Gupt: The Hidden Truth

Plot

Sahil Sinha is not close to his stepfather, Governor Jaisingh Sinha, who still loves Sahil as his own. Governor Sinha arranges Sahil's marriage to Sheetal Chaudhary, Sahil's college friend, but Sahil is in love with Isha Diwan, the daughter of the governor's secretary Ishwar and Sahil's childhood friend. They get into a heated argument during Sahil's birthday, and Sahil picks up the cake knife in rage, but his mother stops him. The next day, Sahil heads home to confront Governor Sinha. Before he can get there, Governor Sinha is fatally stabbed by an unknown assailant. Sahil finds a locket in his hand. His mother finds Sahil with his hand on the knife, and believes he's responsible. Sahil is arrested, and sentenced to 14 years in prison. Before going to prison, he tells Sheetal to take the locket so he can prove his innocence.

Sahil escapes with Sheetal's help, and sets out to find the real killer. To find Sahil, Inspector Uddham Singh is assigned to the case. Sahil later meets Isha, and calls Dr. Gandhi for help. Dr. Gandhi says he has a secret to share with Sahil, and calls him over that evening. By the time he gets to the house, Sahil finds Dr. Gandhi dead. Sahil goes to his house to get his stepfather's will, but is shunned by his mother. Sahil tells her he finally realizes how much his stepfather loved him, and wished he had realized before he died. He goes after the governor's lawyer, Thanawala, Sheetal's uncle and father, and Vilas Rao, a union leader, but they all insist they're not responsible. To save himself, Vilas Rao accuses Minister Bose.

Sahil kidnaps the Minister with the help of Isha and Sheetal, but is caught by Uddham. However, Uddham lets him go upon realizing that Sahil is not the murderer. He examines the evidence from the two murders, and realizes both daggers are similar, suggesting they're from a set. He goes to Ishwar's house, where Sahil's mother is, and finds the entire set of daggers there. Ishwar confesses to the murders, saying he was upset that the governor refused Isha, and Dr. Gandhi realized he was the killer. Ishwar is arrested, and Sheetal tells a shocked Sahil and Isha this news. Upset, Isha quickly leaves.

Sahil goes home, where his mother welcomes him back. Sahil's younger brother is playing with the locket, and is able to open it. When Sahil looks inside, he's shocked to discover that Isha is the killer. At the same time, Isha tries to kill Uddham, but she's interrupted and flees, leaving Uddham injured but alive. Sahil confronts Ishwar at the jail. Ishwar admits the truth, revealing that Isha killed Dr. Gandhi's dog after he bit Sahil when they were kids. Dr. Gandhi and the governor sent Isha away to boarding school despite Ishwar refusing, because they wanted to separate Sahil and Isha. When Isha and Sahil reunited, the governor still refused to accept Isha. Furious, Isha killed the governor. Dr. Gandhi also suspected Isha, so she killed him. Though Ishwar wants to take the fall for Isha, they find out about Uddham's attack, and Sahil heads out to stop her.

Sahil heads to Sheetal's house, knowing she is Isha's next target. Before he gets there, Isha comes and tries to kill Sheetal. While Sahil tries to fight off Isha, Uddham shows up and shoots Isha. Sahil assures Isha he always loved her, though he's upset by her actions. Isha dies in Sahil's arms. In the end, Sahil unites with Sheetal.

Cast

Bobby Deol as Sahil Sinha

Manisha Koirala as Sheetal Chaudhary

Kajol as Isha Diwan

Om Puri as Inspector Udham Singh

Priya Tendulkar as Sharda Sinha, Sahil’s mother.

Prem Chopra as Minister Sadanand Bose

Raza Murad as Advocate Mushir Thanawala

Paresh Rawal as Ishwar Diwan

Sadashiv Amrapurkar as Inspector Neelkanth Pandey

Sharat Saxena as Vilasrao Mhatre

Dalip Tahil as Meghnad Chaudhary

Kulbhushan Kharbanda as Dr. Shubham Gandhi

Raj Babbar as Governor Jaisingh Sinha (special appearance)

Mukesh Rishi as Babu Anna (special appearance)

Harish Patel as Phoolchand Raje

Ashok Saraf as Constable Pandu

Anjan Srivastav as Police Commissioner Manoj Patwardhan

Tej Sapru as Jailor Pratap Sinha

Vishwajeet Pradhan as Hunter Vivek

Dinesh Hingoo as Lal, Thanawala's Servant

Aparajita as Surabhi Chaudhary

Music

The music was composed by Viju Shah and the lyrics were written by Anand Bakshi. The title track of the film, "Gupt Gupt", samples the electronica track "Deep Forest" from the eponymous album by Deep Forest and the titular tracks from Mike Oldfield's seminal prog-rock orchestral debut Tubular Bells (revisited and sampled numerous times since). "Duniya Hasino Ka Mela" was sampled from "Matsuri" included in the new age album Kojiki by Japanese keyboardist Kitarō.

Shah's work won the Best Background Score and Shah was nominated for the Best Music Director, whereas Alka Yagnik was also nominated for the Best Female Playback Singer for "Mere Khwabon Me Tu".

Box office

Gupt turned out to be a blockbuster movie. On the opening day it collected ₹9.6 million and by the opening weekend it had grossed ₹27.8 million. The first week collections were ₹53.45 million with an India gross of ₹317.2 million. Worldwide gross collections were ₹332.3 million, with an overseas gross of US$425,000. The adjusted net-gross of the film is ₹1.68 billion.

Reception

Critical response

Suparn Verma of Rediff.com wrote, "In Gupt, Rajiv Rai seems to have forgotten an elementary lesson, "Sometimes less is more." The result: the less you see of Gupt, the better."

Accolades

Kajol became the first actress in the history of the Filmfare Awards to win the Best Performance in a Negative Role.

43rd Filmfare Awards: