Gadar director Anil Sharma says ‘industry called it Gutter Ek Prem Katha’, a critic refused to review it: ‘Logon ne Gadar ki kadar nahi ki’

Director Anil Sharma looked back on some of the harsh critical reactions to the first Gadar, which he said one reviewer called ‘gutter’. The film emerged as one of the biggest hits of 2001, outperforming the period drama Lagaan, which it was pitted against at the box office.

In an interview with Lehren Retro, the filmmaker said that while most people really appreciated the ’emotion, the love story, the message’ of Gadar, some were more critical. “Uss time Gadar hui toh badi blockbuster, lekin logon ne Gadar ki kadar nahi ki (It became a big hit, but some people didn’t respect it),” he said.

He added, “It’s okay. The same thing happened to Mughal-E-Azam, the same thing happened to Sholay; these films didn’t win awards. It’s good company. But the public loved these films,” he said. Mughal-E-Azam wasn’t just a blockbuster, it also won the National Film Award for the Best Feature Film in Hindi, as well as the Filmfare award for Best Film. While initial reception for Sholay wasn’t the most positive, the tide turned after a couple of weeks, when word-of-mouth kicked into effect.

Anil Sharma continued, “The industry called Gadar ‘gutter’. The first review I saw for the film called it ‘Gutter Ek Prem Katha’. A reviewer for a major English-language newspaper said that reviewing it was beneath them. I still haven’t understood why people were so harsh.”

Another key reason for the film’s success, the director said, was ‘the undercurrent’ of the Ramayana that could be felt in it. He explained, “Ram went to Lanka to save Sita, the mother of his son. Gadar had a similar story, only Pakistan was Lanka in a modern context,” he said.

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Anil Sharma is all set to release Gadar 2 this week, with main actors Sunny Deol, Ameesha Patel and Utkarsh Sharma returning. The film will clash against Akshay Kumar-starrer OMG-2 at the box office.

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