''Virasat'' () is a 1997 Indian action drama film, directed by

Priyadarshan Priyadarshan (born 30 January 1957) is an Indian film director, screenwriter and producer who works predominantly in Malayalam and Hindi films, while also having done six films in Tamil and two films in Telugu. He has done about 31 films in ...

. The story was written by Kamal Haasan and remade after the success of the

Tamil film Tamil cinema, also known as Kollywood is a part of Indian Cinema; primarily engaged in production of motion pictures in the Tamil language. Based out of the Kodambakkam neighbourhood in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, it is popularly called ''Kollywo ...

Thevar Magan ''Thevar Magan'' () is a 1992 Indian, Tamil-language drama film written by Kamal Haasan, who also produced the film, and directed by Bharathan. It stars Haasan, Sivaji Ganesan, Revathi, Gautami and Nassar; with Kallapart Natarajan, Kaka Rad ...

''. Mushir-Riaz duo produced the film. It stars

Anil Kapoor Anil Kapoor (born 24 December 1956) is an Indian actor and producer who works primarily in Hindi films, besides television and international films and television. In a career spanning over 40 years as an actor and since 2005 as a producer, Kapo ...

, Tabu,

Amrish Puri Amrish Puri (22 June 1932 – 12 January 2005) was an Indian actor, who was one of the most notable and important figures in Indian cinema and Theatre. He acted in more than 450 films, established himself as one of the most popular actor ...

Pooja Batra Pooja Batra Shah (born 27 October) is an Indian-American actress and model who primarily works in Hindi films. She was crowned Femina Miss India International in 1993. Early life and background Batra was born on 27 October to Ravi Batra, an a ...

Milind Gunaji Milind Gunaji (born 23 July 1961) is an Indian actor, model, television presenter, writer and author, most known for his roles in Marathi and Hindi cinema. He made his first film appearance in 1993's ''Papeeha'' and has since performed in over ...

and Govind Namdeo. The music was composed by

Anu Malik Anwar Sardar "Anu" Malik (born 2 November 1960) is an Indian music composer, singer, music arranger and score composer. He is an Indian National Award and Filmfare Award winning musician, who primarily composes music for the Hindi film indus ...

and

S. P. Venkatesh S. P. Venkatesh (also credited as Sangeetharajan; born 5 March 1955) is an Indian music director and composer who primarily works in Malayalam films. He was at his prime in the late 80s and 90s, being reputed for his background scores and songs ...

, with the former composing the songs and the latter composing the score. The film marked the comeback for Priyadarshan in Hindi cinema. Music director Annu Malik reused some of the original tunes of Ilaiyaraaja from ''Thevar Magan''. Tabu has done beatboxing in this movie for the song Payalay Chunmun. ''Virasat'' received sixteen nominations at the

43rd Filmfare Awards The 43rd Filmfare Awards were held on 31 January 1998, in Mumbai, India. '' Virasat'' led the ceremony with 16 nominations, followed by '' Pardes'' and ''Border'' with 12 nominations each and ''Dil To Pagal Hai'' with 11 nominations. Yash Cho ...

, including

Best Film This is a list of categories of awards commonly awarded through organizations that bestow film awards, including those presented by various film, festivals, and people's awards. Best Actor/Best Actress *See Best Actor#Film awards, Best Actress#F ...

Best Director Best Director is the name of an award which is presented by various film, television and theatre organizations, festivals, and people's awards. It may refer to: Film awards * AACTA Award for Best Direction * Academy Award for Best Director * BA ...

for Priyadarshan, Best Actor for Kapoor,

Best Actress Best Actress is the name of an award which is presented by various film, television and theatre organisations, festivals, and people's awards to leading actresses in a film, television series, television film or play. The first Best Actress aw ...

for Tabu, and Best Supporting Actress & Best Female Debut for Batra, and won in seven categories, including Best Film (Critics), Best Actor (Critics) for Kapoor, Best Actress (Critics) for Tabu, Best Supporting Actor for Puri, and Best Story for Haasan.

