Producer: Pravin Shah 
Director: Mahesh Manjrekar 
Cast: Sanjay Dutt, Mahima Choudhary, Salil Ankola, Sayaji Shinde, Om Puri, Shivaji Satam, Radhika Rane, 
Music: Himesh Reshmmiya

The reason why Time Movies’ Kurukshetra arouses so much anticipation – to say nothing of anxiety – is because it has the Vaastav team of writer-director Mahesh Manjrekar and actor Sanjay Dutt. In fact, when Sanjay Dutt went on the dais to receive the Filmfare award for Best Actor for breathing fire into his role in Vaastav, the actor couldn’t help confessing, “Twenty years… well at last I am being recognised as an actor… but after twenty years!”

For Mahesh Manjrekar too, Vaastav (though he didn’t win any awards) proved to be a turning point. A prodigious talent from Marathi stage and cinema, Manjrekar is today a ‘hot property’ in film circles with more asignments on hand than he can probably count!

And this pressure of relentless output is something that requires a resilience of a special kind. At the very outset it needs to be noted that when Manjrekar was making 'Vaastav' his focus was solely on that film. However, when he was making 'Kurukshetra' this facet had changed drastically. This time round he was working at a frenetic pace with his energies spread over around a dozen films.

Sanjay Dutt undergoes a radical transformation to begin with. From playing a gangster in 'Vaastav' he is now an upright, honest, straight forward police officer ACP Prithviraj Singh who is daggers drawn with the corrupt breed. Indeed, so passionate is he in his crusade that he has no qualms about taking on Chief Minister Baburao Deshmukh (Om Puri) head on. Prithviraj Singh arrests the CM's son on a charge of rape almost as soon as he is posted to Gamdevi - a fertile breeding ground for crime and criminals in Mumbai. The CM retaliates by engineering Singh's suspension; a relatively easy task considering that Singh has been posted around 14 times in his tenure of 10 years. To add fuel to the fire Deshmukh subjects Singh's wife (Mahima Chaudhary) as also his sister (Radhika Rane) to ceaseless mental touture. In other words, he scares them out of their wits and this gives him a sadistic pleasure brewed in hatred and malice.

Nevertheless, Singh refuses to be cowed down by Deshmukh's strong arm tactics and pursues the rape case against his son. This entire gory episode becomes something of a political issue and the leader of the opposition party Sambhaji Rao (Shivaji Satam) joins hands with Singh for overt and covert reasons. Singh also finds support from another political power broker Iqbal Pasina (Mukesh Rishi). The battle, the 'Kurukshetra' of the new millenium is in full swing and it will not be fair to the viewer to reveal the eventual outcome. Yet, those familiar with Hindi films are seasoned enough to know that the hero invariably and inevitably triumphs over the villain - with a quicker gun and harder fist (and how all of us love to applaud it!) and Mahesh is not much in the mood for making anything tangential.

A special word of praise for music director Himesh Reshmmiya first. He has come up with an inspired score. Indeed the 'ghagra' number innovatively choreographed by Saroj Khan is something very very special and immensely likeable.

Somehow, in Hindi cinema, critics by and large tend to overlook the contributions made by other artistes in small but significant roles. Sayaji Shinde who enacts the role of an average, ordinary, run of the mill constable Gopi, walks away with top honours. Here is an artiste who to use a cliche can be called a volcano of talent.

Sanjay Dutt essays his role with conviction and enthusiasm. He is nevertheless handicapped by a pretty predictable script. Furthermore, the 'angry young man' image has been beaten to death. Mahima Chaudhary has a decorative pressence with precious little to do. Om Puri who had enacted an almost identical role earlier in Govind Nihalani's'Ardh Satya' decades ago demonstrates his versatility by 'crossing the floor' and coming up with an award winning performance as a villain. Manjrekar has cleverly cast Mukesh Rishi in a 'positive' mould and this typecast villain fully justifies the faith reposed in him by his director. Shivaji Satam needs to be a trifle more choosy before accepting roles; he is in danger of dropping into the quicksand of being type cast. To carter to the frontbenchers and their undying urge to break into wolf whistles Manjrekar has incorporated a couple of titillating song dance routines. Suman Ranganathan and Kashmira Shah most certainly succeed in providing the requisite 'sexcitement'! Cricketer turned actor Salil Ankola is impressive. Mahesh Anand, Pramod Moutho, Radhika Rane and Sukhwinder provide adequate support.

Producer Pravin Shah has spared no efforts or cut any corners in the films making. The film has been mounted well but Manjrekar as in 'Jis Desh Mein Ganga Rehta Hai' seems to be facing teething troubles with 'commercial' cinema. The script creates a realistic ambience, the dialogue is full of punches...but the stumbling block is that it offers nothing new. It is merely old wine in a new, fancy bottle. Even the direction is devoid of the 'Manjrekar' touch. The film quite simply has no 'soul'.

Mahesh Manjrekar's careergraph touched dizzy heights after 'Vaastav'. One sincerely hopes and prays that he retracts for a brief period and reassesses the present scenario. Because, in this industry, it is well known that one is only as good as one's last film. 'Kurukshetra' had everything going for it except for one major factor- the 'content'. Manjrekar has faltered once again on this aspect and concentrated more on the packaging - the 'container'. That is the sole reason why the film will neither reap profits nor be a feather in Manjrekar's cap. Sad but true.....