Vijay Deenanath Chauhan

Vijay Deenanath Chauhan (Hindi: विजय दीनानाथ चौहान) is a fictional character and the protagonist from the film Agneepath released in 1990, portrayed by Amitabh Bachchan. In the film Vijay is a crime boss who undergoes a journey to avenge his father's murder by a powerful ganglord Kancha Cheena. The main plot of the movie revolves around how an innocent boy (Vijay) becomes the most powerful gangster of the city (Bombay) and eventually resurrects his father's respect and annihilates mafia Kingpin Kancha. The character was later portrayed by Hrithik Roshan in 2012 remake.

The 1990 Version

Character Overview

Vijay Chauhan is portrayed as a man loved by many people and for the youth, he is like a celebrity gangster, people admire him, he is a man of principles, he does not deal with drugs despite the knowledge that drugs have high-margins, he is portrayed as a fearless man, in one of the preliminary scenes of the movie he despite knowing his partner's betrayal takes the bullet aimed at his partner warning the enemies to kill him with all the power but if he survives they will face dire consequences, he is charming and influential. In the climax of the movie we see him actually walking on the fire just to save his loved ones, he said to be one of the best characters in the History of Indian cinema.

The film begins with a morally upright and honest Gandhian Schoolmaster, Deenanath Chauhan (Alok Nath), teaching his son Vijay about a poem, 'Agneepath', which describes 'The Path Of Fire' which a man must cross in his life. This theme becomes an integral part of the story. Master Deenanath is a well-loved person, who wishes to bring electricity to the Village, Mandwa. However, his wish is not shared by a corrupt businessman, Dinkar Rao (Goga Kapoor). One day, as Vijay and his friends play about near Rao's house, a man named Kancha Cheena (Danny Denzongpa) arrives at the house, and Rao hands over some papers to Cheena, which, Rao tells him, are the Title Deeds of all the Villagers' homes. Kancha's plans are revealed then: he wishes to make Mandwa a centre for his drugs trade, as he wishes to buy a place where the laws are lax. Dinkar Rao mentions that the schoolmaster is a huge hindrance to their plans, whereupon Cheena tells Rao that he must kill the schoolmaster, or Rao will suffer the consequences. With the aid of the owner of a brothel, Chandabai, Dinkar Rao lures the schoolmaster into the brothel. The villagers assume that the schoolmaster is an immoral hypocrite who solicits prostitution, and they beat him to death. The schoolmaster dies while cradling his son and reciting the poem, "Agneepath". Vijay's Mother is devastated, and the image of the schoolmaster is so tarnished that 12-year-old Vijay had to carry his corpse to the cemetery on a cart. The family leaves for Mumbai to begin life anew. There, Vijay does odd jobs to earn for his family. It is also there that he learns about the harsher truths of life. He burns down a Petrol Pump because the owner of the Pump tried to rape his Mother. Vijay is caught in the act by Inspector Gaitonde, who tries to redeem the boy.Then we see an older Vijay, 36 years old, now a gangster with a drawling, raspy voice and stylish gait, who works for three of Kancha Cheena's enemies. Vijay slowly eliminates his bosses and works his way up the echelons of crime, becoming a feared and reputed gangster in Mumbai. Then Vijay tries to cut a deal with Kancha and gradually brings about his Empire's downfall. However, in an action-packed climax sequence, Kancha holds Vijay's wife, Mary, his sister and his mother hostage, and challenges him to a showdown, daring him to cross a rubble-laden, path of fire. In spite of being shot twice, Vijay kills Kancha. In an emotional sequence, Vijay drags his mother to the remains of their old house in the village, now a smoldering pile of brick, reciting Agneepath. Vijay passes away, with his head on his Mother's lap, culminating in an emotional end, in which Vijay's mother remarks to the end, "My son is not a gangster...he is not a gangster, my son."

