Gupt: The Hidden Truth

Governor Jaisingh Sinha (Raj Babbar) is a prominent political figure. At the start of the film, Sinha presides over a meeting attended by influential industrialist Meghnad Chaudhry (Dalip Tahil), Vilas Rao (Sharat Saxena) and minister Mantriji (Prem Chopra), among others.

Sahil Sinha (Bobby Deol) is Sinha's stepson. Sahil's mother Sharda (Priya Tendulkar) began to live with Sinha after the death of her husband. Sahil is an unattached and easy-going young man, who resents Sinha. Sinha also has a younger son named Harsh. Ishwar Dewan (Paresh Rawal) is Sinha's Personal Secretary, and his daughter Isha (Kajol) is Sahil's beloved, with whom he reunites after a long time after Isha was sent to boarding school in their childhood. Their relationship grows. On the other hand, Sheetal (Manisha Koirala), the daughter of Meghnad Chaudhry, is also in love with Sahil, but this is not reciprocated by him, since he merely considers her a very good friend.

Sinha throws a party for Sahil's birthday and announces Sahil's engagement to Sheetal, upon which an argument breaks out. Sahil declares his love for Isha to Sinha, who disagrees and Sahil, in a fit of rage, tries to stab his father, only to be stopped by Sharda. The next day, Sahil gets heavily drunk at the house of Dr Gandhi (Kulbhushan Kharbanda), Sinha's family doctor, who advises Sahil to accept Sheetal as his wife, reasoning that Sahil will lead a happier life with her. A drunk and still adamant Sahil returns home and finds, to his shock that someone has stabbed Sinha. Before Sinha can reveal the name of the murderer, he dies, while Sharda arrives and, finding Sahil near his dead step-father holding a knife, assumes him to be the killer. Sahil is accused and taken to court, where many of his acquaintances and Sharda testify against him. Sahil is found guilty and sentenced to 14 years in prison. Just before Sahil is transported to jail, he hands over a necklace to Sheetal, implying that it was left behind at the scene by the killer. He asks her to keep it safe. He also tells her that he has decided to find the real murderer at any cost, having finally realized Sinha's love for him.

In jail, Sahil relates his story to an old prisoner, who believes him to be innocent. The prisoner tells Sahil that the jail only has one escape route - a sewage gutter pipe that can be accessed from a flush toilet located in an unused chamber of the jail. Sahil creates a problem with two other prisoners, causing the jailor (Tej Sapru) to confine them in the chamber. After great effort, the three succeed in escaping the jail by sea, with a boat arranged by Sheetal.

Police Commissioner Patwardhan (Anjan Srivastav) assigns an unbending and upright police officer, Udham Singh (Om Puri) to handle the case of Sahil's re-apprehension. Sahil secretly meets Isha at her home, where he calls Dr Gandhi for advice, and Dr Gandhi invites Sahil to his home. Sahil reaches the doctor's residence and is shocked to find that somebody has stabbed Dr Gandhi. Dr Gandhi's servant finds Sahil near the dead doctor and shrieks, forcing him to escape. Dr Gandhi's servant reports Sahil to the police.

Udham Singh interrogates Sheetal, with whom Sahil still maintains a good relationship. Sheetal confesses to having spent the previous night with Sahil and also helping him escape jail. Singh does not arrest Sheetal for these wrongdoings for the time being, since he is highly focussed on apprehending Sahil.

Having now been accused of two murders, Sahil's resolve to find the murderer is strengthened. He first suspects advocate Thanawala, because Thanawala had a very good chance of obtaining Sinha's property upon his death, provided Sahil is out of the picture. He enters Thanawala's office and brutally interrogates him. Thanawala reveals that while he did intend to usurp Sinha's property, he did not commit the murder. Sahil then goes to the docks to interrogate Chaudhry, whom he suspects because of his involvement in fraudulent business practices, that Sinha did not support, but Chaudhry claims innocence as well and Sahil brutally beats up Chaudhry's brother during his escape . The next is Vilas Rao, the corrupt Union leader, who is beaten by Sahil before pointing the finger at Mantriji, alleging that Sinha's murder was a political assassination. Sahil and Sheetal trick Mantriji into attending a ceremony and kidnap him. Udham Singh is also present there and realizes that Sahil is not the real murderer after noticing his strong resolve.

