Shikhar (2005 film)

Shikhar is a 2005 Indian Hindi-language drama film produced and directed by John Matthew Matthan. The film stars Ajay Devgn, Bipasha Basu, Shahid Kapoor and Amrita Rao in lead roles, while Manoj Joshi, Javed Sheikh, and Sushant Singh play other key roles. The music was composed by Viju Shah with cinematography by A. K. Bir and editing by Ajoy Varma. The film released on 30 December 2005.

The film revolves around an overambitious businessman (played by Devgn) who tricks a naive boy (played by Kapoor) in order to sell his land to him to build his tower projects.

Plot
The story is about Gaurav Gupta, a successful businessman who started with nothing and believes that only money can fuel his ambitions. When he interests himself on building a tower in an abandoned village, he makes his mind up and agrees to build it at any cost, with the support of crooked politician Amrit Patil. However, the owner of the land, Shrikant Vardhan, does not accept the tower to be built. Therefore, Gaurav tricks Shrikant's son Jaidev, who is infected by the get-rich-quick virus, to join his scheme.

Jaidev, while respecting his father's philosophy, falls hook line and sinker for Gaurav's gilt-edged dreams. Gaurav uses his girlfriend Natasha to charm Jaidev by pretending to be in love with him so that he supports them instead of his own father. Meanwhile, Shrikant hopes that his son will return to his roots. Gaurav and Natasha even trick him by pretending to be a construction/ad agency partnered with actor John Abraham. Jaidev falls for the plan with Gaurav blackmailing him along the way. Soon after learning about Gaurav's plan, Jaidev tries to stop him, but he is attacked in the process. Jaidev realizes his mistakes, apologizes to his father, and tries to fight against Gaurav. After learning this, a furious Gaurav sets the land on fire, but Jaidev eventually saves the land and the hostages. Soon, Gaurav and Amrit are arrested for their crimes, and the village land is saved. Jaidev reconciles with his father and starts to help the latter in his business.

Cast

 * Ajay Devgan as Gaurav Gupta (GG)
 * Bipasha Basu as Natasha
 * Shahid Kapoor as Jaidev S. Vardhan (Jai)
 * Amrita Rao as Madhavi
 * Manoj Joshi as Amrit Patil
 * Sunil Rege as Chief Minister
 * Javed Sheikh as Srikant Vardhan
 * Sushant Singh as Bhajanlal
 * Akhil Mishra as Jadhav
 * Akhilendra Mishra as Irfan Bhai
 * Farha Naaz as Kusum
 * Ash Chandler as Ashton Raga
 * Jaywant Wadkar as Gaurav's henchman
 * Raj Zutshi as himself (cameo)
 * John Abraham as himself (cameo)

Soundtrack
The film's soundtrack is composed by Viju Shah with lyrics penned by Sudhakar Sharma, Anita Sarkar, Chandrashekhar Rajit and Manohar Iyer.

Reception
Taran Adarsh of IndiaFM gave them 1.5 out of 5, writing, "On the whole, SHIKHAR disappoints big time." Sukanya Verma of Rediff.com wrote, "Directed by John M Matthan, Shikhar is not nearly a flattering tribute. It borrows the essential structure of Wall Street while raising its own propaganda against the issue of deforestation at the hands of penny-pinching builders. Alas, what could have been a classic duel between avarice and virtue becomes an inconsistent battle of obstinacy with denseness."