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Category: Reviews

  • Two States, Three Stages

    Two States, Three Stages

    MUMBAI: Romance is between two individuals but marriage is between two families. For many, this is the moment of realisation and the word ‘adjustment’ replaces ‘romance’. This is true even when just about everything matches in the form of caste, community and status but harder when these matters differ and hardest when a romance is between North and South for that chasm is too deep rooted going back to the Aryan-Dravidian era.

    In able hands, Chetan Bhagat stories provide good themes to work on to develop into a film script.  And Two States, based on Bhagat’s novel, Two States: The Story Of My Marriage, aspires to the same feat earlier achieved by the 3 Idiots team. To some degree, it succeeds.

    Arjun Kapoor is Krish Malhotra, a typical Punjabi young man from Delhi pursuing his management programme at IIM Ahmedabad where Alia Bhatt, playing one Ananya  Swaminathan, a fellow student, seeks his help with her studies. Romance is inevitable, and it gets more intense by the day. Arjun dreads the day Alia will call hers a sisterly love and offer to tie a rakhi, which is quite a norm in schools and colleges. He wastes no time in confessing his love for her.

    Arjun has a reason for his deep love; there is no love at home. The atmosphere there is negative with his father, Ronit Roy, being drunk and violent and easily raising his hand on his mother, Amrita Singh. Arjun avoids interacting with his father and makes sure he gives all his attention to Amrita which she does not get from Ronit. The romance of Arjun and Alia has survived the two years of IIM and grown only stronger but it is time to part as the course is over and they must find jobs. Alia finds one in her hometown, Chennai. Arjun too finds a Chennai posting but Amrita, his mother, wants him to be in Delhi with her. Her plans are to flaunt her IIM graduate son to the parents of all the suitable girls. She dreams of dowries better than all others. But, eventually she relents.

    Producers: Sajid Nadiadwala, Karan Johar.

    Director: Abhishek Varman.

    Cast: Arjun Kapoor, Alia Bhatt, Amrita Singh, Ronit Roy, Revathi, Shiv Subramaniam.

    Amrita and Alia’s parents, father Shiv Subramaniam and mother Revathi, are introduced at the convocation function and the chance was not worth taking looking at the outcome of that meeting. Now Two States has to go through three stages: Arjun has to win over Alia’s traditional Tamil Brahmin parents. Next, Alia has to come to Delhi and conquer the hearts of Arjun’s family. And, lastly, since marriages are between families, to work on bringing both the families together with positive vibes. Though Ronit is not a party to the events, the third stage, bringing Amrita to like Alia’s parents is the mission impossible because for Amrita there is no girl worthy of her son, least of all a ‘Madrasi’ girl.

    The film breezes through while Arjun and Alia romance stage. It is all light moments and humour. Winning over of respective families is fun as both treat it as their respective challenges. The last part has an element of surprise and rounds up the film aptly. While the aversion of North and South parents for each other is amplified and nearly comes to insulting communities, it is justified in the script as both live in their own small worlds. The script provides a sense of feel-good, music is in measured levels, emotions without melodrama, and intense romance that makes other aspects acceptable.

    The credit goes to director Abhishek  Varman, who has also worked on adapting the Bhagat novel. Varman has done a marvellous job. Music is in keeping with the mood of situations as well as the film’s youth appeal with lyrics contributing in equal measure. Cinematography is pleasing. However, what makes Two States an endearing watch is the chemistry between Arjun and Alia who come up with amazing performances. Alia is suitably apt in all the shades of her character. Arjun gets his first chance to perform in a solo, more serious role and he does full justice. He has finally arrived. While the credit goes for perfect casting, the artistes, Amrita, Ronit, Revathi and Shiv (he should be seen on screen more often) live up to expectations.

    Two States is a youth-oriented entertainer with all the necessary ingredients perfectly balanced to make it a success.

  • Bhootnath Returns…….Ghost Samaritan

    Bhootnath Returns…….Ghost Samaritan

    MUMBAI: It has become a trend for a film to end with a threat of a sequel. Good or bad or outright disastrous, most films leave open the possibility. That is like hoping to build a high rise on a weak foundation since most of these films promising sequels are flops. In that event, what led to the sequel to Bhootnath which was rejected in cinemas though it did better on TV and DVD circuits? Whatever the inspiration, here goes:

    Bhootnath, Amitabh Bachchan, has been referred back to ghost land like a bounced cheque since he has failed to scare people on his first outing with earthlings. Ghosts laugh at him because of his failure to scare humans. Amitabh has eons before he can return to earth as a human and he feels belittled at this treatment by fellow ghosts. He asks the boss of ghost land to give him one more chance to go back and successfully scare people. After all, scaring living beings is what ghosts are supposed to do!I know as much about ghosts as ghosts know about me but this is what the film professes.

    Back on earth, Amitabh uses his ghostly powers to scare some kids playing cricket in a deserted place. The kids are not the kind to believe in ghosts, let alone be scared of one. He comes across a kid, Parth Bhalerao, who can see him and is not scared of him since he does not believe Amitabh to be a ghost; the kid is street smart.  A street smart kid led to Amitabh’s failure on his last trip on earth but, this time, the kid and the ghost both decide to use each others’ strengths.

    Producers: Bhushan Kumar, Krishan Chopra, Renu Ravi Chopra.

    Direction: Nitesh Tiwari.

    Cast: Amitabh Bachchan, Parth Bhalerao, Boman Irani, Usha Jadhav, Sanjay Mishra, Brijendra Kala, Usha Nadkarni.

    It seems the area where Partho lives, Dharavi, is the most neglected and deprived in Mumbai. Bhootnath decides to make his return to the earth at Dharavi, his bad luck! Soon Parth teaches the ghost the game of using each other. While Parth uses Amitabh to first help scare the convent school gang of cricket players and get into their league, Amitabh, in return, earns secrecy about his being and the fact that he is not all that scary a ghost. With a little help from Parth, Amitabh becomes a good neighbourly ghost helping people get their due justice. It is all fun so far but it is also time to introduce the villain.