Udham Singh investigates further and finds that the murders have been committed with two knives of exactly the same build and shape, indicating that they could belong to a set. He finds the set of knives at Ishwar Dewan's house with two knives missing and arrests Dewan, who confesses to the killing of Sinha and Dr Gandhi. Dewan divulges to have murdered Sinha because he did not accept Isha as his daughter-in-law; and killed Dr Gandhi to cover up the first crime because the latter had realized his true intentions. At the same time, Sahil is interrogating Mantriji, but Sheetal arrives and tells him that the murderer is Ishwar Dewan, and Sahil releases Mantriji. Isha, however, is shocked and tries to attack Sheetal, and later rushes to meet her father. Sahil, having finally been declared innocent, returns home and reconciles with his mother.

Harsh plays with the necklace that Sahil had found at the first crime scene. The nature of this necklace is still unknown at this point since Sahil had not managed to open it and none of the suspects recognized it. He opens the necklace with a screwdriver and shows it to Sahil, who finds his and Isha's picture inside. This leads to one shocking reality, Isha is the real killer. In the meantime, Isha enters Udham Singh's house and stabs him multiple times. The latter is taken to the hospital.

Sahil now reaches the police station and interrogates the incarcerated Ishwar Dewan, who admits that Isha was indeed the murderer. He reveals that while Isha loves him immensely, she has had a massive anger management problem since her childhood, particularly when it comes to Sahil. As a child, she had killed Dr. Gandhi's dog after it bit Sahil, following which she was sent to boarding school, despite Dewan's objections. Later, when she and Sahil reunited, her affection for Sahil grew to the point of possessiveness, and even more so after Sahil declared his love for her at his birthday party. She did not want to be separated from Sahil under any circumstance. After Sahil's argument with his father, Dewan and Isha had gone to meet Sinha the following morning, to request him to unite Sahil and Isha, whereupon the latter rejected them and asked them to leave. Isha was so enraged that she later stabbed Sinha to death. When Dr. Gandhi realized her intentions, she killed him as well. Dewan maintains that Isha killed the people who, in her opinion, were trying to keep her away from Sahil. She had considered revealing the truth and accept responsibility for the murders, but feared that Sahil would not accept her if she did so. Sahil is shocked beyond words, but understands that Isha will try to attack Sheetal next and calls her, asking her to lock all doors and entrances. He rushes to her house but is attacked by an assassin hired by Mantriji earlier. Sahil is injured, but manages to incapacitate the assassin and reach the house.

Sheetal takes Sahil's warning jokingly just as Isha arrives at her house. She is fooled by Isha at first, because the latter falsely apologizes for her misbehavior. Suddenly, Isha attacks Sheetal. Sahil arrives on time to save her and pulls Isha off Sheetal, who rushes into Sahil's arms. An enraged Isha tries to stab Sheetal again but the assassin intervenes and is killed instead. An inujred Udham Singh arrives and shoots Isha in the back. Isha begs Sahil for forgiveness, reaffirms her love for him and dies in his arms.

The film's soundtrack composed by Viju Shah, won Best Background Score at the 43rd Filmfare Awards in 1998. It was also nominated for the Best Music Director award.

Track list[3]

Gupt received positive reviews from critics upon release. Fullhyderabad.com gave it a 7.5/10 rating and wrote, "It is a slickly-made film with stylish cinematography, beautiful locales, and pretty good performances. It falls in the genre of thriller movies and fares much better than any of its sorry predecessors did. The director, Rajiv Rai is not over-awed by the subject and so does not make a hosh-posh out of the whole thing."[16] Mohammad Ali Ikram of Planet Bollywood praised the suspense and music.[17]

The movie's budget was 9 crore 50 lakh Rupees. It was released on 4 July 1997 at 250 screens. On the first day it collected 96 lakh Rupees and in the first week it collected 2 crore 78 lakh Rupees world wide. Collection was 33,23,93,750 Rupees and overseas collection was $425,000. The and film proved a superhit at the box office.

1997 was one of the most successful years for Bollywood with hits like Dil to Pagal Hai, Border, Judwaa, Pardes, Yes Boss, Virasat, Ziddi, Ishq and Gupt: The Hidden Truth. Gupt won 3 Filmfare Awards and was nominated in 5 other categories. It was also the fourth-highest grossing of the year after Border, Dil To Pagal Hai and Pardes. Kajol became the first actress in the history of the Filmfare Awards to win Best Villain.

• Red herring (narrative)
• Twist ending

• Gupt: The Hidden Truth at IMDb