Gangaajal
Directed by	Prakash Jha
Produced by	Prakash Jha
Screenplay by	Prakash Jha
Story by	Prakash Jha Story Brain Child of Mr Mahendra Lalka (Retd IPS)
Starring	Ajay Devgan Gracy Singh Mukesh Tiwari
Release date(s)	August 29, 2003
Country	India
Language	Hindi
Budget	7 crore (US$1.4 million)[1]
Box office	14.25 crore (US$2.84 million)[2]

Gangaajal (Devnagari: गंगा-जल English: Ganges' Waters or literally means Holy Waters) is a 2003 Hindi film, directed by Prakash Jha, starring Ajay Devgan, Gracy Singh, and Mukesh Tiwari. The movie as a sidetrack also mentions the blinding incident at Bhagalpur.Gangaajal was declared Above avergae at Indian box-office.

Plot[link]

The film begins with SP Amit Kumar (Ajay Devgan) taking charge of the Tezpur District in Bihar. The area is notorious for its crime rate, with Tezpur Police under the control of local don Sadhu Yadav (Mohan Joshi) and his son Sundar Yadav (Yashpal Sharma). Amit tries to instill honesty and courage in his subordinates, but in vain. Bacha Yadav (Mukesh Tiwari), who is a stooge of Sadhu Yadav visits his hideout, sees an infamous local goon Nunwa taking shelter there. Fearing that arresting him would open the lid on the nexus between Nunwa and the Tezpur Police, he kills Nunwa and misleads Police that he was killed in an encounter. Suspect about the encounter, Amit Kumar summons Bacha Yadav, puts him off duty temporarily and also tries to keep him away from Sadhu Yadav and Sundar Yadav. Anxious that he would be transferred from Tezpur, Bacha Yadav, seeking the help of Sadhu Yadav, visits his home, where he finds out that he is being ditched by Sadhu and vows to settle score with them. Meanwhile, Sundar manhandles a local Public Works Department engineer for not heeding to his word during a tendering process. Amit takes notice of the incident and also finds that a girl is missing from her home after being kidnapped from her house, also due to Sundar. Sensing an opportunity, Bacha Yadav urges Amit to give him one more chance, who obliges him. Bacha Yadav tricks Sundar into a factory where Amit and his men are waiting and after a brief scuffle, Sundar is arrested and produced in a local court, where the judge acquits Sundar on the account of lack of evidence against him.

Sadhu Yadav's men then try to vandalise a shop of local pan vendor after he testified against Sundar, before being arrested and jailed in the local police station. There, a fight arises between the accused and Bacha Yadav and his colleagues. It reaches an extreme point with Bacha Yadav piercing the eyes of the accused and pouring acid, referred locally as "Gangaajal", on their eyes. The incident raises a hue and cry in the local media, which accuses Police of vigilante justice. Angered by the incident, Amit Kumar orders his men involved to give their confessions in writing. While all, except Bacha Yadav, deny their involvement, Bacha Yadav writes his confession in a letter and places it on the table of SP Amit Kumar. When Bacha Yadav reaches his home, he finds his son and wife taken hostage by Sundar Yadav who, after a brief strife between them, kills Bacha Yadav by shooting in his eyes. Enraged by the incident, Amit Kumar burns the confession letter of Bacha Yadav and issues a search warrant for Sundar and warns Sadhu Yadav to tell Sundar to surrender himself. Sadhu Yadav applies for an anticipatory bail for Sundar but before Sundar is produced in the court, he is arrested and is taken to jail. This time, the court rejects the bail application and orders the Police to keep Sundar in a 10-day custody.

However, Sadhu Yadav influences local home minister and the Deputy Inspector-in-General (Mohan Agashe) of the area, Verma, to release his son and also to send Amit Kumar on an emergency leave. After being released, Sundar disrupts the marriage of the girl who he kidnapped earlier and kills her mother in the process. Unable to bear the loss of her mother and the torture at the hands of Sundar, she kills herself in the presence of Amit Kumar. Amit Kumar detains both Sadhu and Sundar and tries to take them to Police Station. However, locals stop Amit and demand that both be killed then and there itself, before being convinced by Amit Kumar that they would be tried according to the law. On the way to Police Station, however, both Sadhu and Sundar escape. Amit Kumar then catches up with them and brief fight takes place between them and the film ends with both Sundar and Sadhu getting killed by falling accidentally on chisels of a plough, which incidentally pierce through their eyes.

Cast[link]

• Ajay Devgn as Superintendent of Police Amit Kumar
• Gracy Singh as Anuradha
• Mohan Agashe as Deputy Inspector General of Police Verma
• Mukesh Tiwari as Inspector Bachcha Yadav
• Akhilendra Mishra as Deputy Superintendent of Police Bhurelal
• Mohan Joshi as Sadhu Yadav
• Yashpal Sharma as Sunder Yadav
• Ayub Khan as Inspector Shaheed Khan
• Anoop Soni as Inspector Neelkanth Tiwari
• Daya Shanker Pandey as Inspector Mandi Ram
• Master Yash Pathak as Ravi
• Chetan Pandit as ASI Bholanath Pandey
• Manyata Dutt(Dilnawaz Sheikh) as Special Appearance in a item song
• Varsha Nevase (Wai) - as a special Appearance in advocate line

Box office[link]

In India, the film grossed 14.25 crore (US$2.84 million) and was declared an "Above average" film .In UK,it grossed £13,288. ^{[3] [4]}

Reception[link]

The film received mixed reviews with Deepa Gumaste of rediff.com praising the film and saying that though the film "doesn't have anything original to say, it is well shot, well edited and brilliantly enacted by most of the lead actors"^[5]. While Jeevi of Idlebrain.com criticized the film for "not offering any entertainment value in terms of songs and comedy" and for "showing lot of blood and gore" and also for its predictable climax^[6]. It currently holds a "65% fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes with an average rating of 3.6/5^[7].

Awards[link]

• 2004:National Film Award for Best Film on Other Social Issues ^[8]
• 2004 Filmfare Best Background Score Award: Wayne Sharpe ^[9]

References[link]

1. ^ "GangaaJal for box office salvation". The Hindu. 4 September 2003. http://www.hindu.com/mp/2003/09/04/stories/2003090400160200.htm. Retrieved 4 September 2003. 
2. ^ Box Office 2003
3. ^ Gangaajal at IBOS
4. ^ ""Gangaajal at Box Office India"". http://www.boxofficeindia.com/showProd.php?itemCat=209&catName=MjAwMw=. 
5. ^ ""Another ace for Ajay!"". http://www.rediff.com/movies/2003/aug/29gangaa.htm. 
6. ^ ""Review of the week - Gangaajal"". http://www.idlebrain.com/mumbai/reviews/mr-gangaajal.html. 
7. ^ ""Gangaajal - Rotten Tomatoes"". http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/gangaajal-2003/. 
8. ^ Gangajal - Awards 'Prakash Jha Productions'.
9. ^ Awards Internet Movie Database.

External links[link]

• Gangaajal at the Internet Movie Database
• Gangaajal at Prakash Jha Productions

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