Gupt: The Hidden Truth

Plot

Governor Jaisingh Sinha (Raj Babbar) is a prominent political figure, who is known as an upright person. Sinha presides over a meeting attended by influential industrialist Meghnad Chaudhry (Dalip Tahil), Vilas Rao (Sharat Saxena) and minister Mantriji (Prem Chopra), among others.

Sahil Sinha (Bobby Deol) is step son of sinha, sahil'sl mother Sharda (Priya Tendulkar) began to live with Sinha after the death of her husband. Sahil is an unattached and easy-going young man, who resents Sinha, Sinha has a younger son named Harsh. Ishwar Dewan (Paresh Rawal) is Sinha's Personal Secretary, and his daughter Isha (Kajol) is Sahil's beloved. On the other hand, Sheetal (Manisha Koirala), the daughter of Meghnad Chaudhry, is also in love with Sahil, but is not reciprocated by him.

One evening, Sinha throws a party for Sahil's birthday and announces Sahil's engagement to Sheetal upon which an argument breaks out. At one point sahil tries to stab his father but is stopped Sharda. The next day, Sahil gets heavily drunk at the house of Dr Gandhi (Kulbhushan Kharbanda), Sinha's family doctor, who advises Sahil to accept Sheetal as his wife and that Sahil will lead a happier life with her. A drunk Sahil returns home and finds to his shock that someone has stabbed Sinha. Before Sinha can tell the name of the murderer he dies, while Sharda arrives and finds Sahil near his dead step-father holding a knife. Sahil is accused and taken to court, where many of his acquaintances and Sharda testify against him. Sahil is found guilty and sentenced to 14 years in prison. Just before Sahil is transported to jail, he hands over a necklace to Sheetal, implying that it was left behind at the scene by the killer.

In jail, Sahil relates his story to an old prisoner, who believes him to be innocent. The prisoner tells Sahil that the jail only has one escape route - a sewage gutter pipe that can be accessed from a flush toilet located in an unused chamber of the jail. Sahil creates a problem with other prisoners, causing the jailor (Tej Sapru) to confine him and two prisoners in the chamber. The three succeed in escaping the jail by sea, with a boat arranged by Sheetal,

Police Commissioner Patwardhan (Anjan Srivastav) assigns an unbending and upright police officer Udham Singh (Om Puri) to handle the case of Sahil's re-apprehension. Sahil secretly meets Isha at her home, where he calls Dr Gandhi for advice, and Dr Gandhi invites Sahil to his home . Sahil reaches the doctors residence and is shocked to find that somebody has stabbed Dr Gandhi. Dr Gandhi’s servant finds Sahil near the dead doctor and shrieks, causing him to run away. Dr Gandhi’s servant reports Sahil to the police.

Udham Singh interrogates Sheetal, with whom Sahil still maintains a good relationship. Sheetal confesses to having spent the previous night with Sahil and also helping him escape jail. Singh does not arrest Sheetal for these wrongdoings,

Sahil, to prove his innocence resolves to find the real murderer. He suspects advocate Thanawala, because Thanawala had a very good chance of obtaining Sinha’s property upon his death, provided Sahil is out of the picture. He asked Thanawala and beat him and figures that he is not the murderer. Sahil now suspects Chaudhry or his brother because of Chaudhry's involvement in business fraud. After interrogating him, Sahil realises that Chaudhry is innocent as well. The next is Vilas Rao, the corrupt Union leader, who points the finger at Mantriji, saying that Sinha's murder was a political assassination. Sahil and Sheetal trick Mantriji into attending a ceremony and kidnap him. Udham Singh is also present there and realizes that Sahil is not the real murderer.

Udham Singh finds out that the murders have been committed with two knives of exactly the same build and shape, that could belong to a set. He finds the set of knives at Ishwar Dewan’s house and arrests Dewan who confesses to killing of Sinha and Dr Gandhi. Dewan divulges to have murdered Sinha because, he did not accept Isha as his daughter-in-law; and killed Dr Gandhi to cover up the first crime. At the same time, Sahil was interrogating Mantriji but. Sheetal arrives and tells him that the murderer,is Ishwar Dewan, making Sahil release Mantriji.

Harsh, Sinha's son, is seen playing with the necklace which Sahil had found at the crime scene. He opens the necklace locket to find a picture of Isha inside. He figures that Isha is involved in the whole situation. Sahil goes to confront Ishwar, who reveals that Isha had committed the crimes but he doesn't want her to be jailed , therefore, he falsely confessed. Isha has been stalking Sheetal, and finally attacks her, but Sheetal is saved by Sahil. Enraged by Sahil's concern for Sheetal, Isha begins to attack them but is shot by Udham Singh. Sahil embraces Isha, and he asks her why she committed the murders, as he was with her all along .. Isha replies that she did not have faith in her destiny, and embraces Sahil one last time as she dies in his arms.

Cast

Production

Most of director Rajiv Rai's (and producer Gulshan Rai's) films are of action-thriller genre that recount the activities of some baddies who carry out tasks detrimental to the society or the country, and to fight whom a righteous person has to adopt the path of crime themself. An intrinsic factor that betokens most of Rai's action-thriller films is the element of uncertainty; everything remains unfathomable, that could be disclosed only at the last minute. The story of the horror-thriller film Gupt revolves around the murder of a political chief and the reason of this murder by an unknown killer remains utterly mysterious. Initially, the murder seems to be familial, i.e., committed by a near and dear one, while later it seems to be a political murder accomplished by a probable enemy of the victim. Some well known villains of Bollywood have played major roles in the film, namely, Prem Chopra, Paresh Rawal, Raza Murad, Harish Patel, Tej Sapru, Sharat Saxena, Dalip Tahil, Vishwajeet Pradhan and Mukesh Rishi. The plot of the film is fashioned in a way that makes the viewers suspect that everyone has an axe to grind in the murder. At the end, the revelation of the killer horrifies the viewers.

Soundtrack

The film's soundtrack composed by Viju Shah won the Filmfare Best Background Score award in 1998. The song "Gupt" was copied from a french band Deep Forest's song of the same name.Tunes of The Exorcist Theme make up part of Gupt theme and majority of the soundtrack ,also the guitar tune of the song Girl like you by Scottish composer Edwyn Collins has been lifted in Mushkil bada before the second interlude and also in the soundtrack.Duniya Hasseno ka mela has the flute music directly lifted from Kitaro's Matsuri and prelude too is based on the Japanese flute tune of Kitaro.Soundtrack consists of tunes borrowed from the background score of Hollywood movie SPEED ..

Track list

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 ₹250 million (US$3.9 million) at the domestic box office. Box Office India declared it a "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