In bed with the enemy - Bollywood version In the 90s, movies about maniacs were popular in Bollywood, and how different these maniacs were; from the romantic maniac Shah Rukh Khan in Game With Death and Life Under Fear 1993, to the creepy monster in Maniac 1998. And of course, Indian filmmakers were attracted by the plot of the popular thriller “In bed with the enemy” (1991) with Julia Roberts, about a girl who escaped from her sadistic husband. The American film gave rise to several Bollywood remakes: in 1995 the film “Love is serious” with Madhuri Dixit, Raj Babbar and Rishi Kapoor, and in 1996 “Cracks” with Juha Chawla, Arbaaz Khan and all the same Rishi Kapoor, despite the scenes of violence, these films are full of specific humor and winding songs. “Fire Witness” is also a variation on the theme “In bed with the enemy”, but the creators of this film went a different way, they spin the plot in the other direction, unfolded the image of the evil husband and to the last intrigued with the personality of the main character; who is she? A runaway wife or her double? They also tried to soften the slippery theme of bigamy. He completely abandoned humor.
The film begins with the scenes of Ravi Behl and Divya Dutt (the younger brother of the main character and the cousin of the main character), these poor things can not get married, since Ravi’s older brother is not yet married, traditions, traditions! Everything is so bright, youthful, there is a fight with bullies and a great disco number, with choreography in the style of Michael Jackson (unfortunately, then these characters were forgotten...) Then the main characters appear on the stage: Suraj - Jackie Shroff, the role of Jackie went to a boring, such a positive, serious businessman, very loving his young wife. Shubhangi (or Shivanji) / Madhu - Manisha Koiral, played well, her acting palette is restrained, and Manisha is not a great master. She looked good in both traditional and European dresses. Manisha does not boast of the charisma and charm of Madhuri and Juhi, but in this film she was in her place, primarily personifying the victim. Vishwanath - Nana Patekar, saw this actor for the first time and I liked him. The hero turned out to be interesting, of course he is a cruel and dangerous man, sick on the head, but the filmmakers tried to explain why he became so: a traumatic childhood, a military past. Vishwanatha has his own principles of life (as he put in the place of noisy neighbors!), and Madhu in his own way was very much loved, which he proved in the final. The textured appearance helps the actor in creating an image, Vishwanath is not an operetical villain at all, like Raj Babbar in Love Seriously, and I did not feel real, burning cruelty in him, only aggression, which he hides behind a kind smile.
The film is pretty decent. All the heroes are wealthy; there will be expensive hotels, swimming pools, dresses with sequins, pianos, cars with a driver, etc. The songs are cute, the numbers are not memorable, except for the cool first with the dancing Ravi Behl.
Result: It is good that the authors did not end this story with a banal muzzle, but tried to make a beautiful ending, but overdo it with exhausting, Bollywood suffering. And a couple of observations: if “In bed with the enemy” we saw, by and large, everything through the eyes of the heroine Julia Roberts, then in the Indian version the look is purely male, then Suraja, then Vishwanatha, and the heroine is not too active, her lot is to cry and suffer. And if the American film was about trying to change the fate and the possibility of choice for a woman, then in “Fire Witness” the emphasis shifted, Shubhangi / Madhu only has to choose between a good-good husband and an evil-bad husband. And no feminism!