Raakh

Long before there was Rangeela, Ghulam and Ghajini, long before Aamir Khan’s on-screen persona started toggling between the defiant, goofy and the angry, there was Rakh. Had this film been released before Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak, Aamir would have immediately ascended to the pantheon of great actors, with the likes of Naseeruddin Shah and Dilip Kumar. He can now claim that spot anyway, true, but many a year later.

Aamir has never looked as vulnerable, and, therefore, as dangerous, ever after. If Ghajini was about eight-pack abs, Rakh is about the eight-fold path to hell. The plot is simple and unpretentious: Aamir plays a young lover who links up with a dysfunctional cop (Pankaj Kapur), to avenge the rape of his girlfriend (Supriya Pathak). The film was based 10 years ahead of its time, in a world where the legal system has collapsed.

The film is dark and almost every character is underplayed. Pankaj Kapur is great as PK, the washed-out cop, sensei to Aamir’s character. The action sequences are real, believable. Santosh Sivan’s brooding camerawork sets the mood very nicely. And, most of all, Aamir Khan is subtle and reminds us that before the star, there was the actor. The shape-shift that his character goes through, from silly young man to killing machine, the focus he brings to the role: They stay with you long after the credits roll. There are moments when his acting reminds one of a young, brooding Robert De Niro in Taxi Driver (1974). That said, Aamir did not have De Niro’s emotional range. Even so, he goes beyond playing himself, beyond the commercial cage that he now paces.

Rakh, when it was released flopped. There were no multiplexes then. By the time it was released, Aamir Khan had already won over audiences with the success of Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak. In 1989, the viewing public could not accept this romantic, cute, lovable boy in the role of a depressed, revenge-seeking urban freak. Loverboy he stayed until he buried that image in Rangeela.

This is one film that could easily fit into your DVD rack next to Dev D, Manorama Six Feet Under and Ek Hasina Thi once it releases in August. But you can catch it in theatres on June 12, which is when it is being re-released.