Vaastav: The Reality

Vaastav: The Reality is a 1999 Indian Hindi-language action film written and directed by Mahesh Manjrekar in his directorial debut, and starring Sanjay Dutt, Namrata Shirodkar, and Sanjay Narvekar in lead roles, with Mohnish Behl, Paresh Rawal, Reema Lagoo and Shivaji Satam in supporting roles.

Vaastav was promoted with the tag-line "The Reality", referring to the harsh realities of life in the Mumbai underworld. The film is said to be loosely based on the life of Mumbai underworld gangster Chhota Rajan.

Released on 7 October 1999, Vaastav: The Reality received positive reviews from critics, with major praise directed towards Dutt's performance, which is widely considered as his career-best. It emerged as a major commercial success at the domestic and overseas box-office.

At the 45th Filmfare Awards, Vaastav: The Reality received 6 nominations, including Best Film, Best Director (Manjrekar), Best Supporting Actor (Narvekar) and Best Supporting Actress (Lagoo), and won 2 awards – Best Actor (Dutt) and Filmfare–Sony Award (Manjrekar).

Dutt's performance received universal critical acclaim and was unanimously regarded by critics amongst one of Indian cinema's most memorable onscreen characters. Over the years, it has become a cult film.

The film was remade into Telugu as Bhavani (2000), in Kannada as Bhagavan Dada (2000) and in Tamil language as Don Chera (2006). It was followed by the 2002 sequel Hathyar. In 2013, it was dubbed in Bhojpuri as Tohar Ko Thok Debe.

Plot
Vaastav opens with a family performing the funeral rites of a person at a beach. When the young son of the deceased asks his grandmother about the deceased, she begins to narrate his story.

As the film opens, Raghunath Namdev Shivalkar alias "Raghu" and his best friend Chandrakant a.k.a "Dedh Footiya" (literally meaning "One and a half feet tall" in Hindi) struggle to find work in Mumbai. Raghu lives in a chawl with his father Namdev who used to work at a mill, mother Shanta and a graduate but unemployed brother Vijay. Raghu has no interest in studies so he and Dedh Footiya decide to run a pav bhaji stall. They work diligently and are earning good profits. The business seems to be working out very well before the brother of a local goon Fracture Bandya and his men start visiting their stall. Continuously for some days Fracture Bandya's men visit the stall in a drunken state and abuse Dedh Footiya. Raghu tells Dedh Footiya to not get involved in any argument with them. But one day, Fracture Bandya's men beat up Dedh Footiya badly. Unable to keep their emotions and anger in the face of abuse continuously for days, Raghu and Dedh Footiya accidentally kill Fracture Bandya's brother. Now on the run, with the help of their friend Assistant Inspector Kishore Kadam, the two of them are given protection by Vitthal Kaanya, a rival gang lord. The two eventually kill Fracture Bandya as well, when the latter tries to find them and kill them both treacherously by arranging a meeting through Suleiman Bhai, a middle man in the Mumbai underworld. Raghu and Dedh Footiya now end up in the Mumbai underworld.

Raghu becomes a respected hitman under Vitthal Kaanya, with Dedh Footiya as his accomplice. With Raghu in his gang, Vitthal Kaanya hits a peak in the Mumbai underworld. Later, Raghu is approached by home minister Babban Rao Kadam who asks Raghu to work for him and uses Raghu for his criminal activities. Raghu agrees, much against the wishes of Kishore, who continues to help him by advising him and providing inside information. Vitthal Kaanya is eventually killed by rival gangsters. During Dedh Footiya's father's funeral, an attempt is made on Raghu by the Fracture gang, but his father is injured in the process. In retaliation, Raghu and Dedh Footiya learn from Inspector Rane who works for Fracture gang that the whole gang will be going to Shirdi the next day. Raghu kills the inspector. They intercept the Fracture gang on the bridge and eliminate the gang, making Raghu the most dreaded gangster in the city.

