Gupt: The Hidden Truth


Gupt: The Hidden Truth is a 1997 Indian Hindi-language suspense thriller film directed by Rajiv Rai and featuring Bobby Deol in the lead role, along with Kajol and Manisha Koirala. Distributed under the banner Trimurti Films, it also stars Paresh Rawal, Om Puri, Raj Babbar, Dalip Tahil, Prem Chopra, Sadashiv Amrapurkar, Sharat Saxena, Kulbhushan Kharbanda, Mukesh Rishi and Priya Tendulkar in supporting roles. The soundtrack of the film was composed by Viju Shah.
Released on 4 July 1997, Gupt was praised for its storyline, suspense, performances, soundtrack and direction. A major box-office success, Gupt grossed worldwide, becoming the fifth highest-grossing Indian film of 1997. It earned several accolades at different award ceremonies including three Filmfare Awards. The film seems borrowed plots from the Hollywood movie The Shawshank Redemption wherein the protagonist escapes from the prison after getting help in form of information and tools from a friendly inmate.Over the years, it has become a cult classic, and is listed among the top suspense thriller Hindi films.

Plot

Sahil Sinha is a young man, who lives with his mother, stepfather Jaisingh Sinha, who is a governor, and his stepbrother. He has a childhood love, Isha Diwan, whose father, Ishwar Diwan, is Jaisingh Sinha's assistant. On Sahil's bday, Jaisingh Sinha announces engagement with Sheetal Choudhary, daughter of Meghnath Choudhary, who loves Sahil. However, Sahil says he loves Isha and goes away with her after an argument with Jaisingh saying that he will always be his stepfather. On the same night Sahil gets drunk. When he goes to speak to his stepfather, suddenly someone stabs Jaisingh Sinha. Before dying Sahil comes to the scene seeing his stepfather die. Suddenly his mother comes to the scene wrongly blaming Sahil as the killer. Police arrests him and after all proofs against him, he gets 14 years imprisonment. Sahil, however with help of 2 prisoners escapes the prison and asks Sheetal to arrange a boat near the sea which links to the drainage of the jail. The film then proceeds to follow Sahil's journey in proving his innocence in the eyes of the Indian judicial system as well as his family and friends.

Cast

The film's soundtrack composed by Viju Shah, won the Filmfare Best Background Score award in 1998, despite enormous elements of plagiarism. It was also nominated for the Best Music Director award.
Track list
#TitleSingerLengthPartly inspired from
1"Yeh Pyasi Jawani"Alka Yagnik06:02"The Rite of Spring" by Igor Stravinsky
2"Mushkil Bada Yeh Pyaar Hai"Alka Yagnik, Udit Narayan05:53"The Exorcist" theme; "A girl like you before" by Edwyn Collins
3"Gupt Gupt"Kavita Krishnamurthy, Hema Sardesai, Chetan Shashital02:55The famous scream is sampled from No problem by AR Rahman,which itself seems sampled from some other source."Tubular Bells"; "Deep forest" debut album
4"Gupt Gupt" Kavita Krishnamurthy, Hema Sardesai, Chetan Shashital04:55"Tubular Bells"; "Deep forest" debut album
5"Gupt Gupt" 02:22"Tubular Bells"; "Deep forest" debut album
6"Mere Khwabon Mein Tu"Kumar Sanu, Alka Yagnik05:33
7"Duniya Haseeno Ka Mela"Udit Narayan, Sunita Rao06:30"Masturi" by Kitaro
8"Yeh Pyaar Kya Hai"Kavita Krishnamurthy, Alka Yagnik, Kumar Sanu05:13Initial percussions from Dr.Alban's Intro,Flute tune from "Yashomati maiya" in Satyam Shivam Sundaram
9"Mere Sanam"Udit Narayan, Sadhana Sargam05:48"Sing Hallelujah" by Dr.Alban
10"Bobby Deol's time in jail"Background score-"Black Rain" by Prana & Amanite FX
11"Bobby Deol's escape from jail"Background score-"Green flow" by Subcouds
12"Tej Sapru's theme"Background score-"V" by Anjuna

Critical reception

Gupt received positive reviews from critics. Fullhyderabad.com gave it a 7.5/10 rating and wrote, "It is a slickly made movie with stylish cinematography, beautiful locales, and pretty good performances. It falls in the genre of thriller movies and fares much better than any of its sorry predecessors did. The director, Rajiv Rai is not over-awed by the subject and so does not make a hosh-posh out of the whole thing." Mohammad Ali Ikram of Planet Bollywood praised the suspense and music.

Box office

Gupt grossed at the domestic box office. Box Office India declared it to be "Super Hit.

Awards and recognition

1997 was one of the most successful years for Bollywood with hits like Border, Judwaa, Dil to Pagal Hai, Pardes, Yes Boss, Virasat, Ziddi, Ishq and Gupt: The Hidden Truth. Gupt won three Filmfare Awards and was nominated in five other categories. It was also the fourth largest blockbuster of the year after Border, Dil To Pagal Hai and Pardes. Kajol was the first woman in Filmfare Award history to receive the Best Villain award.

1998 Filmfare awards