Bollywood has produced a number of hard hitting movies revolving around social issues and the associated crime - Satya, Thakshak, Shool, Company, Gangajal, Sarkar and most recent Sehar are just to name a few. While each of these movies covered varied themes like underworld, extortion, cop-politician nexus, organized crime etc., there hasn’t been any flick that detils out the prevalent issue of kidnapping industry [if we can call it this way]!

Prakash Jha’s latest endeavor ‘Apaharan’ talks about this blooming industry in various parts of India, especially in the state of Bihar, from where one hears the most number of incidents around kidnapping. Just like his previous directorial venture ‘Gangajal’, ‘Apaharan’ too is a star studded affair with an added attraction of Nana Patekar as one of the main protagonist. Prakash Jha retains 80% of his prime starcast from Gangajal with Ajay Devgan, Mohan Agashe, Yashpal Sharma, Ayub Khan, Anup Soni, Mukesh Tiwari and Daya Shankar Pandey appearing in Apaharan, the only major difference being Gracy Singh replaced by Bipasha Basu. A Holi Cow production in association with Prakash Jha Productions, Apaharan is an Entertainment One presentation with music by Adesh Srivastava and background score by Wayne Sharpe [who also has the background score of Gangajal to his credit.

Professor Raghuvansh Shastri [Mohan Agashe] and Ajay Shastri [Ajay Devgan] are just another middle class father-son pair with fair expectations from life. While Professor is a great individual of high principals, Ajay too wants to follow the same path in life by becoming an upright police officer. But circumstances force him to be different from what he had set out to be!!

He instead gets involved into the grim world of crime. So what’s new once may ask as there have been countless movies about misguided youth. Well, the difference here is the deed of his father that forces him to become what he never wanted to become!

All this while he is constantly supported, encouraged and shown the right virtues and a righteous path by his mature love Megha [Bipasha Basu] who has a mind of her own and makes Ajay dwell deeper into his own conscience. Howsoever troubled Ajay may be, but he always knows that Megha would always be there besides him. In addition, there is Kashinath [Ayub Khan], who belongs to the category of those wayward youth who choos to follow the path of their mentor rather than creating an identity of their own. But little did he know that one day his very life would be forced to take a direction that Ajay had laid down for him.

The most important [and interesting] character of the movie Apaharan is Tarbez Alam, which is played by none other than Nana Patekar. He runs a parallel ’sarkar’ of his own and in his scheme of things the people involved are politicians, criminals, bureaucrats, and petty criminals who operate at the ground level. To make matters worst, he himself is a political leader of the minority that gives him an extra edge. A ruthless criminal in totality, he thrives due to the existing system in the region from where he operates. Mukul Nag enacts the role of his brother Usman, who is ever ready to lay down his life for his elder brother.

As evident, Tarbez Alam is not alone in his endeavor to be powerful and popular in the world of kidnapping. In this big corrupt society, he has for company people like Gaya Singh, Brijnath Mishra and Muralidhar. With a hardcore criminal Gaya Singh [Yashpal Sharma], manipulative politican Brijnath Mishra [Akhilendra Mishra] and a middleman Muralidhar [Murali] in fray, there was no stopping the organized crime of kidnapping.

Since things are still not completely ‘black’ with some white and gray areas everywhere, same is the case with the system where you have honest folks like Anwar Khan and Akash Ranjan, who represent that facet of society that still has some conscience left. While Anwar [Mukesh Tiwari] is an upright police officer who has a point to prove to his department, Akash Ranjan [Anoop Soni] doesn’t care about the stature of the person standing in front of him and asks questions that hit where they hurt most. What gives him the flexibility of coming out unscathed from his challenges? The power of pen since he is a journalist.

In a battle of ‘black’ and ‘white’, there are bound to some gray areas and Ajay Shastri represents that section of society that wants to get out of this mud-pool, never mind the obstacles that come his way.

At the hindsight, Apaharan may seem to be yet another gangster movie with focus on kidnapping this time around. But with powerhouse of talent Nana Patekar and Ajay Devgan sharing a common platform and director Prakash Jha at the helm coming up with a unique theme never seen before in such details, one is sure that Apaharan would strike a right chord.

Shot extensively in the towns of Satara [Maharashtra] and Salampur [Bihar], Apaharan also conducted some shoots in Nagpur, Pune and Nasik Jail. With number of biggies arriving in the week of Diwali, Apaharan too is not far behind with good chances of movie arriving on 3rd/4th November.