Gupt: The Hidden Truth

Gupt: The Hidden Truth is a 1997 Indian Hindi-language action thriller film directed by Rajiv Rai, starring Bobby Deol, Kajol and Manisha Koirala. Distributed under the banner of Trimurti Films, it also stars Raj Babbar, Om Puri, Kulbhushan Kharbanda, Paresh Rawal, Dalip Tahil, Prem Chopra, Sadashiv Amrapurkar, Sharat Saxena, Mukesh Rishi, and Priya Tendulkar in supporting roles. The soundtrack of the film was composed by Viju Shah. With its plot based on the novel Good Children Don't Kill (1967) by Louis Thomas, it is considered as one of the best thriller films from Hindi Cinema.

At the 43rd Filmfare Awards, Gupt: The Hidden Truth received 8 nominations, including Best Film and Best Director (Rai), and won 3 awards, including Best Villain.

Plot
Governor Jaisingh Sinha discusses the prospect of FDI with influential industrialist Meghnad Chaudhry, socialist Union leader Vilas Rao, minister "Mantriji" Sadanand Bose and others.

Sinha's stepson Sahil is an unattached young man, who resents Sinha for marrying his mother. Sinha's personal secretary Ishwar Dewan's daughter Isha is Sahil's girlfriend. They recently reunited after childhood as Isha was sent to boarding school.

Sinha announces Sahil's engagement to Meghnad's daughter Sheetal, leading to an argument between him and Sahil. In a fit of rage, Sahil tries to stab Sinha but is stopped by his mother, Sharda. Sahil gets heavily drunk at Dr. Gandhi's house, Sinha's family doctor. Gandhi advises Sahil to reconsider, saying that Sahil will lead a happier life with Sheetal. A tipsy Sahil returns home to find a stabbed Sinha. Before Sinha can reveal the name of his attacker, he dies. Sharda finds Sahil holding a knife and assumes him to be the killer. Sahil is arrested and taken to court, where many of his acquaintances and Sharda testify against him. Sahil is sentenced to fourteen years in prison. As Sahil is being taken to jail, he secretly hands over a necklace to Sheetal telling her that he found his stepfather holding it when he died.

In jail, Sahil relates his story to an old prisoner. The prisoner tells Sahil about an escape route. Sahil breaks out of prison with Sheetal's help.

Police Commissioner Patwardhan assigns police officer, Uddham Singh, to handle the case. 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 doctor's residence to find a stabbed Dr Gandhi. Dr Gandhi's servant reports Sahil to the police.

Now accused of two murders, Sahil suspects advocate Thanawala. He enters Thanawala's office and brutally interrogates him, throwing him out from the window of his office. Sahil similarly interrogates Choudhary and Vilas Rao but it leads to nothing. Sahil, Sheetal and Isha trick Mantriji into attending a ceremony and abduct him.

Uddham Singh is also present there and realises that Sahil is not the murderer. The murders were committed by two identical knives. Singh finds the same set of knives at Ishwar Dewan's house with two knives missing and arrests Dewan, who confesses. Sheetal tells Sahil that the murderer is Ishwar Dewan, and Sahil releases Mantriji. Isha, however, is shocked and tries to attack Sheetal, and later rushes to meet her father. Sahil, now free, returns home and reconciles with his mother and half-brother, Harsh.

Sahil gives the necklace to Harsh. Harsh opens the necklace and shows it to Sahil, who finds his and Isha's pictures inside. Sahil realises Isha is the killer. In the meantime, Isha enters Uddham Singh's house and stabs him multiple times.

Sahil interrogates Ishwar Dewan, who admits that Isha is the killer. He reveals that while Isha loves him immensely, she has had a massive anger management problem since her childhood, particularly when it comes to Sahil. As a child, she had killed Dr. Gandhi's dog after it bit Sahil, following which she was sent to a boarding school by Sinha and Dr. Gandhi to keep her away from Sahil. After Sahil's argument with his father, Dewan and Isha had gone to meet Sinha the following morning, to request him to unite Sahil and Isha, whereupon the latter rejected and humiliated them in a fit of anger, and asked them to leave. Isha was so enraged that she later stabbed Sinha to death. When Dr. Gandhi realised that she was the murderer, she killed him as well.

Sahil is shocked beyond words, but understands that Isha will try to attack Sheetal next and calls her. He rushes to her house but is attacked by Babu Anna, an assassin hired earlier by Mantriji to kill Sahil and Isha. Sahil is injured, but manages to incapacitate Babu Anna and reach the house.

Sheetal is fooled by Isha at first, because the latter falsely apologises for her misbehaviour. However, Isha suddenly attacks Sheetal. Sahil arrives on time to save her and pulls Isha off Sheetal, who rushes into Sahil's arms. An enraged Isha tries to stab Sheetal, but Babu Anna tries to intervene and is killed instead. An injured Uddham Singh arrives and fatally shoots Isha. In her final moments, Isha begs Sahil for forgiveness.

During the end credits, Sahil is joined by Sheetal in the club that he was seen in at the beginning of the movie.

Cast

 * Bobby Deol as Sahil Sinha
 * Kajol as Isha Diwan, Sahil's girlfriend
 * Manisha Koirala as Sheetal Choudhry, Sahil's best friend
 * Om Puri as Inspector Uddham Singh, an honest and upright police officer
 * Raj Babbar as Governor Jaisingh Sinha, Sahil's step-father
 * Paresh Rawal as Ishwar Diwan, Isha's father and Jaisingh's personal secretary
 * Sadashiv Amrapurkar as Inspector Neelkanth Dixit, a meek police officer who plays second fiddle to Uddham Singh
 * Ashok Saraf as Havaldar Pandu, a naïve constable assisting Neelkanth and Uddham Singh
 * Prem Chopra as Sadanand Bose (Mantriji), a corrupt minister
 * Kulbhushan Kharbanda as Dr. Shubham Gandhi
 * Dalip Tahil as Meghnad Choudhry, Sheetal's father and an arrogant and powerful businessman
 * Raza Murad as Advocate Mushir Thanawala, Jaisingh's lawyer
 * Sharat Saxena as Vilasrao Mahatre, a cruel and disliked union leader
 * Harish Patel as Phoolchand Raze, Mantriji's merry secretary
 * Mukesh Rishi as Babu Anna, Mantriji's contract killer
 * Tej Sapru as an abusive Jailer in the central prison
 * Anjan Srivastav as Commissioner Manoj Patwardhan
 * Vishwajeet Pradhan as a Bounty hunter, who wants to make a quick buck by capturing Sahil and getting the reward for doing so
 * Dinesh Hingoo as Thanawala's servant
 * Priya Tendulkar as Sharda Devi, Sahil's mother
 * Bob Christo as Boat organiser
 * Master Harsh Lunia as Harsh Sinha, Sahil's half-brother
 * Aparajita as Surbhi Choudhry, Sheetal's mother

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. The soundtrack was #87 on the list of "100 Greatest Bollywood Soundtracks of All Time", as compiled by Planet Bollywood

The songs were shot at various locations in India including Munnar in Kerala, Manali and Rajasthan.

Shah's work on the soundtrack was well received. It 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".

Critical reception
Gupt received positive reviews from critics upon release. Fullhyderabad.com gave it a 7.5/10 rating and wrote, "It is a slickly-made film 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
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.

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: