''Sadak'' (; ) is a 1991 Indian

Hindi Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...

-language romantic

action thriller The action film is a film genre that predominantly features chase sequences, fights, shootouts, explosions, and stunt work. The specifics of what constitutes an action film has been in scholarly debate since the 1980s. While some scholars such as D ...

film directed by

Mahesh Bhatt Mahesh Bhatt (born 20 September 1948) is an Indian film director, producer and screenwriter known for his works in Hindi cinema. He has received List of awards and nominations received by Mahesh Bhatt, a number of accolades, including four Nati ...

. It stars

Sanjay Dutt Sanjay Balraj Dutt (born 29 July 1959) is an Indian actor, playback singer and film producer who works in Hindi cinema in addition to a few Telugu, Kannada, Tamil, Punjabi films. Dutt has won several accolades and acted in over 160 films. ...

and

Pooja Bhatt Pooja Bhatt (born 24 February 1972) is an Indian actress, director, and filmmaker who works in Hindi films. She established herself as one of the leading actresses of the 1990s and is the recipient of several accolades, including two National ...

. The film is one of the highest-grossing movies of the year 1991. It is an unofficial remake of 1976 American film ''

Taxi Driver ''Taxi Driver'' is a 1976 American neo-noir psychological drama film directed by Martin Scorsese and written by Paul Schrader. Set in a morally decaying New York City following the Vietnam War, it stars Robert De Niro as veteran Marine and ...

''. This film was remade in

Tamil Tamil may refer to: People, culture and language * Tamils, an ethno-linguistic group native to India, Sri Lanka, and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka ** Myanmar or Burmese Tamils, Tamil people of Ind ...

as '' Appu'' (2000). A sequel, '' Sadak 2'', was released on 28 August 2020 on

Disney+ Hotstar Disney+ Hotstar, also known as JioHotstar or simply Hotstar, is an Indian subscription video-on-demand over-the-top streaming service owned by Disney Star. The brand was introduced as Hotstar for a streaming service carrying content from Di ...

, which proved to be the ultimate disappointment of

Bollywood Hindi cinema, popularly known as Bollywood and formerly as Bombay cinema, is primarily produced in Mumbai. The popular term Bollywood is a portmanteau of "Bombay" (former name of Mumbai) and "Cinema of the United States, Hollywood". The in ...

due to the lacklusterity and clichéd storyline.

Plot

Maharani, a transgender brothel owner, runs a sex trafficking operation in Bombay. She employs several women including Pooja and Chanda. Ravi Kishore Verma, a taxi driver, meets Pooja before she is taken in by Maharani, and his friend Gotya is in love with Chanda. Ravi previously witnessed his sister Roopa plunge to death after being diagnosed with STD. She had eloped with her lover who sold her off at a brothel and forced her to become a prostitute. The incident leaves Ravi emotionally disturbed and plagued by insomnia and violent episodes. One day, Ravi meets Inspector Irani, a police officer he recognizes from a newspaper article. He gives Irani a ride and refuses payment. The officer tells him to reach out if he ever needs help. Ravi meets Pooja again as she tries to flee the brothel of Maharani and tries to help her in vain. He procures his life's savings, a meager sum of thirty thousand rupees from Salim Bhai, his taxi's owner and takes out Pooja for one night, posing as her customer. He does so with the help of his friend, Gotya, and a pimp, Gullu. Gotya, however, is held as collateral under Maharani's orders in case Pooja is not safely returned. They roam around Bombay and spend some romantic time with each other, during which Ravi tells Pooja that he loves her and will keep on coming back to the brothel for her every night (presumably—so that she is not sold to other customers). The next night, Ravi mortgages the taxi and goes back to the brothel. He is, however, chided by Maharani who suspects he's either mad or in love with Pooja for offering high sums of money for her on consecutive nights. She also tells Ravi that since she has been running this business for the past thirty years, she knew when Pooja came back in the morning that Ravi did not sleep with her. After much argument and requests from Ravi and Gotya, Maharani agrees to let him spend the night with Pooja under the condition that he has sex with Pooja in front of her. Ravi agrees, but stabs Maharani, escaping with Pooja in the ensuing chaos. Gotya also grabs his girlfriend Chanda and escapes. They run away to a distant location where Gotya and Chanda get married in a temple with the blessings of Ravi and Pooja. All four come back and take refuge with Salim Bhai. In the meantime, Maharani's henchmen find the pimp and break his legs. Salim Bhai advises Ravi and Gotya to enlist police protection and Ravi decides to approach Inspector Irani. He assures them of his help and asks them to meet him in the parking lot of an apartment complex at a scheduled time. However, when the four reach there, Maharani and her henchmen are already waiting and attack them with firearms. As the four try to escape, Gotya and Chanda are both shot and Ravi manages to escape with Pooja in Irani's police jeep. Once they reach safety, he calls up Irani and warns him that he will have to pay heavily for his betrayal. Pooja is, however, captured again by Maharani, after Ravi is tortured and left for dead. Ravi, remembering that the fate of his sister and Pooja are the same, regains his lost strength. He fights his way back to Maharani by killing Inspector Irani and setting ablaze Maharani's brothel, finally killing Maharani and rescuing Pooja. Ravi is jailed for taking law into his hands. After his release from jail, Pooja and Ravi are united again.

Cast

as Ravi Kishore Verma *

as Pooja *

Deepak Tijori Deepak Tijori (born 28 August 1961) is an Indian film director and actor who works in Bollywood and Gujarati cinema, Gujarati films and is well known for his supporting roles in ''Aashiqui'' (1990), ''Khiladi (1992 film), Khiladi'' (1992), ''J ...

as Gotya *

Sadashiv Amrapurkar Sadashiv Dattaray Amrapurkar (11 May 1950 – 3 November 2014) was an Indian actor, best known for his performances in Marathi and Hindi films from 1983 to 2013. He acted in more than 300 movies in Hindi, Marathi, and other regional languages ...

as Maharani, the 'eunuch' brothel madam *

Neelima Azeem Neelima Azeem (born 2 December 1958) is an Indian actress, classical dancer, writer and the mother of actors Shahid Kapoor and Ishaan Khatter. She is known in India for her roles in television shows. Early life Neelima Azeem's father was An ...

as Chanda *

Avtar Gill Avtar Gill (born 14 May 1950) is an Indian actor who appears predominantly in Hindi Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the De ...

as Salim Bhai *

Pankaj Dheer Pankaj Dheer is an Indian actor who appears in Hindi films and TV series. He is known for his role of Karna in TV series ''Mahabharat'' and other roles in '' Chandrakanta'', ''The Great Maratha'', '' Yug'' and '' Badho Bahu''. He appeared in se ...

as Police Inspector Irani *

Gavin Packard Gavin Packard (8 June 1964 – 18 May 2012) was an Indian actor of Irish American descent, noted for the villainous roles he portrayed in many Bollywood films of the 1990s like Sadak, ''Mohra'', '' Tadipaar'' and '' Chamatkar''. He had also ac ...

as Maharani's Henchman *

Mushtaq Khan Mushtaq Khan (born December 31, 1959) is an Indian film and television actor and comedian who has worked in several Bollywood, Hindi films in a career spanning three decades. He is best known for his roles in films like ''Hum Hain Rahi Pyar Ke ...

as Gullu *

Manohar Singh Manohar Singh (12 April 1938 – 14 November 2002) was an Indian theatre actor-director and character actor in Hindi films. He is best known for his performances in films such as ''Party'' (1984) and '' Daddy'' (1989). Starting his acting caree ...

* G.P. Singh *

Arun Govil Arun Govil ( ; ; born 12 January 1952) is an Indian actor and politician from the Bharatiya Janata Party. He is best known for portraying Lord Rama in the '' Ramayan'' TV series and reprising his role as Lord Rama (voice acting) in the 1993 an ...

Javed Khan Amrohi Javed Khan Amrohi (24 March 1949 – 14 February 2023) was an Indian film and television actor. He started his acting career in the theatre in the 1970s and then later in films. He worked in a number of theatrical productions and over 150 films ...

as Pakya *

Soni Razdan Soni Mahesh Bhatt, born and known professionally as Soni Razdan, is a British actress and film director who works in Indian Hindi-language films. She had established herself as a leading actress of the 1980s and early 1990s and is part of the ...

as Roopa

Soundtrack

The soundtrack of the movie is composed by the music duo

Nadeem Shravan Nadeem/Nadim/Nadiem/Nedim () is an Arabic masculine given name. It means "best friend of the drinker", "companion", "confidant", or "friend". The name is common among many communities, including Christians, Muslims and Jews, in the Greater Middle ...