    Boman Irani is an ex-local goon turned politician and has been ruling the area assembly seat for the last three terms. His is a reign of terror, corruption and exploitation. His voters abhor him but also vote for him. Nobody would contest an election against him and, finally, it is left to Amitabh to do it. The law is silent on weather a dead man can contest an election and his lawyer, Sanjay Mishra, asserts as such. So, it is an electoral fight between Amitabh and Boman. This is where the film loses its purpose and direction and, mainly, its target audience: the kids it is aimed at.

    The film entertains with its witty one liners delivered by Parth but, once the election issue is introduced, it becomes another film altogether. The light moments vanish and moralising lectures take their place, which is boring. On that count, the script loses its purpose. Direction is fair with quite a few liberties taken. There is no scope for songs except for sermonising kinds. Cinematography is good. Dialogue is well penned. The film has sourced a few of its actors from Marathi films. Parth is impressive. Usha Jadhav as his mother is very good. Amitabh Bachchan is his usual self, one who does not have to act to convey his part. Boman Irani goes a bit overboard at times. Sanjay Mishra and Brijendra Kala are good as always. Shah Rukh Khan and Ranbir Kapoor make brief cameos to no effect.

    On the whole, the problem with Bhootnath Returns is that it turns out to be a children’s film with an adult theme coming as it does in the multiplex era where waiting for a DVD works out more economical than sending kids to cinema halls (as has been proved by the performance of Bhootnath on this count).

  • ‘Main Tera Hero’: David & Dhavan

    ‘Main Tera Hero’: David & Dhavan

    MUMBAI: When watching a David Dhavan film, remember he is a Manmohan Desai fan and believes in making films to entertain. Ergo, don’t look for logic or argue about the last scene and the next being not connected. As long as the film gives you ‘time pass’ his agenda has been met. A father directing his son is a rare privilege enjoyed by very few filmmakers. Here, David directs his son, Varun Dhavan.

    Varun is a good-for-nothing boy studying in Coonoor and, obviously, finds it hard to get through his class. Many of his fellow students go to Bengaluru to study and come back with better results. Varun also decides to do that. Once in a Bengaluru college, the inevitable happens. He spots Ileana D’Cruz and, for him, it is love at first sight. Since this is a remake of the Telugu film, Kandireega, what follows is bizarre! It happens only in South Indian films and that is, Ileana is being watched over by a bunch of goons delegated by Arunoday Singh, a local cop who is in love with her and overtly possessive about her so no one dare look at her, let alone come anywhere near her or love her. Arunoday is always accompanied by a fellow cop and his sidekick, Rajpal Yadav.

    Well, Varun has already fallen for her and is not scared of Arunoday which he proves at first opportunity by thrashing his goons. Next he should be thrashing Arunoday and that would be the end of the story. But that would also mean the end of the film less than hour into it. For the sake of affording the film its full 2-hours-plus run, Arunoday challenges Varun to win over Ileana in the next three days or else face his wrath.

    Varun wins over Ileana even before he starts and Arunoday should not be a hurdle anymore.  And he is not, but there is a bigger challenge for Varun now. His lady love, Ileana is kidnapped and the man behind it is the father of a girl who fell for Varun when he was on his way to Bengaluru. It so happened that he fought some rowdy boys on the way and a girl, Nargis Fakhri, who captured his actions on her handycam had fallen for him. She happens to be the daughter of the biggest don operating between Asia and Africa, Anupam Kher. Ileana has been kidnapped by the don’s man so that Varun follows her and Kher can then make him marry his daughter, Nargis!

    Producers: Ekta Kapoor, Shobha Kapoor.

    Director: David Dhavan.

    Cast: Varun Dhawa,Ileana D’Cruz, Nargis Fakhri, Arunoday Singh, Anupam Kher, Evelyn Sharma, Raju Kher.

    Anupam is supposed to be sinister, pulling out a gun at the drop of a hat. But for the sake of entertainment, he is more of a caricature, with Saurabh Shukla as his sidekick. As if that were not enough, Arunoday, along with his sidekick, Rajpal, has also followed Varun to Anupam’s den. Varun has ten days to marry Nargis. Meanwhile, he has to pretend to be in love with Nargis while trying to get her out of his hair so he can romance with his true love, Ileana. The only help he has is from lord Ganesh and Jesus Christ, their statues talking back to him. Finally, Nargis finds her true love in Arunoday with some help and prodding from Varun.

    While the first half is fun and dance and battles of one-upmanship with Arunoday, the film gathers more pace in second half as more characters are added in the form of Anupam, Saurabh and Nargis. Being a Telugu remake, some aspects may seem farfetched: like the character of Arunoday, a mere inspector who terrorises a girl and her parents as he plans to marry her, that too in a metro like Bengaluru.

    David Dhavan directs his son and has rightly chosen to make a light entertainer which usually don’t backfire and fit the slot of a typical David film. As usual, he also does not get carried away with length and restricts the film to 128 minutes. The film has peppy music and provides scope for Varun to showcase his dancing prowess. However, the background score is full of pieces from RD Burman and Bappi Lahiri repertoire. Cinematography is good. Varun has an easy job of playing a carefree young man with the role requiring no drama. But why is he imitating Govinda and Anil Kapoor? Ileana is okay while Nargis has little to do. Anupam and Saurabh are in their element providing much of the fun. Shakti Kapoor in guest role lends his presence.

    On the whole, Main Tera Hero is a fair entertainer with a reasonably good opening response. While the T20 may affect its collections on Friday and Sunday (if India qualifies for the finals), in many parts it will have the advantage of Ram Navami and election day holidays.

    Jal: Dry run…

    Kutch, the deserted district of north-west Gujarat, seems to have become the flavour of the season for both commercial as well as offbeat films. Jal is the latest film based in Kutch, dealing with its water problems. The film is about a clairvoyant who can pinpoint a spot where a well can be dug to find water. Now that Narmada waters have reached far-flung corners of Kutch including the borders manned by the army, the subject may seem a bit out of sync but mattered a lot not very long ago.

