Qayamat: City Under Threat
2003 · Directed by Harry Baweja
Original language: Hindi
- action
- crime
- drama
- romance
The story
CBI Officer Akram Sheikh is on the verge of nabbing three dreaded Pakistan-backed arms dealers, the brothers Ali and Abbas and their common moll Laila. When Sheikh busts an important arms deal conducted by his three targets, Ali-Abbas join forces with Gopal, a corrupt scientist to get hold of a deadly virus and take the tourists at the Elphinstone Jail resort as hostage. Akram Sheikh is now compelled to get help from Rachit, a criminal serving jail time who was a former associate of Ali-Abbas and the only person in history to have successfully escaped the Elphinstone jail . Along with a commando team, they try to pull off a rescue attempt by breaking in the jail and rescuing the hostages.
What it’s like
Glossy early-2000s Hindi action photography: saturated colour, hard key lights, and a resort's pastel poolside calm set against the grey concrete and dim corridors of a prison. Set pieces are loud and kinetic, with fast cutting, sweeping crane shots, and gunfire and explosions echoing through stone halls, while quieter scenes lean on close, talky framing and melodramatic close-ups. The score swells with bombastic strings and pulsing electronic percussion, shifting to sentimental themes in romantic moments. The vibe is brash, tense and ultimately rousing, best suited to a Saturday evening with friends or a fan of big-budget spectacle. The violence is frequent and fairly graphic in a stylised way, with shootouts, beatings and bloodshed, though it stays short of gore. Romance and comic relief cut through the tension regularly. The story centres on a hard-edged officer and a reluctant ex-convict forced into an uneasy alliance, a relationship that moves from distrust to grudging loyalty. It suits viewers who want a high-stakes, crowd-pleasing action film with a lot of heart and noise.
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