Suryavanshi (1992) isn't just a completely ridiculous action-horror movie. There's plenty of ridiculous action and a fair amount of ridiculous horror, but this is also a movie with a very clear message. Naturally, that message is also completely ridiculous.
Archeologist DD (Ajit Vachani) is eager to explore the ruined kingdom of Sangramgadh. Before that can happen, though, he's looking forward to a visit from his dear friend JB (Saeed Jaffrey), a wealthy businessman now living in America. The reunion goes so well that JB suggests marrying his son Vicky (Salman Khan) to DD's daughter Sonia (Sheeba.) Sonia is thrilled, but Vicky is a cool modern dude and aspiring daredevil who doesn't want to be tied down. Sonia offers to refuse the match, but Vicky believes that it's his problem and he should solve it. Sonia warns him that he needs to refuse the match before their fathers announce it, because once it's public they couldn't possibly subject the family to the shame of a broken union. Thanks to some early spookiness, though, he bungles the refusal, the relationship is announced, and the wedding takes place. Sonia assures Vicky that it's a marriage for their parents' sake, she doesn't expect anything from Vicky, and they can secretly remain just good friends.
Now that the loveless marriage has been performed, there's archeology to be done! DD sends for a local baba (Kader Khan), who delivers the first half of the exposition: Sangamgadh was once a happy and prosperous kingdom, until it fell under the rule of the wicked princess Suryalekha (Amrita Singh.) The people rose up to overthrow her, but her ghost still haunts the palace, and the land has been cursed ever since. The baba explains that he has come face to face with the ghost herself, and she will not rest until someone brings her a Suryavanshi (a member of a mythical royal dynasty; the Suryavanshis are an important part of the superhero TV serial Shaktimaan.) And having delivered the appropriate exposition, the baba dies under mysterious circumstances.
Dire warnings and mysterious deaths are not enough to stop archeology, though, so the entire cast packs up and heads to the ruins, despite the fact that most of them have no qualifications whatsoever. After more spookiness, they discover a book written by the kingdom's vizier (Shakti Kapoor) which reveals the other half of the exposition. Princess Suryalekha owned a secret gladiatorial arena, complete with leopards and a terrifying cannibal in half a gorilla suit, which she used to dispatch the suitors her mother (Sushma Seth) arranged for her. And then one day the Suyavanshi Vikram Singh (Salman Khan again, this time wearing a ridiculous blond wig and an outfit that makes him look like a knock-off He-Man working in a seedy strip club) arrived and killed all the gladiators and cannibals (but not the leopards), thereby winning her heart. After the wedding night, though, Vikram leaves, telling the princess that it was all a trick to punish her for the murder of his friend, one of her former suitors. Then comes murder, suicide, curses, and the angry ghost.
While the angry princess is very clearly a ghost, this is really a mummy movie, with hapless archeologists accidentally releasing the undead monarch of a fallen kingdom, freeing her to seek out the reincarnation of her lost love. The only thing standing in her way is Sonia, and that's where the film's message comes in. Over the course of the movie, Sonia is repeatedly described as the ideal Indian wife because she is willing to sacrifice everything for her husband, and doesn't expect anything in return, not even his affection. The final confrontation makes it clear that Suryalekha's great sin is trying to make Vikram love her back, rather than all the people she's killed over the years. And no. I have very sturdy disbelief suspenders, and I can happily accept the goofy action scenes and dodgy special effects and the oil painting that has survived for thousands of years and even Salman's terrible wig, but I cannot accept a relationship in which one partner gives up everything and the other gives up nothing as healthy, let alone as the ideal. It is the silliest thing about a very silly movie.
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