Jeena Marna Tere Sang (1992) - Review in English

About the story: Amar (Sanjay Dutt) is unchallenged hero and prankster at college. He doesn’t care very much for his studies as his father is millionaire and MLA Dayanand Khurana (Sadashiv Amrapurkar) and he therefore doesn’t know any money troubles. However, his friends can rely upon him, especially penniless Vijay (Javed Jaffrey) for whom Amar generously pays the college fees. When one of his friends makes a pass at pretty Asha Dinanath (Raveena Tandon) and therefore in public is slapped by her, Amar satirizes her until Asha shops him at the headmaster’s. Amar takes revenge by getting her expelled by a perfidious fraud. Shortly thereafter, however, even his own life is shattered when he comes to know that his father is a criminal and murderer. Completely shocked, Amar breaks with his father and commences to consider his situation and to start his life afresh. He also becomes aware that he has fallen in love with Asha. By confessing his fraud, he makes it possible for her to return to college, and after a lot of insistent wooing he even wins Asha’s heart. But their love has many opponents: Asha’s high-handed stepmother Kamla (Aruna Irani) who wants Asha to marry her smeary nephew Gulati (Tej Sapru), minister Hiralal (Paresh Rawal) whose daughter Priya wants to have Amar for herself, and Amar’s father whose re-election as an MLA completely depends on Hiralal’s goodwill. Ruthlessly, Khurana forces Asha to decide between Amar’s love and the life of her beloved father (Alok Nath)...


To enjoy Sanjay on screen, you sometimes have to endure quite a lot. E.g. trash. And as to that, Jeena Marna Tere Sang splashes out and partially really goes bananas – which in this case is the perfect keyword as the top trasher, besides an idiotic college professor, is a monkey called Ramu. Okay, it is quite a cutie, and it is worthy of praise for helping Asha out of some fixes, but the ways it does so mostly surpass the borders of sufferableness, and then the films becomes loud and shrill to an extend that the dramaturgic framework is close to collapse. For first of all, the movie tells the story of a strong love facing and resisting many ordeals and enemies, and trash scenes like Ramu driving a car and causing a chaos are the best method to break down every curve of tension.

Okay, this was the negative side, so now let’s turn to the movie’s delights which are, in short, Raveena Tandon and Sanjay Dutt. They are one of Hindi Cinema’s most lovely film couples, harmonize splendidly and save the story’s strain, and thus the film, by their convincing acting. Raveena’s gestures and mimics (especially in her first dance) sometimes strikingly remind of Madhuri Dixit – and also the scene when Amar at college invents his and Asha’s alleged love affair and you can hear in the background the dance motive "Tamma Tamma" from Thanedaar. Sanjay himself once more is the radiant hero and fairy tale prince – I don’t want to know how many hearts of female viewers he has broken in the early 90es with his tall, slender and muscular body, his long mane and his eyes which, like always, express everything what remains unspoken...

By the way, I just added a bit – Sanju was 33 when Jeena Marna Tere Sang was released, which means he was at the same age as Shahrukh Khan at the release of Kuch Kuch Hota Hai. Both play college students in their respective movies, and it is reported that Shahrukh was a bit unsure whether he would be credible as a student. In case that Sanju had similar doubts, it would have been understandable – even more than in Shahrukh’s case as the latter anyway had the image of a young and charming lover boy. But a lion king like Sanju behind the school desk? Yes, it works indeed, because Sanju is not only a terrific actor but even can sport the cute mimic of a mischievous prankster (cf. Munnabhai *g*). This in combination with his heartthrob image makes him the perfect college hero. For him, you can endure all kinds of trash. Even „beastly bad“ one.

Produced by Gulshan Kumar; Directed by Vijay Reddy
148 Min.; DVD: GVI; English Subtitles (including songs), a bit delayed
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