9. Four-player chess variants
Chess variants for four players. They play in two teams: Yellow and Red play against Green and Blue. The teammates support each other, and attack the other team together.
The game ends when someone gets checkmated. Then the checkmater team wins and the other team loses.
More detailed rules: Four-player chess. These variants differ only in the board and the movement of the pieces. The general rules are the same.
The film’s deepest text unfolds in the police interrogation room where Ajay arrests Raj. The dialogue is sparse:
But Ajay’s hands tremble. The camera catches the tremor. This is Bhatt’s genius: the law is enforced by human hands that remember a father’s touch. Ajay does not resolve the conflict. He simply performs his duty while bleeding inside.
Let's be honest. Upon release, Naajayaz was not a massive commercial blockbuster. It faced stiff competition from films like Rangeela and Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge. The audience of 1995 was slightly confused: Was it a family drama? A cop movie? A tragedy? It didn't follow the standard "happy ending" formula.
However, time has been kind to Naajayaz. On OTT platforms and YouTube, the film has found a second life. For fans of gritty, realistic crime dramas (a la Satya or Gangs of Wasseypur), Naajayaz is the precursor.
The film’s emotional core is the inverted Oedipal conflict. Raj Solanki is not a villain in the traditional sense. He operates by a code: he doesn’t kill women, he respects loyalty, and he loves classical music. He calls his crime empire a "business." Ajay Devgan Movie Naajayaz
Deep take: Naajayaz argues that hypocrisy is the only true illegitimacy. Ajay can accept a gangster father, but not a fake one.
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In the mid-90s, Bollywood was largely an industry dominated by clear distinctions. Heroes were virtuous, villains were evil, and the lines between them were drawn in bold ink. It was the era of the "Lost and Found" tropes and righteous brothers separated at birth. Amidst this cinematic landscape, director Mahesh Bhatt and actor Ajay Devgn delivered Naajayaz (1995)—a film that dared to name its protagonist after the very stigma the society loathed.
Naajayaz, translating roughly to "Illegitimate" or "Unlawful," was not just a crime thriller; it was a brooding character study that utilized Ajay Devgn’s intense persona to challenge the conventional morality of the Hindi film hero. Nearly three decades later, the film stands out as a benchmark for Devgn’s versatility and Bhatt’s ability to extract raw emotion from commercial setups. The film’s deepest text unfolds in the police
If Ajay Devgn provided the soul of the film, Naseeruddin Shah provided its spine. Playing a dreaded gangster, Shah’s character acted as a mirror and an adversary to Devgn’s Jai.
The film’s highlight remains the explosive confrontation scenes between Devgn and Shah. It was a clash of acting schools: Devgn’s brooding, silent intensity pitted against Shah’s verbose, theatrical brilliance. In the famous police station confrontation scene—where Shah’s character sits calmly while Devgn fumes—the audience could feel the friction. It was a masterclass in how tension is built not through gunfire, but through dialogue delivery and silence. These scenes elevated Naajayaz from a standard actioner to a gripping psychological drama.
Milan Luthria, who would later gain massive fame with Once Upon a Time in Mumbaai (2010), showed his directorial prowess here. The action in Naajayaz is grounded and brutal, devoid of the flying, wire-fu stunts that plagued 90s movies. The climax, set in a rain-soaked shipyard, is a masterclass in atmospheric tension.
Luthria uses the monsoon backdrop of Bombay (now Mumbai) as a character itself—washed, gray, and morally ambiguous. But Ajay’s hands tremble
Bhatt uses female characters not as love interests but as ethical litmus tests.
No retrospective on Naajayaz is complete without mentioning Anu Malik’s soundtrack. While the film was dark, the music provided a melodic contrast that became a massive chartbuster.
The track "Barson Ke Baad", sung by Kumar Sanu, remains a quintessential Ajay Devgn anthem—a melancholic melody that perfectly captured the hero’s longing and isolation. It broke the narrative tension just enough to make the audience invest emotionally in Jai’s lonely world. The song proved that even a "gray" character could command the romantic empathy of the audience.