Plot

After completing his studies in London, Shakti Thakur (

) returns to his ancestral village in India. Accompanying him is his girlfriend, Anitha (

), 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 his hometown and longs to leave. He tells his father that he wants to sell his share of the family's property and open a chain of restaurants. His father, the zamindar Raja Thakur (

), urges Shakti to stay in the village and help it progress by virtue of the latter's education, saying "A man gets an education not to become a selfish being but to uplift his uneducated brothers and society". Shakti disagrees with his father and decides to leave. He is unable to bear the animosity amongst the townspeople, particularly between his dad, Raja Thakur, and rival his younger brother Zamindar Birju ( Govind Namdeo) (Shakti's disabled uncle) and his son Bali Thakur. The entire village suffers from this longstanding family feud as most of the village and its surrounding areas is divided between the brothers. Since Bali Thakur holds a grudge and always tries to one-up Raja Thakur, it puts them at loggerheads with each other. Shakti spends time in the village with his girlfriend by re-visiting his childhood memories including a game of sticks with Bali Thakur men, which he wins. They come across an old temple which has been closed off on Bali Thakur's instructions. He insists on entering and his friend and servant Sukhiya breaks open the lock for them to look around. Bali Thakur hears of this and a brutal riot is started among the two village factions. Raja Thakur, in order to quell the situation, contemplates apologising to his opponents. Shakti feels it should be him or Sukhiya who should apologise. When Shakti asks for Sukhiya, he learns that Bali Thakur's men have cut off Sukhiya's hand as punishment for opening the temple and Raja Thakur's men burn down the homes of Bali Thakur villagers in retaliation. To prevent a further escalation of the situation Shakti, with permission from his father, enlists the help of his friend in the government and opens the temple for all legally. Slighted by this, Bali Thakur hires goons to break a dam protecting a part of the village faction that supports Raja Thakur. Although a female villager spots one of the goons near the dam, she does not think much of it. The dam is damaged by explosives used by the goons which results in flooding of half the village. This results in numerous deaths including infants which deeply saddens Shakti. He spots the goon who placed the explosives again in the village and gives chase. After capturing, he hands the goon over to the police but the goon does not speak of Bali Thakur's involvement due to fear for his own family's safety. Later Bali Thakur intimidates a villager living in Raja Thakur's area to close a portion of his land, preventing the public from reaching the main road easily. Shakti and his father invite them for talks at village Panchayat to resolve the standoff due to the riots and flooding. In the village panchayat, accusations fly from both sides. With no evidence backing up the truth, Bali Thakur accuses Raja Thakur for orchestrating various attacks on his brother's family and insults him relentlessly. Disrespected and heartbroken, Raja Thakur returns to his home and dies following a heart attack later that night. Shakti takes over his father's duties as the head of the village. As time passes, this incident dies down. The villagers express concern to Shakti about going around the piece of land that has been closed off and causes a much longer travelling time. Shakti reasons with the owner of the land to open it up for all villagers to pass so that their long commute is shortened. Although understanding and willing, the land owner, is afraid of Bali Thakur's backlash especially since he has a young daughter Gehna ( Tabu). Shakti assuages his fear by arranging marriage between a well-to-do person from his village to the land owner's daughter. Everybody involved happily agrees and the land owner opens up the land for everyone. On the day of the wedding, the groom runs away, fearing Bali Thakur. The landowner and his daughter are distraught over this claiming that it is a huge disrespect to his family. He opines that even if someone marries his daughter, they have to live in constant fear. Shakti then gets permission from the landowner and weds his daughter. Although Shakti still has feelings for his girlfriend and his new bride is very shy, they overcome their awkwardness and move on. Soon, his girlfriend returns and learns the truth. Although saddened by the turn of events, she understands the situation and leaves. Shakti, too, closes the chapter about his girlfriend and starts his new life with his wife. Bali Thakur, enraged by the opening of the land, plants a bomb during the village festival despite the pleas of his mother and own father to stop the violence. This results in deaths on both sides of the village. Both factions of the village, wanting revenge, go after Bali Thakur and his family. Shakti protects the innocent family and helps them get away from the villagers. Appreciative of Shakti's efforts to protect them, Birju Thakur finally ends his enmity towards him. Shakti eventually finds Bali Thakur and asks him to surrender to the police before the villagers kill him. Bali Thakur's rabid hatred for Shakti makes him reject his offer of help. Bali Thakur, blaming Shakti for all his problems, tries to kill him. In the struggle that follows, Shakti accidentally decapitates Bali Thakur. Although other villagers are willing to take the blame for Bali Thakur's murder, Shakti gives himself up to the police to end the cycle of violence once and for all. The film depicts the true meaning of education as "a tool to uplift uneducated people".