Awards For The Character

The 2012 version

The story opens in island Mandwa, near Maharashtra in the year 1977. The highly respected school master of the village, Master Deenanath Chauhan (Chetan Pandit), tries to dissuade the villagers from giving away their lands on lease to Kancha Cheena (Sanjay Dutt), the son of the village head who plans to start a drug mafia. In turn, Kancha falsely accusing Master of raping a student, executes him in full public view by hanging him to a banyan tree. This forces the 12 year old Master's son Vijay and his mother to flee the town and reach Mumbai, where his mother gives birth to a baby girl. In Mumbai the young Vijay sees Kancha and as events pan out, he becomes an accomplice of Kancha's enemy Rauf Lala (Rishi Kapoor). Vijay gains help and support from Lala to gain power. After 15 years, Lala monopolizes in drugs dealings of the city along with running a business of human trafficking. Police commissionaire Gaitonde (Om Puri) manages to debar Kancha from interfering in Mumbai but is unable to collect evidence against Lala or Vijay. Lala's son Mazhar Lala (Rajesh Tandon) is a volatile person who conflicts his business and personal agendas. Mazhar hates Vijay for his stronghold on Lala's business. He expresses his disgusts towards Vijay to Lala. But Lala convinces him to be an observer of Vijay for a while and accordingly they would finish him later.

Vijay (Hrithik Roshan) holds Kancha's aide and home secretary Borkar (Sachin Khedekar) to ransom, and threatens Shantaram, another aid of Kancha to be a middleman between him and Kancha to conduct trades of cocaine to Mumbai from Mandwa. On one instance, he takes a bullet on himself fired on Mazhar, thereby winning trust of Lala and Mazhar. On the night of his marriage, Mazhar gets the information that the shot was actually fired by Shantaram. He, along with Vijay, leaves to end him but in turn is shot dead by Shantaram in the process. Vijay later shoots Shantaram for he no longer needs him and any evidence of their conspired plan of killing Mazhar. Seeing his son dead, Lala falls sick and is admitted into a hospital. Meanwhile, Vijay takes hold of the position of Lala and is soon contacted by Kancha. He accepts Kancha's offer and goes to Mandwa for a business deal. While in Mandwa, Vijay puts forth his deal to Kancha which is handing over the drug business in Mumbai to Kancha and in return of taking over Mandwa. Though Kancha initially suspects this deal, he later agrees on the condition that the commissioner Gaitonde must be killed.

Back in Mumbai, Lala regains health and knows the truth behind his son's death. He gets hold of Vijay's sister Shiksha (Kanika Tiwari) and calls out for her auction in public. Notified by Kancha, Vijay flees back to Mumbai and kills Lala and his men with the help of eunuchs. He gets closer to his family who had exiled him since the day he joined Lala's group after killing the inspector aid of Kancha at the age of 12. In the meantime, Kancha sends a man (the same person who had set Vijay's house on fire in Mandwa 15 years ago and the real rapist of the student) to keep an eye on Vijay. Kancha orders the man to assassinate the commissioner if Vijay is unable to do so. This man while trying to kill the commissioner is murdered by Vijay on the event of Ganesh Visarjan. Vijay's mother Suhasini (Zarina Wahab) identifies this person as a Mandwa native and informs police, identifying herself and Vijay as natives of Mandwa. A mole in the police informs Kancha of this. Vijay marries his love interest Kaali (Priyanka Chopra) who is killed right after their marriage during a shooting spree by Kancha's men.

Raged by anger, Vijay leaves for Mandwa to avenge the death of his father and his wife but on the other hand, Kancha gets hold of Vijay's mother and sister and brings them to Mandwa. During his violent fight with Kancha, Vijay is initially brutally wounded and stabbed, but later garners energy by reciting the poem "Agneepath", which his father had previously taught him to give him strength. Vijay, reciting the poem, kills Kancha by hanging him from the same banyan tree to which his father was hanged. Vijay finally comes to peace with himself and has a vision of his younger self with his father reciting Agneepath and succumbs to his injuries.

References

• "IMDB Reference for Vijay Chouhan". Retrieved 3 March 2015. 
• "Vijay Deenanath Chouhan, over the years.". Retrieved 3 March 2015. 
• "Vijay Chauhan over the years.". Retrieved 3 March 2015.