The new one is indeed better than the old one. Yet I put the old ahead of the new. And I have reasons for that. The new one has new amount of violence, colur, glamour, characters. But, the commonality with the old is obvious and neccessary for it's a remake of the predecessor, the source and here the new one falls short for the USP of Agneepath is over-the-top action with gallons of melodrama and to carry on that 'overthetop'ness throughout the film, the brand 'Agneepath' needed guys like Amitabh Bacchan's volcanic tantrum or Mithun Chakrabarty's loud slapsticks.(women don't have much to do here for it's a male film,macho,phallogocentric!).
The narrative tried hard to mix that overthe top colour into the more terrifying Kancha Cheena. And even the way the promos projected him(played by Sanjay Datt), it seemd that we would be lucky to savour the same iconic bollywoodized action flicks immortalised by Sholay,Shaan, Viswatma or Mohrawhere every frame breathes larger than life. But the lead villain had a very sketchy presence and was often eclipsed by the dirtier Rauf Lala,villain(played brilliantly by the inimitable Rishi Kapoor) of the subplot.Besides Cheena sometimes looked so firece almost to the point of invincible that he seemed to be character of anime or graphic novel if not a spoof. And may be that's why whenever Vijay Chauhan(Hrittik Roshan) and Cheena confronted, it looked such an ill-fitting battle.Now, somebody can wonder that let there be this unreality of showdown so that it would become overthetop.But,it didn't for Mr.Roshan could never look that vulnerable neither he would step outside his method of acting that is realism. He tried his best. He's commendable, but not convincing. He excelled in his Hamletian avatar but he failed to be the iconic Vijay Chauhan.
The rest is ok:the music,the brilliantly-shot seaside etc. The editing could have been more carefully doneif not taut for the saga of revenge at one point of time stopped even running;it only kept itself dragging on its lame feet slowly...the path was too long!