Itihaas (1997 film)

Itihaas (transl. History) is a 1997 Indian Hindi language romantic film produced and directed by Raj Kanwar. The film stars Ajay Devgn and Twinkle Khanna as the lead protagonists, and Raj Babbar as the antagonist. Amrish Puri, Shakti Kapoor and Mohnish Bahl played supporting roles in the film. The film opened to negative reviews and failed to do well at the box office.

Itihaas
Poster
Directed byRaj Kanwar
Produced byRaj Kanwar
Written byKamlesh Pandey (dialogues)
Screenplay byRobin Bhatt
Akash Khurana
Story byRaj Kanwar
StarringAjay Devgn
Twinkle Khanna
Music byDilip Sen-Sameer Sen
CinematographyHarmeet Singh
Edited byA. Muthu
Release date
  • 20 June 1997 (1997-06-20)
CountryIndia
LanguageHindi
Budget₹5 crore (US$700,000)[1]
Box office₹10.88 crore (US$1.5 million)[1]

Plot

Wealthy, powerful, and influential Thakur Digvijay Singh (Raj Babbar) come to a Village and fall in love with beautiful Naina (Twinkle Khanna). They are betrothed and are to be married soon. But Naina has fallen in love with the son, Karan (Ajay Devgn), of Thakur's employee, Balwant (Amrish Puri). When Thakur finds out about this, he instructs his men to bring in Naina alive, and Karan dead. Karan and Naina run from this community all the way to Bombay. The Thakur announces a hefty reward, and soon bounty hunters are all over Bombay looking for the hapless couple. When Balwant hears about this, he too goes to Bombay and does locate Karan and Naina. Karan is relieved to see his dad, but his relief soon turns to disbelief, as Balwant instructs him to let go of Naina, as he himself has come as an agent of the Thakur, not as his father.

Cast

Production

Itihaas was the first attempt of Kanwar at producing a film and was highly publicised. He repeated the pairing of Devgn and Khanna who had previously starred in his 1996 film Jaan.[2] Outlook noted that the film had been "lavishly produced".[3] Xavier Marquis also helped in the film's finances.[4]

Soundtrack

Lyrics by Sameer Anjaan, Music by Dilip Sen-Sameer Sen.

#TitleSinger(s)
1 "Chori Chori Dil Diya" Kumar Sanu, Alka Yagnik
2 "Dil Ke Qalam Se" Hariharan, Anuradha Paudwal
3 "Achko Machko" Alka Yagnik
4 "Bol Bol Bol Raja" Vinod Rathod, Shankar Mahadevan, Alka Yagnik
5 "Ja Re Ja Ud Ja Panchhi" Shankar Mahadevan, Alka Yagnik
6 "Pyar Ka Dushman" Shankar Mahadevan, Alka Yagnik
7 "Yeh Ishq Bada" Pappu A K, Anuradha Paudwal
8 "Saathi Mere Tere Bina" Kumar Sanu, Anuradha Paudwal

The audio cassette of the film was released at the Sun & Sand Hotel in Juhu.[5]

Reception

Reportedly made on the successful pairing of Devgn and Khanna in Jaan, Rediff.com rated it #8 in its Ten Worst Films of Ajay Devgn list while calling it a "dreadful action romance".[6][7]

Supran Verma of Rediff.com wrote that the film had "turned to be just a rehash of [Jaan] and other Kanwar films" and Khanna and Devgn's pairing was the "film's biggest fault".[2] A review in India Today called the film a "clichéd story" and "painfully regressive" "by Bollywood standards" before labelling it a "torturous experience".[8]

The film performed poorly at the box office, becoming the first flop of Raj Kanwar. Devgn took the Bombay territory as fees.[2][3]

References
  1. "Itihaas". Box Office India. Retrieved 28 March 2020.
  2. Verma, Suparn (18 July 1997). "The hit squad". Rediff.com. Retrieved 27 March 2020.
  3. Chatterjee, Saibal; Akhtar, Shameem (13 April 1998). "Beefcake To Meaty Roles". Outlook. Retrieved 7 April 2020.
  4. Suri, Sanjay; Akhtar, Shameem; Menezes, Saira (15 September 1997). "Settling Scores". Outlook. Retrieved 7 April 2020.
  5. "Audio cassettee of Itihaas released". Rashtriya Sahara. Sahara India Mass Communication: 166. 1997.
  6. "The Ten Worst Films of Ajay Devgn : Itihaas". Rediff.com. 14 November 2012. Retrieved 27 March 2020.
  7. "What made Raj Kanwar A Director To Reckon With : Jaan, 1996". Rediff.com. 3 February 2012. Retrieved 27 March 2020.
  8. "Latest movie releases". India Today. 7 July 1997. Retrieved 7 April 2020.

Further reading
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