While Babban Rao relies on Raghu and Dedh Footiya, there are some others who despise Raghu and are waiting on the sidelines to see when he makes an error. Kishore tells Raghu and Dedh Footiya not to continue working for Babban Rao as he is just using them to fulfill his own goals and would dispose them off when they're not needed but the duo don't pay any heed. Under minister's order, Dedh Footiya kills an innocent Muslim man which sparks riots and causes loss of many lives. The duo then threaten a Parsi businessman in order to take his land.However, when the Parsi business man starts yapping about him to report the crime, Raghu, in a fit of rage, kills him. Babban Rao is soon under serious pressure from the public and government as he's alleged to have ties with Raghu. He issues a shoot-to-kill warrant for Raghu and Dedh Footiya. The latter is killed in an encounter in order to take out Raghu from the hiding. Then Kishore informs Raghu that the police have been ordered to kill him in an encounter. Raghu is now on the run, both from the police and Babban Rao's men. Raghu knows now that he must protect his wife Sonia, parents, and family, as they too are in danger. He realizes that there is no escape from this harsh reality. He arranges to meet Babban Rao with the help of Suleiman Bhai and kills Babban Rao as he would spoil others' lives like his in the future. In the process, Suleiman Bhai is also killed in an attempt to save Raghu.

Unable to save himself from the police, Raghu returns to his home and tells his mother to save him. He apparently has lost his mental balance, become crazy and starts hallucinating. His mother takes him away to safety. He tells her to take his gun and kill him, so she remembers how Raghu had once taught her how to use a gun, pulls the trigger and kills him.

As the film ends, the family is seen fulfilling the annual rites of Raghu on the Mumbai beach, as the film had begun, with Raghu's mother explaining all that happened to her young grandson and prays that his sins must be pardoned.

Cast

 * Sanjay Dutt as Raghunath "Raghu" Namdev Shivalkar
 * Namrata Shirodkar as Sonia "Sonu" Shivalkhar, Raghu's wife
 * Deepak Tijori as Sub-Inspector Kishore Kadam (Kisha)
 * Sanjay Narvekar as Chandrakant "Dedh Footiya" Kumar
 * Mohnish Bahl as Vijaykanth Namdev Shivalkhar, Raghu's brother
 * Ekta Sohini as Pooja Shivalkar, Vijay's wife
 * Shivaji Satam as Namdev Shivalkar, Raghu and Vijay's father
 * Reema Lagoo as Shanta Shivalkar, Raghu and Vijay's mother
 * Usha Nadkarni as Gayatri Devi, Dedh Footiya's mother
 * Paresh Rawal as Suleiman bhai (Mandavali Baadshah)
 * Mohan Joshi as Home Minister Babban Rao Kadam
 * Ashish Vidyarthi as Vitthal Kaanya
 * Himani Shivpuri as Laxmi Akka, Bordello Madam
 * Mahesh Manjrekar as himself in 'Apni Toh Nikal Padi'
 * Jack Gaud as Fracture Bandya
 * Ganesh Yadav as Chhota Fracture
 * Kishore Nandlaskar as Kamalkant Kumar, Dedh Footiya's father (drunkard)
 * Achyut Potdar as Chacha, an old Muslim man who is murdered by Dedh Footiya
 * Anand Abhyankar as a Parsi Man
 * Bharat Jadhav as Raghu's friend
 * Makarand Anaspure as Raghu's friend
 * Satish Rajwade as Satya
 * Atul Kale as Bhopu
 * Nilesh Divekar as Raghu's friend
 * Dhananjay Mandrekar as Commissioner of Police
 * Jayant Savarkar as Pandit
 * Kashmera Shah as an item number 'Jawani Se'
 * Prabhakar as "Fracture" Bandya's henchman (uncredited)

Legacy
Reviewing the film for Rediff.com, Suparn Verma compared its theme to Hollywood films Scarface (1983), The Godfather (1972), and Indian films such as Satya (1998), Nayakan (1987) and Agneepath (1990). He felt the film offered "no new insight into the underworld" and added that it was "fast-paced and taut at times". However, he felt the film was "well shot and edited" and criticized the "lengthy dialogues". He concluded commending the acting performance of Sanjay Dutt and called it "one of the best performances of his career". He added, "From an easy-going guy to a broken man -- the role is essayed with great care by him, maintaining a consistency throughout." Mukhtar Anjoom of Deccan Herald felt Dutt, who looked "terrific", couldn't "hold the excitement for long" due to the "shaky screenplay".