When a die-hard Shah Rukh fan watched Anjaam

My love for Shah Rukh Khan was at its peak back in 2004 when my neighbor didi asked me to never watch Anjaam for my own good. She said that it will be the end of my love for Shah Rukh if I watch that film. In a crazy fandom age you do not want to miss anything. Any film, any interview, any ad. I had seen everything. From Guddu to Hey Ram to each and every Pepsi, airtel ad, I knew everything by heart. 

But, I always maintained distance from Anjaam. I did not want to risk what I had with Shah Rukh, it was precious.

Recently when Shah Rukh completed his 30 years in Hindi Cinema, social media (much to my jubilation) was swamped by his films, his interviews, his beautiful-pinterstically-aesthetic reels. In one of these reels I saw Shah Rukh and Madhuri in a frame I had never seen. I thought, ‘What kind of a fan are you? It’s been 18 years, watch Anjaam! You are no longer that over-sensitive kid (I hope), you will differentiate between the actor and character.’

So, I watched Anjaam. For the first time in my life. Did I like it? Yes. Did I like his performance? Yes. Did I like the whole package? Surprisingly, yes!

Before I talk more about the film, I want to state that I like Madhuri. If post 2003 I am known to be the guardian of Shah Rukh’s fandom, my toddler era was mostly about Madhuri Dixit.  

So, the film!

My constant reaction whilst watching Anjaam was, wow, a film on women empowerment in the 1990s! But do not be very surprised, the film does play with the rhetoric of adarsh patni, adarsh mahila, etc. If Madhuri’s Shivani is a single woman army who needs no protector, no support to avenge her tragedy (which is perpetual), she is also an all-giving, all-forgiving wife of a husband who does not support her. Honestly, this adarsh-patniness did not bother me. The only thing in her character that bothered me was her dialogue where she hopes for a son so that he could finally bring her justice. Well. The woman loses everything, literally and metaphorically. It is gory, it is way too dark. But, she rises from her ashes. She takes revenge from everyone, kills everyone. Yes, without any support, and often without any tool. Shivani is one of the strongest characters I have witnessed. 

Shah Rukh won the award for the best villain for Anjaam. If you watch the film, you will feel he deserved every bit of it. His fidgeting, repeating the same thing a hundred times, his utter evil madness, and yes, his performance in the last 20 minutes, Shah Rukh was amazing. Anjaam definitely did not try to sympathize with his character unlike Darr and Baazigar. Vijay Agnihotri is a pure evil who is sadist, stubborn, cold-blooded murdered, liar, man-child, and a complete asshole who was never in his life told the concept of consent. He wants Shivani, just because he wants her. Her marriage, her child, her consent, nothing matters to him. For him, his sorrow is the only valid thing in the world which sadly for him, nobody understands. 

I loved the performances, both Shah Rukh and Madhuri were phenomenal. I liked the film too, neither too melodramatic, nor very stretched. Yeah, everyone dies.. That’s another thing. Everything possibly wrong in the world happens to Shivani, that is also a point. Still, the film works somehow. The film tries to touch upon almost every relevant social issue, domestic violence, corruption, dowry, rape, powerplay, what not. 

Now, how do I feel having watched the film that was not supposed to be watched? Well, this does contravene my argument that, ‘Shah Rukh’s character has never been violent with women and kids in films.’ He was violent, every bit of violent, he was evil. He said that he loved Shivani and yet threw her in the ravines of hell. He destroyed her home. He destroyed her world. But nobody says that Vijay was a ‘gray character’. He was a villain and that was a fact. The film does not sympathize with him at all. As he cries, soaked in blood, the film does not arouse the audience to feel bad for him unlike it happened in Baazigar. Similarly, unlike in Darr where the audience felt bad for him as he died, and sad ‘tu haan kar ya naa kar’ played in the background, here you will feel nothing but repulsion for Vijay as he follows Shivani to different cities, and countries. His madness was not glorified. In fact, the scenes where he is begging Shivani to love him, my focus was only on Shivani’s badassery where she abuses him left-right and center. Not once did the woman succumb to his duress, and stood still on her grounds. 

I would like to conclude by saying that I am glad I watched the film. The film gave me a lot of content to write for gender, and portrayal of women in films. And, I am also glad I saw this side of his many-characters.