    Producers: Puneet Singh, Girish Malik, Sumit Kapoor, Yogesh Mittal.

    Director: Girish Malik.

    Cast: Purab H Kohli, Kirti Kulhari, Saidha Jules, Mukul Dev, Tannishtha Chatterjee, Yashpal

    Sharma, Ravi Gossain, Vicky Ahuja.

    Purab Kohli is Bakka who is gifted with this instinct of spotting water underground with the help of his two brass sticks. He is right 60 per cent of the time by his own admission and his village counts on him in the absence of an alternative. When he isolates a spot, they just dig! This is his livelihood. On a personal front, Bakka loves the daughter of the mukhiya of the neighbouring village, Kirti Kulhari, with which his village has a running feud because that village has abundant water while his village has no source of water. Bakka is also loved by his best friend’s sister in his own village, Tannishtha Chatterjee.

    Things change for Bakka and his villagers when a researcher, Saidha Jules, arrives. She sets up her base on the waterfront where thousands of flamingos arrive each year. Soon she notices that the young ones of these flamingos die because of excess salt content in the water. The salt dries up in their wings rendering them flightless. She realises that sweet water needs to be added to this flow of water. Drilling machines are brought in and spots isolated where water could be found. This also provides labour to villagers who are engaged to take the dug sand away. However, despite the drill and the computer, the team fails to find water.

    Bakka’s skills are called upon to identify spots with water. All the three spots he earmarks give water. Bakka becomes a small celebrity and also gets employment from the government. Now the neighbouring village mukhiya is ready to give his daughter to Bakka in marriage. All is going well when his own villagers expect Bakka to borrow the drilling machine from Saidha and her colleague Gary Richardson. But, before he could raise the subject with Saidha she has left having finished her job. Gary also feels he has no use for Bakka now and ignores him. It is while Gary and his team are away that Bakka lures their middleman, Yashpal Sharma, with gold collected from the villagers. But, tragedy strikes, the machine breaks down and all hell breaks loose.

    The happy days are over for Bakka. His efforts to manually dig for water fail. The gold is stolen and he is blamed and thrown out of the village along with his heavily pregnant wife. When, finally, good news comes in the form of an article on his skills and a cheque as a reward, Bakka is nowhere around to collect it.

    While the first half is light with a lot of bonhomie and humour among the villagers, the second half, especially towards the end, becomes heavy with some forced tragedy. Direction is generally good. Background score as well as the choice of folk songs is effective. The highlight of the film is cinematography by Sunita Radia who captures vast vistas of the desert beautifully while also excelling otherwise. Purab is impressive with another good performance coming from Tannishtha. The rest, cast as village folk are natural.

    Jal will find a lot of appreciation from critics as well as on the festival circuit but not find many takers in cinema halls.

  • Dhishkiyaon: Dhishki..yawn

    Dhishkiyaon: Dhishki..yawn

    MUMBAI: Looking at Dhishkiyaon, it is more than obvious that the writer director of this film, Sanamjit Talwar has been fed on a diet of 1970s films of Mumbai underworld. The all-time classic Deewaar set a trend that many makers have tried to emulate. Everything about Dhishkiyaon is copybook: it’s set in the Mumbai underworld of the Koliwada beaches and deals mainly with smuggling and the role of the police. And, like in many filmy underworlds, there are layers to the operatives so that the fight can continue and the main don can be taken up in the end like the favourite food item reserved till last.

    Harman Baweja is a well-behaved kid being brought up by his father, having lost his mother at five. His father has little time for him but advises him to follow the Gandhian path. Harman is the victim of a school bully who beats him up and humiliates him every day. But he also has close friends in a girl and a boy. Fed up of the class bully, the child Harman decides to give supari to a local gangster, Prakash Narayanan, because he has been told that Prakash can handle anybody. Prakash takes a fancy to the kid and tells him that the only way to stop the bully is to give it back to him. Prakash and Harman are now inseparable and next thing you know, Harman has grown up and is a member of Prakash’s gang.

    Prakash, as Harman learns soon, is not the ultimate don. He answers to another don, Sumit Nijhwan. And then there is another don, Rajesh Vivek, who is liquidating all his assets and clearing out of the game, though he doesn’t explain why. Harman wants to steal his computer and through that the loot from Vivek’s assets. However, his plan is hijacked by Sumit. There has been a killing in the process of stealing the computer. Vivek’s accountant as well as Harman’s mentor, Prakash, is killed. Harman is made an offer to either take a bullet or take the rap for the killings. For Harman, it is necessary to stay alive to avenge Prakash’s death.

    Producers: Sunil Lulla, Shilpa Shetty.

    Director: SanamjitTalwar.

    Cast: Sunny Deol, Harman Baweja, Ayesha Khanna, Prashant Narayanan, Aditya Pancholi, Anand Tiwari, Rajit Kapoor, in item number Shilpa Shetty.

    While in jail, Harman meets Sunny Deol, a Haryanvi. Both while away their time playing snakes and ladders, which Sunny also uses to teach his philosophies of life and survival to Harman. Once out of jail, both team up and, under the guidance of Sunny, Harman plans his revenge on Sumit. Harman impresses Sumit and gains his confidence despite opposition from Sumit’s right hand man, Anand Tiwari. He also cultivates the policeman, Aditya Panscholi. With the screen so crowded, it is time to eliminate some people. Finally, it is between Harman, Tiwari and Sumit.

    The film starts with Harman narrating his life story to Sunny in first person with some flashbacks. This continues almost till interval. It is a poor use of the visual medium of film. There is no background to Sunny’s character. He is larger than life because of his public image as a toughie. Sadly, the same can’t be said of the villains who are unknown faces without any image and don’t help Harman’s character grow. The script is patchy and the scenes that inspired the writer have been thrown in piecemeal. Dialogue is good at places. Musically, one song is hummable. A little trimming would have helped.

