Sadak

Sadak
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Mahesh Bhatt
Written by	Robin Bhatt
Produced by	Mukesh Bhatt
Starring	Sanjay Dutt Pooja Bhatt Deepak Tijori Sadashiv Amrapurkar Avtar Gill Neelima Azeem
Cinematography	Pravin Bhatt
Edited by	A Muthu
Music by	Nadeem-Shravan
Production company	Vishesh Films
Release date	20 December 1991 (1991-12-20)
Running time	134 minutes
Country	India
Language	Hindi
Budget	₹2.70 crore[1]
Box office	₹10.8 crore[1]

Sadak (Hindi pronunciation: [sə.ɽək]; transl. Road) is a 1991 Indian Hindi-language romantic action thriller film directed by Mahesh Bhatt. It stars Sanjay Dutt and Pooja Bhatt.^[2] The film is one of the highest-grossing movies of the year 1991.^[3] It is an unofficial remake of 1976 American film Taxi Driver.^[4] This film was remade in Tamil as Appu (2000). A sequel, Sadak 2, was released on 28 August 2020 on Disney+ Hotstar.^[5]

Maharani is an evil transgender pimp who runs a brothel. She employs many girls such as Pooja and Chanda. Ravi Kishore Verma, a taxi driver, meets Pooja before she is bought by Maharani, and his friend Gotya is in love with Chanda. Ravi previously witnessed his sister Roopa plunge to death after being diagnosed with STD. She had eloped with her lover who sold her off at a brothel and forced her to become a prostitute. This violent incident left Ravi traumatized and scared. He becomes an insomniac who keeps having disturbing visions of his sister's death and is restless and violent on occasion. On one of his taxi-plying days, he meets Inspector Irani, who Ravi recognizes from an article published about the cop when he had won a medal. Ravi drops him off at his destination, refuses to take any money from him, and the cop tells him to come to him if he ever needs any help.

Ravi meets Pooja again as she tries to flee the brothel of Maharani and tries to help her in vain. He procures his life's savings, a meager sum of thirty thousand rupees from Salim Bhai, his taxi's owner and takes out Pooja for one night, posing as her customer. He does so with the help of his friend, Gotya, and a pimp, Gullu. Gotya, however, is held as collateral under Maharani's orders in case Pooja is not safely returned. They roam around Bombay and spend some romantic time with each other, during which Ravi tells Pooja that he loves her and will keep on coming back to the brothel for her every night (presumably—so that she is not sold to other customers).

The next night, Ravi mortgages the taxi and goes back to the brothel. He is, however, chided by Maharani who suspects he's either mad or in love with Pooja for offering high sums of money for her on consecutive nights. She also tells Ravi that since she has been running this business for the past thirty years, she knew when Pooja came back in the morning that Ravi did not sleep with her. After much argument and requests from Ravi and Gotya, Maharani agrees to let him spend the night with Pooja under the condition that he has sex with Pooja in front of her. Ravi agrees, but stabs Maharani, escaping with Pooja in the ensuing chaos. Gotya also grabs his girlfriend Chanda and escapes. They run away to a distant location where Gotya and Chanda get married in a temple with the blessings of Ravi and Pooja. All four come back and take refuge with Salim Bhai.

In the meantime, Maharani's henchmen find the pimp and break his legs. Salim Bhai advises Ravi and Gotya to enlist police protection and Ravi decides to approach Inspector Irani. He assures them of his help and asks them to meet him in the parking lot of an apartment complex at a scheduled time. However, when the four reach there, Maharani and her henchmen are already waiting and attack them with firearms. As the four try to escape, Gotya and Chanda are both shot and Ravi manages to escape with Pooja in Irani's police jeep. Once they reach safety, he calls up Irani and warns him that he will have to pay heavily for his betrayal.

Pooja is, however, captured again by Maharani, after Ravi is tortured and left for dead. Ravi, remembering that the fate of his sister and Pooja are the same, regains his lost strength. He fights his way back to Maharani by killing Inspector Irani and setting ablaze Maharani's brothel, finally killing Maharani and rescuing Pooja. Ravi is jailed for taking law into his hands. After his release from jail, Pooja and Ravi are united again.

The soundtrack of the movie is composed by the music duo Nadeem Shravan. All songs were sung by Anuradha Paudwal along with Kumar Sanu, Abhijeet Bhattacharya, Manhar Udhas, Debashish Dasgupta, Junaid Akhtar & Babla Mehta.

The film's soundtrack album sold 5 million units, becoming one of the top three best-selling Bollywood soundtracks of the year.^[6] The song "Tumhein Apna Banaane Ki" is a popular number till date. However, it was a remake of the famous song Chale To Kat Hi Jayega Safar by Pakistani singer Musarrat Nazir. In turn, a remade version of the song was used for the 2015 film Hate Story 3.^[7] The soundtrack was #51 on the list of "100 Greatest Bollywood Soundtracks of All Time", as compiled by Planet Bollywood.

• Sadashiv Amrapurkar won the Filmfare Award for Best Performance in a Negative Role.

A sequel, Sadak 2, was planned in September 2018. The principal photography of the film began on 18 May 2019,^[8] & was released on 28 August 2020 on Disney+ Hotstar.^[9] The sequel starring Alia Bhatt and Aditya Roy Kapur alongside Sanjay Dutt and Pooja Bhatt reprising their original roles is directed by Mahesh Bhatt.^[10] The film is produced by Mukesh Bhatt and is presented by Mahesh Bhatt and Vishesh Films.^[11] The script was penned by Shagufta Rafique and Robin Bhatt.

• Sadak at IMDb