. All songs were sung by Anuradha Paudwal along with

Kumar Sanu Kedarnath Bhattacharya (born 20 October 1957), professionally known as Kumar Sanu, is a leading Indian playback singer who primarily sings in Hindi film songs. He is widely regarded as the Melody King of Bollywood. He holds the record for winn ...

Abhijeet Bhattacharya Abhijeet Bhattacharya (born 30 October 1958), professionally known as Abhijeet, is an Indian playback singer who primarily sings in the Hindi film industry. As well as Hindi, he has sung in his native language Bengali and in other languages inc ...

Manhar Udhas Manhar Udhas is a Hindi and Gujarati language singer and Bollywood playback singer. Early life Manhar Udhas is the eldest son of Keshubhai Udhas and Jituben Udhas, and the elder brother of the singer Pankaj Udhas, who died on 26 February in 20 ...

, Debashish Dasgupta, Junaid Akhtar & Babla Mehta. The film's

soundtrack album A soundtrack album is any album that incorporates music directly recorded from the soundtrack of a particular feature film or television show. The first such album to be commercially released was Walt Disney's ''Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs ( ...

sold 5million units, becoming one of the top three best-selling

Bollywood soundtrack Hindi film songs, more formally known as Hindi Geet or Filmi songs and informally known as Bollywood music, are songs featured in Hindi films. Derived from the song-and-dance routines common in Indian films, Bollywood songs, along with danc ...

s of the year. The song "Tumhein Apna Banaane Ki" is a popular number till date. However, it was a remake of the famous song ''Chale To Kat Hi Jayega Safar'' by

Pakistani Pakistanis (, ) are the citizens and nationals of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. Pakistan is the fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the second-largest Muslim population as of 2023. As much as ...

singer

Musarrat Nazir Musarrat Nazir Khawaja (; born 13 October 1940) is a Pakistani singer and film actress, who acted in many Urdu and Punjabi language, Punjabi films. She is also known as ''The Silver Screen's Sparkling Star'' and is recognized for her role in Ci ...

. In turn, a remade version of the song was used for the 2015 film '' Hate Story 3''. The soundtrack was #51 on the list of "100 Greatest Bollywood Soundtracks of All Time", as compiled by ''Planet Bollywood''.

Awards

won the

Filmfare Award for Best Performance in a Negative Role The Filmfare Best Villain Award was given by ''Filmfare'' as part of its annual Filmfare Awards for Hindi films, to recognise an actor who had delivered an outstanding performance in a negative role. Although the awards started in 1954, this ca ...

Sequel

A sequel, '' Sadak 2'', was planned in September 2018. The principal photography of the film began on 18 May 2019, & was released on 28 August 2020 on

. The sequel starring

Alia Bhatt Alia Bhatt (; born 15 March 1993) is a British actress of Indian descent who predominantly works in Hindi films. Known for Alia Bhatt filmography, her portrayals of women in challenging circumstances, she has received List of awards and nomin ...

and Aditya Roy Kapur alongside

and

reprising their original roles is directed by Mahesh Bhatt. The film is produced by

Mukesh Bhatt Mukesh Bhatt (born 5 June 1952) is an Indian people, Indian film producer and actor who has produced several Bollywood films. He is the younger brother of Mahesh Bhatt, and also the co-owner of the production company Vishesh Films, set up in 19 ...

and is presented by

and Vishesh Films. The script was penned by Shagufta Rafique and

Robin Bhatt Robin Bhatt is an Indian screenwriter who works in Hindi films. He is the younger half-brother of Mahesh Bhatt and Mukesh Bhatt and son of Nanabhai Bhatt. He has written many films and was nominated thrice and won an award for '' Baazigar''. ...

References

External links

* {{Mahesh Bhatt 1991 films 1990s Hindi-language films 1990s Indian films Films scored by Nadeem–Shravan Cross-dressing in Indian films Transgender-related films Films directed by Mahesh Bhatt Indian crime drama films Films about prostitution in India Hindi films remade in other languages Films with screenplays by Robin Bhatt Indian action films Indian romantic thriller films Indian LGBTQ-related films 1991 LGBTQ-related films 1991 action films 1991 crime drama films 1990s romantic thriller films LGBTQ-related crime drama films Indian remakes of American films