    While Sunny and Aditya stay true to their style of acting, Harman is limited by his expressions. Prakash is very good. Sumit is okay. Tiwari grossly overacts.

    Dhishkiyaon is a lost cause and will find it tough to see through even the weekend.

    Youngistaan: No Politics Please

    Political stories either blended with family sagas or with romance, whichever way, don’t usually work in mainstream Hindi cinema except for the odd one, like the antiestablishment Inquilaab (1984) or South remake Nayak (2001), both of which barely managed to scrape through. The one which went on to become a classic is Aandhi (1975). Against this, the list of flops is long. Even rarer are political films about young people in politics. Before the recent Rajneeti (2010) the last film one remembers of a young man (Prosenjit) going into politics with an agenda was Aandhiyan (1990), with the only attraction of this film being the return of Mumtaz to Hindi cinema. While Nayak and Inquilaab with Anil Kapoor and Amitabh Bachchan, respectively, in the lead had some star power, Aandhiyan lacked on that count, a problem that Youngistaan suffers from to a great degree.

    Producer: Vashu Bhagnani.

    Director: Syed Ahmad Afzal.

    Cast: Jackky Bhagnani, Neha Sharma, Farooq Sheikh, Boman Irani, Kayoze Irani, Meeta Vasisht.

    Jackky Bhagnani is a young easygoing guy enjoying life with his steady girlfriend, Neha Sharma. His life is all about fun and games, parties and romance. That he is the son of the powerful PM of India, Boman Irani, hardly touches his life as he is gallivanting in far away Japan. That is until, one day suddenly, Boman is no more and Jackky is called upon to fill in his father’s shoes until the elections, which are due soon. At 28, he is the youngest PM of a vast country, straight from a life of luxury to no-frills political showmanship, from denims to kurtas.

    Now instead of his friends, he is surrounded by his political ‘friends’ of whom he is never sure. There is no life or privacy with his lady love anymore. In fact, his love life with a live-in girlfriend is out of sync with the political traditions; they are not supposed to do these things openly! He also has another problem. His partner, Neha, is not in favour of him taking up politics, least of all his father’s responsibilities. And there is, of course, the game of wits with other politicians.

    Inspired from the Telugu film Leader, Youngistan could have been a subject worth trying in a regional language but not in Hindi where, in politics, even those in 40s are considered young! Also, it is not as simple as taking over a kingdom. This makes the theme seem implausible and farfetched. Also, there is too much of real politics happening in the electronic media nowadays what with general elections around the corner. Direction is fair. Musically, the film has a couple of good numbers. Jackky manages a passable act. Neha is okay. The one worth watching the film for is Farooq Sheikh, this being the great artiste’s last film.

    Youngistan has had a poor opening with no audience-no show at many cinemas.

    O Teri: No Teri

    Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro is a cult classic meant to be enjoyed again and again, not to be blatantly copied; never. O Teri is just that, an attempt to present, what the makers think, is a contemporary version of the Kundan Shah classic. In the bargain, the producers also waste the goodwill earned with their last production, Bodyguard. It could have been better utilized.

    Pulkit Samrat and Bilal Amrohi are greenhorn TV news reporters working as a team as well as living under same roof in Delhi. They have no sense of newsworthiness and their boss, Sarah-Jane Dias, is exasperated with the duo. She wanted scams and other such big news. Finally, she sacks them. What is worse, Pulkit is besotted by Sarah. The film’s tempo is set with the murder of a police detective who has managed to expose a scandal by Anupam Kher and was about to go public with it. He has been shot and then run over by a speeding car. Strings are pulled to have it declared an accidental death. The killers, however, fail to dispose the cop’s corpse safely and dump it in Pulkit’s Fiat car.

    Producers: Alvira Agnihotri, Atul Agnihotri.

    Director: Umesh Bist.

    Cast: Pulkit Samrat, Bilal Amrohi, Sarah-Jane Dias, Anupam Kher, Mandira Bedi, Vijay Raaz, Manoj Pahwa and Salman Khan in a cameo.

    Excited, the duo informs Sarah, who asks them to bring the body to her studio. (That is the kind of film this is where a news editor expects a corpse ferried around town and delivered at her doorstep.) However, when Sarah comes along to the car park to see the body, it is missing. The duo gets an earful. As both argue over a foot over bridge, the bridge, newly built, starts coming apart. The scandal is at hand and happening with the duo being right in the middle of the happenings. Bilal puts his Handycam to use. But, these are blundering boys and never get anything right. When they go to Sarah to show her the live coverage of the collapsing bridge, the disc is corrupted!

    While the CD may not have copied the whole shoot, it does manage to shoot the stolen corpse of the cop buried under the bridge debris. The boys are back in action. The charade goes on ad nauseam as just about everybody is on the villains’ side and gangs up against the two. However, the makers’ don’t let up on the greed for a happy ending.

    There are good films at times and there are bad films most of the time but, O Teri vies for the slot of a very, very bad film. It has no script, no coherence, no logic and no appeal of any kind. The presence of any director is suspect. Songs are forced in to take the film to an acceptable length which adds to the viewers’ tedium. Dialogue is banal. As for its two lead men, while Pulkit fails, making an effort, Bilal can’t act to save his life. Sarah lacks presence. Vijay Raaz is getting more irritable with every film he does. Anupam Kher is a caricature while Manoj Pahwa is okay in an undefined role. Salman Khan’s cameo song in the end titles may see few if any still around in the hall to watch it.

    For a film with thanks to Salim Khan and Salman Khan among others in its credit titles, O Teri is an example of gross waste of resources, financial as well as personal relations.

  • Ragini MMS 2: Sex sells

    Ragini MMS 2: Sex sells

    MUMBAI: Ragini MMS 2 has two major factors working for it: the brand equity created by Ragini MMS and the image of Sunny Leone. What is more, while anything goes in the name of horror genre, there is a lot of inspiration in Hollywood films so that you don’t need to copy only one source but use various sources to create characters, get-up and events.