Cast

as Shakti Thakur * Tabu as Gehna, Shakti Thakur's wife. *

as Anita, Shakti's girlfriend. *

as Raja Thakur *

as Bali Thakur * Govind Namdeo as Birju Thakur *

Satyen Kappu Satyendra Kappu (born Satyendra Sharma; also credited as Satyen Kappu; 7 February 1931 – 27 October 2007), was an Indian character actor in Bollywood films. He has acted in 390 films. His most remembered role is Ramlal in the movie ''Sholay'' ...

as Narayandas *

Dilip Dhawan Dilip Dhawan (1955 – 15 February 2000) was an Indian film and television actor. He started his career as a child in '' Sangharsh'' (1968), featuring Dilip Kumar, Dhawan acted in over 50 films. Career He acted as the hero in the movie ''Arvin ...

as Shakti's brother *

Neeraj Vora Neeraj Vora (22 January 1963 14 December 2017) was an Indian film director, writer, actor and composer from Gujarat. He made a mark in Bollywood with his work as a writer for Ram Gopal Verma's film '' Rangeela'' (1995). His directorial debut ...

as Sukhiya * Sulabha Deshpande as Bali's mother *

Tiku Talsania Tiku Talsania (born 7 June 1954) is an Indian actor, who works in the Bollywood industry. Apart from acting in films and television serials, he also performs as a freelance theatre artist, working for Gujarati theatre. Career Television Tiku h ...

as Bali's Lawyer *

Rita Bhaduri Rita Bhaduri (4 November 1955 – 17 July 2018) was an Indian film and television actress.she has also work in Gujarati cinema. Career She initially appeared as supporting actress in various Bollywood films during the 1970s, 1980s, and 199 ...

as Mausi * Reena as Raja's wife *

Kollam Ajith Ajith Kollam (7 April 1962 – 5 April 2018) was an Indian actor, who predominantly appeared in Malayalam cinema. He had acted in more than 500 films in all South Indian languages. He mainly acted in villain roles. He acted in the Tamil movie ' ...

as Inspector * Ruhshad Nariman Daruwalla as Jr. Anil Kapoor

Music

Score

The film score was composed by

Songs

The songs featured in the movie were composed by

, while the lyrics have been penned by Javed Akhtar. K. S. Chithra received the

National Film Award for Best Female Playback Singer The National Film Award for Best Female Playback Singer is an honour presented annually at the National Film Awards of India since 1968 to a female playback singer for the best renditions of songs from soundtracks within the Indian film industr ...

for the song "Payalay Chunmun". Incidentally,

S. Janaki Sistla Janaki (born 23 April 1938) is an Indian playback singer and occasional music composer from Andhra Pradesh. She is referred to respectfully as "Janaki Amma" and Nightingale of South India. She is one of the best-known playback singers in ...

had earlier won the national award for the original version of this song composed by Ilayaraja for film ''

''.

Accolades

Notes

References

External links

Jr. Anil Kapoor - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120456/fullcredits?ref_=tt_cl_sm#cast * {{DEFAULTSORT:Virasat (1997 Film) 1997 films 1990s Hindi-language films Indian romantic musical films Indian musical drama films Hindi remakes of Tamil films Films directed by Priyadarshan Films scored by Anu Malik 1990s romantic musical films Films about feuds 1990s action drama films Indian action drama films