Gupt: The Hidden Truth

About the film

Gupt (transl. Secret: The Hidden Truth), shortly called Gupt, is a 1997 Indian Hindi-language mystery thriller film directed by Rajiv Rai. The film stars Bobby Deol, Manisha Koirala, Kajol and Om Puri in the lead roles. Distributed under the banner of Trimurti Films, it also stars Prem Chopra, Raza Murad, Paresh Rawal, Sadashiv Amrapurkar, Sharat Saxena, Dalip Tahil, Kulbhushan Kharbanda, Priya Tendulkar, Aparajita and others in supporting roles. The soundtrack was composed by Viju Shah. It is considered as one of the best thriller films from Hindi Cinema. Its plot is based on the crime/mystery novel Good Children Don't Kill (1967) by French writer Louis Thomas.

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

Plot

Sahil Sinha is not close to his stepfather, Governor Jaisingh Sinha, who still loves Sahil as his own. Governor Sinha arranges Sahil's marriage to Sheetal Chaudhary, Sahil's college friend, but Sahil is in love with Isha Diwan, the daughter of the governor's secretary Ishwar and Sahil's childhood friend. They get into a heated argument during Sahil's birthday, and Sahil picks up the cake knife in rage, but his mother stops him. The next day, Sahil heads home to confront Governor Sinha. Before he can get there, Governor Sinha is fatally stabbed by an unknown assailant. Sahil finds a locket in his hand. His mother finds Sahil with his hand on the knife, and believes he's responsible. Sahil is arrested, and sentenced to 14 years in prison. Before going to prison, he tells Sheetal to take the locket so he can prove his innocence.

Sahil escapes with Sheetal's help, and sets out to find the real killer. To find Sahil, Inspector Uddham Singh is assigned to the case. Sahil later meets Isha, and calls Dr. Gandhi for help. Dr. Gandhi says he has a secret to share with Sahil, and calls him over that evening. By the time he gets to the house, Sahil finds Dr. Gandhi dead. Sahil goes to his house to get his stepfather's will, but is shunned by his mother. Sahil tells her he finally realizes how much his stepfather loved him, and wished he had realized before he died. He goes after the governor's lawyer, Thanawala, Sheetal's uncle and father, and Vilas Rao, a union leader, but they all insist they're not responsible. To save himself, Vilas Rao accuses Minister Bose.

Sahil kidnaps the Minister with the help of Isha and Sheetal, but is caught by Uddham. However, Uddham lets him go upon realizing that Sahil is not the murderer. He examines the evidence from the two murders, and realizes both daggers are similar, suggesting they're from a set. He goes to Ishwar's house, where Sahil's mother is, and finds the entire set of daggers there. Ishwar confesses to the murders, saying he was upset that the governor refused Isha, and Dr. Gandhi realized he was the killer. Ishwar is arrested, and Sheetal tells a shocked Sahil and Isha this news. Upset, Isha quickly leaves.

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.

Shah's work 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".

Box office

Gupt turned out to be a blockbuster movie. 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.

Reception

Suparn Verma of Rediff.com wrote, "In Gupt, Rajiv Rai seems to have forgotten an elementary lesson, "Sometimes less is more." The result: the less you see of Gupt, the better."

Accolades

Kajol became the first actress in the history of the Filmfare Awards to win the Best Performance in a Negative Role.

Key details