    A haunted house is the most convenient and plausible place to actually be haunted. Since this is a sequel, the ground is laid for the theme. A director, Pravin Dabas, wants to make a film on the Ragini case. He gets more than he asked for as the place has its own in-house chudail and spirits. For distractions, there are the side artistes in Sandhya Mridul who is prepared for the casting couch and there is Karan Mehra, the TV star and Divya Dutta, a psychiatrist, who treats the spirits rather than victims as she chants mantras to drive the evil away!

    Though there is more horror than there is sex, it does not totally disappoint those who went mainly for Sunny. Starting with a display of Sunny’s daily change of colourful underwear to bathroom sex and lesbian scenes, the film delivers what it promises to viewers. When it comes to horror, the main source seems to be the TV serial, American Horror.

    Sunny is competent in sex scenes. For the rest, she passes muster. After all, histrionics is not what people come expecting from her. Divya Dutta is good in a corny role. Sandhya Mridul and rest are okay. Direction is tacky. The film has two popular songs, Baby doll… and Char bottle vodka.. the latter one having been wasted on end titles.

    Producers: Ekta Kapoor, Shobha Kapoor.

    Director: Bhushan Kapoor.

    Cast: Sunny Leone, Pravin Dabas, Sahil Prem, Sandhya Mridul, Divya Dutta, Karan Mehra.

    With its ace of spade, Sunny, assures the film a good opening response.  Merits won’t matter for Ragini MMS 2 at the box office as it should sail through in its opening weekend.

    Lakshmi: Misnomer for box office

    Lakshmi is about child prostitution and, hence, there is nothing that you have not seen often before. Sadly, it is so commonplace that even the newspapers don’t cover it except when it is something sensational or involves a famed NGO. However, it is a staple fodder for crime-based TV serials like Crime Patrol. The story of Lakshmi is also based on real life cases, though several incidents have been composited and told through one character, that of Lakshmi. The outcome is neither a formula for a box office hit nor a documentary.

    Monali Thakur (Lakshmi) lives with her drunkard father and two younger sisters in a small Andhra village. She is pretty and presentable and her father sells her off to a local female municipal councilor, Gulfam Khan, who maintains a supply line of young girls for a brothel owned by Satish Kaushik and managed by his brother, Nagesh Kukunoor, in nearby Hyderabad. The brothers run a brothel under the guise of a needy women’s hostel. Kaushik, who initially berates Nagesh for bringing an underage girl, decides to keep her with him on the girl’s own insistence! Now, why would she want to give up her two loving younger sisters who depend totally on her in their village to willingly stay with Kaushik? This is only the beginning; the film’s script abounds in illogical inputs.

    Kaushik who comes across as a pure heart, is not all that. He is getting the girl treated for early physical maturity through artificial hormonal enhancement. In three weeks, he is ready to rape her and then put her out in his brothel. Now Lakshmi is raped every day but, tutored by her roommate, Flora Saini, she learns to manage. Her attempts to escape continue on and off for which she pays heavily with bodily harm at the hands of Kukunoor.

    Producers: Nagesh Kukunoor, Elahe Hiptoola, Satish Kaushik.

    Director: NageshKukunoor.

    Cast: Monali Thakur, Satish Kaushik, Nagesh Kukunoor, Shefali Shah, Ram Kapoor, Flora Saini.

    Enter an NGO which sends a man in the guise of a customer who, with the help of the madam of the joint, Shifaali Shah, plants a video camera in Lakshmi’s room! Why only her room? Now it is time to bring the culprits to book. There is no scene wasted on establishing how and why Reddy brothers, Kaushik and Nagesh, are so dreaded but seems like no lawyer in his senses will accept Lakshmi’s case when she decides to file for rape. So, inspired by many Hollywood and some Indian films, it is left for a loser lawyer, Ram Kapoor, to take up the case. What follows is a test of tolerance of a viewer.

    This can go down as one of the worst scripts complemented by most unimaginative direction. Unsurprisingly, the director and the writer happen to be the same person. Most characters contradict their part in the film. In later parts, the film resorts to gore and cheap gimmicks like a cigarette up a woman and hitting the victim girl with a rod prepared with multiple nails. This is frankly disgusting. The court trial is comic and the judge and the lawyers are caricatures. So is the courtroom set. Music is no help. Of all the performers, Monali tries her best despite her funny getup with a wig! Shifaali is okay despite her poor characterisation. Flora Saini emerges the best of the lot. Kaushik is a make-believe Andhrite. Kukunoor is rank bad as an actor. Direction is shoddy and visually too, the film is grim.

    Lakshmi is one film which was better off not attempted.

    Gang of Ghosts: Ghost of a chance

    Since many people are worried that ghost stories may encourage superstition, such films often end with vested interests—all of the non-ghost variety—creating situations to drive people away from lucrative properties. However, Gang of Ghosts is a remake of a hit and much-acclaimed Bengali film, Bhooter Bhabishyat and actually tells the story of ghosts, the troubled souls whose abodes are being eyed by a greedy land grabber, Rajesh Khattar. It is about how a bunch of ghosts decide to take on the land mafia to save their terrain.

    Royal Mansion is a palatial mansion built by Anupam Kher next to a mill in this pre-independence saga. Having sold his mill to the British Raj in exchange for the title of Rai Bahadur, he plans to use the place to fete and celebrate evenings with the rulers. You may compare this part to a chapter from Kolkata’s Jagirdari era when every evening was a celebration. But, by selling his mill to the British, Anupam has offended his mill workers who are now being exploited by the new owners. Deprived of their dues, the workers decide to burn down the mill as well as the adjoining Royal Mansion.

    The burning mill and the mansion also take Anupam along. Anupam, now a ghost, is lonely in his mansion while a lot of stray ghosts are looking for a place to belong. He decides to accommodate some more ghosts in his mansion so as to make ghostly-hood livelier. Starting with an Empire era J Barandon Hill, the ghost family goes on to include Mahie Gill, Saurabh Shukla, Rajpal Yadav, Meera Chopra, Yashpal Sharma and the later additions Chunky Pandey and Jackie Shroff.

