Ibuk Bollywood fans pretty much hold Amitabh Bachan's Mard in high regard but I think it is very overrated. Manmohan Desai collaborated before on movies like Suhaag,Parvarish,Amar Akbar Anthony,Naseeb,Desh Premee and Coolie and I have seen all of them I liked so I had very high expectations before I watched Mard and was bitterly disappointed. My main gripe about Mard is that it feels like Amar Akbar Anthony part 2,maybe Mr Desai ran out of ideas, after all he had been using that formula for years and years. 1. First of all some members of the cast is repeated from AAA, for instance the police inspector who brings up Amar, the Muslim who brings up Akbar, Nirupa Roy and a few more. 2. In AAA Nirupa Roy loses her eyesight, in Mard she loses her voice 3. In AAA there is the famous song (Shirdi wale sai baba)well in Mard we have Amitabh singing Maa Sherawali. Having seen AAA for over 1000 times I noticed that straight away.My other gripes are that some of the situations just seem ridiculous, true Manmohan Desai made leave your brain at the door kind of movies but with Mard I thought he went too far. My last gripe is that compared to songs in previous Manmohan Desai movies I found the songs rather disappointing. I know it has many fans that swear by it but I didn't like it one bit. It actually pains me to write this review because I am such a huge fan and have loved his movies since I was a child.

elshikh4 Director (Manmohan Desai) with star (Amitabh Bachchan) made history of wonders : (Amar Akbar Anthony - 1977), (Naseeb - 1981), (Coolie - 1983), and (Gangaa Jamunaa Saraswathi - 1988). Here it's not (Desai)'s most fantastic world inasmuch as the most fantasia.If you wanna be silly : actually (Mard) gives you an ideal chance. It's one atmosphere of absurd hyperbole where you'll watch primitive Roman wrestling to death, excellent intelligence's masks, colony with mine and slaves, evil guys with tankers, ..etc. It's (Spartacus) meets (Mission Impassable) meets (Indiana Jones) meets (Rambo) ! Nobody dares to define what year all of this was happening : "Lady Helena" (whom the movie didn't tell us who's she !) is wearing a heavy 19th century clothes, then Amrita Singh's car is from the 1950s, and her clothes from the mid-1980s ??? The most laughable one came from Amrita's bodyguard with his black leather punk garb, and for sure the evil guy who was wearing Freddy Mercury's costume yet with Dracula's cape !! Not to mention : a horse who has an elephant's memory, explicitly shoddy back-projections, and an electric shocker as a torture device along with a bikini both in the 19th century !?? If you wanna be merciful : the character of the popular hero along with his melodramatic story and conflict was great according to this kind of let's say : genre. The story lines come from so many folk stories or old legends but through the Desai's distinct style of making highly satisfying piquant MOVIE, and with a patriotic sense too WAW. (Amrita Singh) was, and maybe still is, the sexiest Indian girl ever appeared on the screen, she was so blazing and kind of reprised her first role 3 years earlier in (Betaab - 1983) which was Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew. (Amitabh Bachchan) was larger than life particularly at that time when he was "The Star" and deserving it, look at him fells the screen while the movie's title appears, gosh, he is the man (Mard stands for man). Everything was quite ardent, so you've got to feel exhilarating because of this non-stoppable adventure. In fact, we say the precept of "leave your brain at the door, and enjoy" about so many American movies, aren't we ? So why not saying it about this Indian interpretation of FUN ! If you wanna be nostalgic : I watched it while I was 11 or 12-year-old, it was shown at the Egyptian theaters for a record time, and what a crush I've had. I ranked it at my early list of the greatest action movies ever. However, when I re-watched it 20 years later I discovered that it's special case of entertainment, which doesn't ever deny that it's a pure entertainment indeed. It's like a Comic-book movie from India. Look at the last shoot; it can summarize perfectly the whole condition of the movie as light fantasy with comedy/action /romance/melodrama/Desai ! It's one huge extravaganza of nearly all the quintessential cinematic factors of enjoyment as pure piece of escapism yet a' la Indian.If you wanna be rational : You'd think cheese, delirium, or act of decadence. But simply (Mard) is representing Bollywood picturization of ecstasy as the ultimate commercial Indian movie of the 1980s at its highest peck of being dainty, with all the deficiencies of the previous too.In one word : enjoy it, it meant to do this exceedingly. And believe me, it will make you forget your worries ..Along with your name too !

WelshLarki I first watched this movie as a child, and although i did not understand it, (As i am not Indian but Bengali, and this movie has actually been rated as a 15) I still loved it then as i do now.I understand every word and am moved by many dialogues and scenes.Amitabh Bachans acting, is again wonderful and spot on. As well as everyone else's. Im not a big fan of Amrita Singh, but i did enjoy her performances in this movie.I have read other member comments and most have said that a lot of the movie has bloopers. Do these people actually watch the movie or do they sit and note down everything that doesn't fit in? When I'm watching the movie, i don't even pay attention to everything that is wrong, I'm too busy being entertained by the superb acting! Even the animals are entertaining....The way they are loyal to there master....and in return they get respect. This film is a simple lesson to us all...treat everyone and everything with respect.Trust me, Watch this movie....i doubt if you could tear yourself away...i couldn't and still cant...this is one of my top five movies....and will always be!

chorima75 "Mard" (1985) Although the late 70s early 80s produced some cinema masterpieces, this was also the decade of what in Spain we called "pelis de mamporros" (lit. "blows films"). There, fistfights, silliness and impossible plots were mixed in equal measure. United States had Chuck Norris, Europe had Bud Spencer and Terence Hill…and Bollywood had Amitab Bachchan. While this silliness was absolutely enjoyable in films like "Don" (also with the Big B as leading man), "Mard" actually provokes embarrassment. Any attempt to describe the plot would defy belief: animals that behave like humans, humans that behave like animals, gladiator fights, flamenco dancing, villains dressed as cowboys with the Union Jack as a cape... Moreover, nobody seems to have decided if the film is set in the 19th century or the present (some characters wear Victorian dresses, some walk around in bikinis and trainers). Special mention deserves the cheeky heroine (Amrita Singh), who is lethal with the whip and does not think twice about asking the protagonist for sex: in a reversal of the traditional love song, it is her who chases the hero, while he tries to reject her advances.So, laugh out loud, enjoy and be thankful that the Big B prefers to do movies like "Black" these days.