Tezaab

Tezaab () is a 1988 Indian Hindi-language action romance film, starring Anil Kapoor and Madhuri Dixit in lead roles. The film gave actress Madhuri Dixit her first big break, making her an overnight star. It reaffirmed Anil Kapoor's star status, after a successful Mr India (1987).

The film was produced and directed by N. Chandra. The music is by Laxmikant-Pyarelal. Tezaab is known for the song "Ek Do Teen", which was a chart success. It ran in theatres for more than 50 weeks, becoming a golden jubilee, and it was the highest blockbuster at the box office for the year 1988 in Bollywood. With Tezaab, N. Chandra scored a box office hat-trick with his previous hits Ankush (1986) and Pratighaat (1987).

Tezaab was critically acclaimed and garnered four Filmfare Awards from twelve nominations. Anil Kapoor won his first Best Actor award and Madhuri Dixit garnered her first ever nomination for Best Actress.

The film was remade in Telugu as Two Town Rowdy, with Daggubati Venkatesh and in Tamil Rojavai Killathe, with Arjun. The core storyline is loosely based on the 1984 movie Streets of Fire.

Plot
Inspector Singh (Suresh Oberoi) gets a tip about Munna (Anil Kapoor), entering his jurisdiction, so he checks Munna's file. Inspector Singh recognises Munna as cadet Mahesh Deshmukh, a brilliant cadet whom he met a few years ago at a bank robbery crime scene in Nasik, whereby Mahesh's parents and many other bank employees were mercilessly killed by a gang of robbers.

Inspector Singh tracks Munna, re-kindles his relationship and asks him where he disappeared after the bank incident. To which Munna/Mahesh replies:

He had shifted to Bombay with his sister Jyoti, where he met an impoverished and unfortunate but kind-hearted and gentle woman, Mohini, who was forced to dance to make money for her father Shyamlal (Anupam Kher). He is a drunkard who does not want to marry off Mohini because she made money for him by dancing in nearby nightclubs. He behaved similarly with his wife (Suhas Joshi) and when she had refused to do as he wished, he threw acid on her. Mohini's Mother committed suicide thereafter. 

In his youth, Shyamlal had taken a huge loan from Lotiya Pathan (a dreaded gangster) and the only way to repay it was to make Mohini dance. Shyamlal also has to deal with Chote Khan, younger brother of Lotiya, who was involved in the Bank robbery and had killed Mahesh/Munna's parents, and also Chote Khan was arrested due to Mahesh/Munna.

After release/bailout, immediately Chote Khan had attempted to rape Jyoti but Mahesh killed Chote Khan in self-defense. For this,  Mahesh/Munna was arrested and sentenced to one year in jail, after which he changed his name to Munna.

On learning the whole story from  Mahesh/Munna, Inspector Singh allows him to complete his task and stipulates some conditions including the time and date of return/surrender.

When Lotiya hears that Mahesh/Munna is back in town, he kidnaps Mohini. Shyamlal now approaches/begs Munna to get Mohini rescued ASAP and requires that she be returned to him only. Mahesh rescues Mohini, and they rejoice to see each other again after a long time, but Mahesh asks Mohini to return to her father; Mohini becomes sad again as she had expected to follow with her lover.

As he had promised Inspector Singh, Munna surrenders whereupon he is tried and tested in Court and then sent to prison for some time.

After a retrial, Munna is acquitted of his charges and plans to start afresh in another city - Goa. However, his sister Jyoti convinces Mahesh/ Munna not to forget his lover Mohini - so Mahesh/Munna sends his friends- Guldasta and Baban - to explain to Mohini where her lover is now.

The evil father Shyamlal overhears Mohini's plans to escape and is enraged, he tries to stop Mohini from leaving. Guldasta and Shyamlal have a fight in which both die, but Mohini manages to escape safely and Mohini meets Munna again.