    Producers: Venus Records & Tapes Ltd, Satish Kaushik Entertainment.

    Director: Satish Kaushik.

    Cast: Sharman Joshi, Parambrata Chatterjee, Mahie Gill, Anupam Kher, Meera Chopra, J. Brandon Hill, Rajesh Khattar, Saurabh Shukla, Rajpal Yadav, Yashpal Sharma, Vijay Verma, Chunky Pandey, Jackie Shroff, Paoli Dam and Aniruddh Dave (guest app).

    Sabyasachi Chakrabarty is an ad film maker on a visit to recce the mansion as a location for his ad film. The place used to be a popular location for film shoots but out of favour since a starlet saw a ghost in her makeup room mirror! Here, he is being stalked by an aspiring/ struggling script writer, Sharman Joshi. Sharman has a script on ghosts which he wants Sabyasachi to direct. Joshi narrates the script of the owner of Royal Mansion, Anupam, who haunts the mansion along with few others and how there is a plot by Rajesh Khattar to bring down the mansion and build a mall in its place. The ghosts have their own social networking media called Spook Book from where they trace Khattar’s ghost wife, who he killed, and a don-turned-ghost Jackie Shroff to tackle Khattar, in an effort to save the mansion.

    After spending considerable footage on Sharman introducing the characters of his story, there is some song and dance as the ghosts party. But then the property and mall aspects of the film make it just another routine story. Suffering from a poorly written script despite adaption from an acclaimed Bengali film, Gang of Ghosts goes nowhere and lacks in substance. Satish Kaushik, who is known for his comic roles and who has found some success in directing remakes (usually from South) is totally at sea here. There is no comedy evident except some punning, which is over the top; only the characters on screen seem to enjoy the film since they laugh all the time. Music is bad with songs crammed in at random. Editing needed to be tighter as the film sags often. There is not much to performances unless loud gestures pass as acting.

    Gang of Ghosts is poor in all respects and will remain so at the box office too.

    Ankhon Dekhi : Seeing is believing…but not this one

    Ankhon Dekhi is a film which you can’t slot in any year; it is so ancient! The closest you can come to identifying it is with the 1984 TV serial (in the era of Doordarshan’s monopoly days) Hum Log, which is about a middle class Old Delhi family. This film looks like a prequel to Hum Log if such a thing was possible. The ‘Hero’ of the film is Sanjay Mishra and his name is expected to draw the audience to cinema halls.What else can one expect when the maker calls Mani Kaul and Kumar Shahani his idols or inspirations. Whatever you call it, this film has nothing to do with the business of high-risk filmmaking.

    Producer: Manish Mundra.

    Director: Rajat Kapoor.

    Cast: Sanjay Mishra, Rajat Kapoor.

    Sanjay Mishra and his brother, Rajat Kapoor, live jointly in a middleclass Old Delhi locality. The house is always bustling with activity and efforts to solve typical middleclass problems. Resolving one such problem, it dawns on Mishra that he should never believe in hearsay and commit himself only after being sure of facts. This is like a person swearing never to tell a lie. One can imagine the problems such a decision can produce. Mishra works at a travel agency. When a customer wanting to book a ticket wants to know about timings, Mishra refuses to commit on the basis of airline website since he has not travelled to the destination and has no first hand information! For him, the motto is ‘Seeing is Believing’. Not willing to continue with a job where he has to rely on secondhand information, he resigns.

    For a few days, Mishra pretends to go to office. Instead, with his tiffin in hand, he roams around the city like a bunking school kid would. The family soon finds out and troubles start on home front too. Firstly, because Mishra has stopped praying as he used to since he has not seen God. Mainly, he counts on his brother and son to support the family. The inevitable happens, Rajat wants out while the son he was counting on has become a gambler and builtup debt with the local gambling den. That is when the film starts getting really odd: Mishra turns a professional gambler himself jockeying for the club. It is hard to think of many middle class homes where such things can happen.

    Mishra is a seasoned artiste and does very well. Rajat is suitably restrained. The rest are okay. But where is the monotonous background music from, the Film Division library?

    The film can be described as an old-fashioned family drama, the kind they made in mid-1900s, except that this one is an odd ball. With a slow-paced script and direction to match, shot on drab surroundings, it is not much of a viewing pleasure.

  • Bewakoofiyaan: The title says it all

    Bewakoofiyaan: The title says it all

    MUMBAI: Bewakoofiyaan is another Yash Raj Films production, after Gunday, that invests in newer, younger stars. As the stars in these films grow in stature and following, so does the shelf value of these films. Since such films are made with a tight control on the budget and are backed by the same marketing machine that the company’s major films get, YRF is usually safe with the ventures even if a certain film does not make it at the box office.

    Bewakoofiyaan is a romantic comedy in that Ayushmann Khurrana and Sonam Kapoor love each other. When Khurrana is promoted to the post of senior executive at the airline where he works, he celebrates by acquiring a car to replace his bike. Sonam’s talent lies in finance and she works for a bank. They have been dating for two years and now that Khurrana has been promoted, it is time to take him to her father, Rishi Kapoor.

    Rishi is a freshly retired IAS officer whose grouse is that he never got a decent posting in his career. He has his own set ideas about what kind of man his daughter should marry and has made a dossier of suitors for her of guys who have minimum income of 25 crore!  The first hurdle Khurrana faces is that he earns about 10% less than Sonam and that makes him totally not suitable according to Rishi. After that, everything about Khurrana is a negative as far as Rishi is concerned. However, since Sonam is determined to marry Khurrana, Rishi sets terms and a timeframe for him to prove himself suitable to be his son in law.

    Producer: Aditya Chopra.

    Director: Nupur Asthana.

    Cast: Rishi Kapoor, Aushmann Khurana, Sonam Kapoor.

