Cinema: China Gate

India Today, December 7, 1998
Dec 7, 1998

CINEMA: CHINA GATE
Splendid Saga

This slick action film rides on the shoulders of 10 veterans.

By Nandita Chowdhury

There's very little that's wrong with Raj Kumar Santoshi's latest magnum opus. After all, the film has been inspired by some of the legendary films of all time including Akira Kurosawa's The Seven Samurai, The Dirty Dozen, Guns of Navarone and, of course, the Bollywood classic, Sholay.

So here's what's right with it. China Gate is one of the finest action movies to come out of Bollywood in the '90s and certainly the best from the Santoshi stable. In a way this saga defies the definition of a unique selling proposition, simply because there are several.

To begin with, this Rs 20 crore "experiment" does not follow the formula of one man taking on the forces of evil to save the world. Nor does it boast of a "star cast"; it rides on the shoulders of 10 over-the-hill men who form an assemblage of the finest acting talent in Hindi cinema. Om Puri, Naseeruddin Shah, Amrish Puri, Danny Denzongpa, Kulbushan Kharbanda, Tinnu Anand, Anjan Shrivastav and others play ex-army officers who were part of a formidable battalion. They were court-martialled for having failed in a critical anti-insurgency mission called China Gate.

Cowards! The word stung for 17 years while the men fruitlessly searched for dignity, trying to readjust to the world of civilians. Till one day, they are called back for another mission -- to save the village of Devdurg from the sadist Jageera (superbly portrayed by newcomer Mukesh Tiwari) and his band of dacoits. For the 10 vulnerable men, this is their only chance to save their souls.

China Gate unfolds at a time when battles were fought for a cause, children wanted to be soldiers, not mercenaries, and valour mattered. Santoshi has spared no expense to achieve authenticity. The village set cost Rs 1.5 crore and the traditionally black rocky terrain of Gangavati near the ruins of Hampi in Karnataka was actually painted rust for the right dusty look. Vanraj Bhatia's background score is sombre without jarring. Tinu Verma's action sequences, which dominate most of the film, are slickly executed.

Sterling performances from the cast, notably Om Puri, Shah and Denzongpa, bring to sharp relief the individual vulnerabilities of the men -- the thematic focus of the film -- and their search for redemption. There's hope for model-turned-actor Samir Soni who makes his debut as Udit, the flunkey of the team. But Mamta Kulkarni in a deglamourised role fails to impress.

Though originally planned as a songless venture, the film has Urmila Matondkar's pulse-racing chartbuster Chamma chamma which offsets the grim tone of the film. Comic relief is provided by Tinnu Anand as the perpetually drunk Captain Bijon Dasgupta, Jagdeep as the bumbling Subedar Ramaiya and Paresh Rawal as the treacherous local policeman.

The film for the most part is Sholay revisited. China Gate definitely has its magical moments and is worth watching.

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