However, Lotiya  learning of Munna's acquittal conspires to kill him as revenge for his brother's death - so they all meet up at a dockyard. Baban (Chunky Pandey) gets a tip of Lotiya's conspiracy and challenges Lotiya. Lotiya gets enraged and a fight between him and Baban ends in Lotiya getting defeated. Baban wants to kill Lotiya in the fit of rage, but Munna intercepts him and stops him from committing murder.

Meanwhile, Lotiya regains his strength and goes to attack Munna with a club. Baban dies deflecting the attack. Munna fights back at Lotiya and is about to kill him but Inspector Singh interrupts just in time to stop him from taking the law in his hands. Inspector Singh recognizes he's breaking the law but allows Munna to fight Lotiya as he sees this as a way of Munna letting go of his anger and hatred he holds within himself. As Munna defeats Lotiya, Lotiya quickly gets up and tries to attack and kill Munna but Inspector Singh kills him with his service pistol and justice is served finally.

Cast
 Anil Kapoor as Mahesh "Munna" Deshmukh
 Madhuri Dixit as Mohini
 Anupam Kher as Shyamlal, Mohini's father
 Chunky Pandey as Baban, Munna's friend
 Suparna Anand as Jyoti Deshmukh, Munna's younger sister
 Kiran Kumar as Lotiya Pathan
 Annu Kapoor as Abbas Ali / Guldasta
 Suresh Oberoi as Inspector Gagan Singh
 Tej Sapru as Saxena
 Johnny Lever as Kainchee, Munna's friend
 Mahavir Shah as Inspector Gupta
 Jack Gaud as Mukut Bihari
 Dinesh Hingoo as Marwadi Seth
 Achyut Potdar as Munna's father
 Vijay Patkar as Munna's friend
 Jaywant Wadkar as Munna's friend
 Mandakini as Nikita Sharma (Cameo appearance)
 Suhas Joshi as Mohini's mother (Cameo appearance)

Soundtrack
The song Ek Do Teen was inspired by the opening bars of an old popular song "Chanda mama door ke" composed by the famous yesteryears music composer Ravi for the film Vachan. The film's soundtrack album sold more than 8million units, becoming the second best-selling Bollywood music album of 1988, behind only Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak.

Ek Do Teen was subsequently recreated for another movie Baaghi 2, sung this time by Shreya Ghoshal.

Awards
34th Filmfare Awards
Won
 Best Actor - Anil Kapoor
 Best Female Playback Singer -  Alka Yagnik - "Ek Do Teen"
 Best Choreography - Saroj Khan - "Ek Do Teen"
 Best Dialogue - Kamlesh Pandey

Nominated
 Best Film - Dinesh Gandhi
 Best Director - N. Chandra
 Best Actress - Madhuri Dixit
 Best Supporting Award -  Chunkey Pandey
 Best Music Director - Laxmikant–Pyarelal
 Best Lyricist  -  Javed Akhtar- "Ek Do Teen"
 Best Male Playback Singer - Amit Kumar - "Ek Do Teen"
 Best Female Playback Singer - Anuradha Paudwal - "Keh Do Ke Tum"

References

External links
 

Category:1988 films
Category:Hindi-language films
Category:Indian films
Category:1980s Hindi-language films
Category:1980s crime action films
Category:Indian crime action films
Category:Indian action thriller films
Category:Indian romantic musical films
Category:Indian romantic thriller films
Category:Indian crime thriller films
Category:Indian vigilante films
Category:Indian nonlinear narrative films
Category:1980s romantic musical films
Category:1980s action thriller films
Category:1980s romantic thriller films
Category:1980s crime thriller films
Category:Films directed by N. Chandra
Category:Films scored by Laxmikant–Pyarelal
Category:Indian remakes of American films
Category:Hindi films remade in other languages
Category:Films set in Maharashtra
Category:Films set in Mumbai
Category:Films shot in Maharashtra
Category:Films shot in Mumbai
Category:Romantic action films
Category:Films featuring an item number