     

    Every day is a test now for Khurrana. Tutored by Sonam on how to deal with Rishi, he lets Rishi have his way, even letting him win in a game of squash. That is when the worst happens. Khurrana’s airline sacks 1200 employees and he is one of them. The logic behind sacking a just promoted executive is that, in his salary, the company can afford three freshers! Confident that he will land another job in matter of time, Khurrana survives on his credit card for a while until he reaches his three lakh credit limit which, as luck would have it, happens when he has asked Rishi out for lunch.

    Khurrana now depends on Sonam for his house rent, car installment, fuel, pocket money and everything else. Yet, no job is forthcoming. Those which are coming are not to his liking. There is bound to be pressure on the relationship. While he is scoring brownie points with Rishi, somewhere along the way, his romance is on test.

    The problem with Bewakoofiyaan is that, it is not a romance in the making which, since centuries, is exciting to watch. The script has too many contradictions, more so in Rishi’s character.  The music, which is a must in any Indian film but essential in a romantic film, is a total let down with the lyrics making no sense. Dialogue is uninspiring. Again, something that a romantic film needs is solid chemistry between its lead characters and here there is none of that between Sonam and Khurrana. Both fall short in performances as well. The one who gets around comfortably is Rishi, but then, he is a veteran.

    While the film sags throughout, it becomes a little watchable only during last 20 minutes or so. Even this long weekend will not help Bewakoofiyan much at the box office.

  • Gulaab Gang: Colourless

    Gulaab Gang: Colourless

    MUMBAI: There are a whole lot of enthusiastic new filmmakers who want to be launched and they are often impressed by a local story, episode or a character that they think, it is a subject apt for a film. But biopics are not accepted in India generally. Even a film like Gandhi only just managed to scrape through. The others, whether on Nehru, Bose, Patel or Ambedkar have been box office disasters.

    The story of Gulaab Gang emanates from a real-life UP character, Sampat Pal Devi, who commandeers a gang of women adorned in pink saris. The gang’s agenda is to get justice for the poor ill-treated women of the area. The makers deny that the story is based on the life of Sampat Pal Devi and even run a slide at the beginning to the effect, but the similarities of not only the basic concept but even the events and incidents are the kinds Devi dealt with. In which case, coincidences to a real life character abound in this film.

    Madhuri Dixit is beaten black and blue by her step mother even as her father looks on. But she is determined to learn to read and write. Next thing you know, Madhuri has suddenly turned into a middle-aged woman who runs this gang-cum-NGO described as Gulaab Gang. Her campus looks like one from a Bruce Lee Kung Fu film teaching a bunch of Chinese students the art of self-defence, except that here there are pink-sari-clad women trying their hands on lathi wielding.

    Producer:  Anubhav Sinha.

    Director: Soumik Sen.

    Cast: Madhuri Dixit, Juhi Chawla, Tannishtha Chatterjee, Priyanka Bose, Divya Jagdale.

    In a poorly conceived script, nobody seems to care for Madhuri and her pink brigade or seems oblivious of it because the crimes against women abound in her region! Her reputation is not enough; every time, she has to demonstrate the power of her lathi brigade! After a couple of demos to establish the might of Gulaab Gang, the routine sets in. The film proceeds to show the same politicians vs police vs ordinary citizen saga which finds its roots in post emergency antiestablishment era of filmmaking.

    It is time to pit Madhuri against her bete noire, Juhi Chawla. She is an overambitious widow of a politician with dubious credentials. She is a well established leader doing very well for herself and her party. Yet she decides to cross swords with Madhuri for no apparent reason. It is only one of the incidents of several for which there is no explanation. Things happen with no reason. The film loses its viewer every few minutes.

    While Madhuri and Juhi are pitted against each other for nothing, the usual caricatures hanging around a politician and well-meaning Taus hanging around Madhuri abound.

    Except for using real life incidents from Sampat’s life, the film has nothing original to offer.  These incidents, which needed to be cemented together to make this into an interesting narration is grossly missing. The direction is shoddy when not amateur; the director has no clue as to his medium or the theme. Dialogue is poor. Editing could have worked to halve the film’s length. The use of music is pretentious with little relevance. Madhuri tries to portray a combination of Santokben Jadeja (Vinay Shukla’s Godmother) and Dhankor Ba (Supriya Pathak in Ram Leela); what is she, a social worker or a don? Juhi is a poor version of her former self.

    Gulaab Gang is an arduous watch; a punishment to sit through.

    Queen: Marry Go Round

    Queen is a coming of age movie. While we keep making the odd coming-of-age hero-oriented film now and then, their scripts remain half-baked. Queen is about a girl on the verge of her marriage who gets a second chance to see the world and come out of her cocoon.

    Kangana Ranaut is Rani and her boyfriend has dubbed her queen. Kangana is from a traditional Punjabi halwai family leading a disciplined life. She is the obedient, home-to-college/college-to-home type. Rajkummar Rao, the son of a family friend, is besotted with her simple beauty and starts chasing her. Since the families know each other, a marriage date is soon fixed.

    Producers: Anurag Kashyap, Vikramaditya Motwane.

    Director: Vikas Bahl.

    Cast: Kangana Ranaut, Rajkummar Rao, Lisa Haydon.

    Rajkummar is now a foreign-returned groom, having just got back from finishing his education in London. A couple of days before the marriage date, his foreign experience catches up with him. He does not want to marry Kangana anymore; she does not seem his type. He breaks the news to Kangana while his folks do so to her parents.

    Kangana is devastated. Any girl from a traditional family who has known only one man in her life, her groom to be, would be. After spending a couple of days locked up in her room, she emerges to face the world. She has the ticket and the visa to visit Paris, the trip was planned as her honeymoon trip and she decides to make it a solo honeymoon trip.

    A shy and scared Kangana discovers herself in this strange land with a language she does not understand. She befriends the hotel waitress, a single mother, Lisa Haydon, who has some Indian genes in her and can mutter some Hindi. After spending a few days in Paris, Lisa packs her off to Amsterdam. The travel, she feels, will help Kangana and help change her outlook.

    It is time for Rajkummar to miss Kangana and he is back on her spur. He wants to rekindle the romance and even feels jealous when he sees her in the company of other men. But Kangana is in no hurry. She wants to complete her tour. Decisions about life can always be taken at leisure.

