies (notably the James Bond movies), but it has enough personality of its own to make them seem fresh and special all over again. You just can't help grinning at the sheer silliness of it all, and getting carried away by the melodrama. It's a movie treat, jam packed full of high calorie entertainment. What better way to spend a Sunday afternoon?