This action packed masala laden pot boiler arrived just five months after the legendary Maula Jat but failed to live up to expectations at the Box Office. The film is jam packed full of typical Punjabi mayhem with masses of violence, a record number of slaps, earth shaking lectures, massive confrontations, huge amounts of blood-letting and the introduction of the lethal four sided Gandaasa which you can see in the fabulous poster of the film which is incidentally available to buy from us (oil painted 6 by 4).

The film revolves around the big evil Malik who ruthlessly exploits the poor by forcing them to buy Permits from him for their very existence. The callous Malik, played with verve by Ilyas Kashmiri, is so evil that he doesn't even allow a poor man's burial to take place without first having the mourners buy his wretched Permit. Malik or Malka as he is called thus keeps his subjects under this tyrannical rule of the Permit and if anyone dares to resist his demands, they are dealt a most brutal justice. Bahar's husband is one man who refuses to bow to the illegal Permit of the Malik and arrives at the latter's house to lecture him only to be shot to pieces. Bahar turns vengeful and sprays Malik's hoods with a volley of gunfire, slaughtering the lot of them before the police arrive to drag her away. The seething Malik has Bahar's son abducted in anger at Bahar's murderous act against his henchmen.

Later, the Malik is met with stern resistance in the form of lion hearted young Gujjar Sultan Rahi who is actually Bahar's long lost son Beeru. He wins over the trust of Malik's right hand man Raja (Afzal Ahmed) who is smitten by Chakori, Rahi's feisty sister. There is the usual quagmire of misunderstandings, misplaced identities, separated parents and children, and none of it is in anyway novel having been then thousand times over in this kind of mayhem laden, revenge pot boiler. But to be fair, director Imtiaz Quraish has approached his insane material with such delirious abandon and joie de vivre that one has to admire the madness on screen. First up, the women characters are all fabulously depicted and at least as strong as any of their male counterparts on screen.

Bahar is a true daughter of the Punjab, feisty and defiant and bold - here she gets a meaty role which she does full justice to delivering numerous searing lectures and delivering a widows justice from the gun barrel. Chakori's character is also full of spunk and defiance and she bristles with rage against the evil and injustice of the Malik. Chakori delivers some of the most potent lectures in the movie and not only does she look her very best, she shows that she has a screen presence that made her stand out from the crowd and has endeared her to audiences for years to come. Her role as Daro Nathni in Maula Jat is a performance that the public will talk about for years to come and this performance in Permit has her in similarly fabulous form. Chakori's fireworks easily over shadow heroine Aasia's effort even though she too has been given some searing dialogues and confrontations and even gets to thrash the hell out of a bunch of lowlife goons with a stick.

Aasia plays the daughter of the evil Malik who rebels against her father and in a shocking climax scene is brutally gunned down by him as she dares to defy him by turning into a Gujjarni and marrying Sultan Rahi. Afzal Ahmed manages to turn up the decibel levels way beyond normal even for an action packed Punjabi film and most of his dialogues are shouted rather than spoken, as is the norm for the genre. Sultan Rahi shouts even louder than usual this time around while looking quite splendid in his Gujjar outfits.. The only thing missing really is the sleazy element - the film could have done with a dance of two of the risqué kind by one of either Perveen Boby, Anita , Nazli or Naureen. Unfortunately the dances on view are tame and forgettable as are the songs which is where Permit probably disappointed audiences most. Other than the musical and sleaze shortcomings the film is really quite a good laugh and so awful that it's actually rather fun!