    Queen is a simple but nice story about traditions vs breaking the shackles. Foreign locations make it a bit more watchable. The film rests solely on the shoulders of Kangana and she does justice to her role. Rajkummar does not fit the romantic hero any which way you look at it; not even if you think of a middle class family. The supporting cast is apt. Songs are well choreographed. Direction is good.

    Queen is a watchable film but suffers due to face value and exams. It will get praises but little from the box office.

    Total Siyapaa: Total Waste

    Total Siyapaa is an idea worth exploring. It is about an independent-minded Indian Punjabi girl falling in love with a Pakistani Punjabi boy in a neutral land that is England. Alas, Total Siyapaa may have the initial idea, but the film fails to develop into something more substantial and falls flat on execution.

    Yaami Gautam is taking her Pakistani boyfriend, Ali Zafar, home to meet her parents, Kirron Kher and Anupam Kher. While Yaami awaits his arrival, Ali is in constant touch with her and mentions having brought a bomb of a gift for her. A Pink Panther kind of cop, gnawing on his doughnut, happens to pick up the word ‘bomb’ and, instead of his girlfriend’s house, Ali finds himself in a police lock up. The level of humour the film plans to unleash on the viewer established, the film proceeds to dish out more of the same.

    Producers: Neeraj Pandey, Shital Bhatia.

    Director: Neeraj Pandey.

    Cast: Ali Zafar, Yaami Gautam, Anupam Kher, Kirron Kher, Sara Khan.

    Even while the debate on acceptance of a prospective Pakistani son-in-law continues, he is already ordered around by Kirron and made to do household chores. In an attempt to defrost soup, the container slips out of Ali’s hands, goes straight out of the kitchen window and lands on Anupam’s head, knocking him unconscious. The police, it is made to look, don’t take too kindly to the Pakistanis and Yaami does her best to keep Ali away from the scene of this accident not knowing the man lying unconscious on the street is her very own father.

    When it is realised that the victim could well be Anupam the action shifts in his direction. Efforts to create funny situations out of his hospitalization, his encounter with a hooker and his family’s search for him don’t succeed. There is no comedy; the situations are just not funny enough. There are some side tracks like Yaami’s sister, Sara Khan, who has had a fight with her husband and has come to stay with her parents, and a running tiff with the Pakistani neighbors. The grandfather’s track is juvenile.

    Performances are generally mediocre. Yaami is okay. Ali can’t act and ends up making awkward gestures with his hands. Kirron does what she is expected to do: play a loud Punjabi woman. Anupam is wasted. Sara Khan does well while the best of the lot is the child who plays Sara’s daughter; she is the only natural one.

    The script is loose and lacking in substance, which makes the direction as uninspiring. The film has two good songs in Nahi maloom….. and Chal Buleya…

    A poor fare with indifferent public response, Total Siyapaa faces the threat of discontinuation from cinema halls mid-week.

  • ‘Shaadi Ke Side Effects’: A Yawn Fest

    ‘Shaadi Ke Side Effects’: A Yawn Fest

    MUMBAI: A sequel to director’s earlier film, Pyaar Ke Side Effects (2006), Shaadi Ke Side Effects deals with the post marriage equations between an urban couple, their ups and downs and their attempts to finally strike a balance in their married life. The names of the lead characters are carried forward though the faces have changed. Though posed as a comedy on two very independent people trying to adjust with each other, it is not really that. It crams in a lot of situations and issues in what could have been an outright laugh riot.

    Farhan Akhtar and Vidya Balan tie the knot even though her widowed mother, Rati Agnihotri, does not really approve of Vidya’s choice. Because, while Vidya is a well-placed executive, Farhan is a struggling singer waiting to cut his first album and, till that happens, making some living out of composing jingles. Considering all that, the couple lives a lavish life. They have devised some role playing games which is supposed to keep their marriage interesting and Farhan also believes in saying sorry to his wife either way, whether he is wrong or she is. One of the games they play is, they check into a hotel and land up in its bar. They pretend to be total strangers who have become friends over a few drinks and have decided to go to bed together.

    Their ecstatic romantic life leads to the inevitable. Vidya is pregnant. Neither one of the two is ready to start a family. While Farhan wants to do it after his career is launched, Vidya is shortly due for a promotion. While Vidya develops this sudden urge for motherhood, Farhan’s answer is no. It is while Vidya is on the operation table with an abortion due shortly that Farhan meets a father of quadruplets. They are the result of delaying parenthood and opting for other fertility methods, he learns. His decision is made and he wants the child too. The abortion process is terminated. To be fair to his wife, Farhan tries to undergo similar experiences that a pregnant woman would go through. The idea is to add some fun to the goings-on.

    Producers: Ekta Kapoor, Shobha Kapoor, Pritish Nandy, Rangita Nandy.

    Director: Saket Chaudhary.

    Cast: Farhan Akhtar, Vidya Balan, Ram Kapoor, Gautami Kapoor, Vir Das, Purab Kohli, Rati Agnihotri.

    Between the two, it is romance but when the couple becomes a family, role-playing and saying sorry stops being effective. Farhan tries his best to be helpful in tending to the child but Vidya’s maternal instincts always get the better of him. She knows why the child is crying, when it is feeling hungry, warm or cold. Farhan is no more the centre of attention to Vidya, he is marginalised while not being allowed to participate in parenting.

    Farhan approaches Vidya’s brother-in-law, Ram Kapoor, a man he never thought much of. But he has watched Ram doting on his wife and kid. The couple is lovey-dovey with Ram taking the lead all the time. He wants to know how Ram manages this. Ram has his little secret on which Farhan tumbles accidently! He is advised by Ram to follow the same formula as him. He starts doing what, they say, ‘all men do’. Tolerable so far, the film loses it purpose and goes on an abstract track. With its age-old marital discord theme, its attempts to be contemporary but ends up creating a mess.

    Scripting is rather ad hoc as it slips into flash-forward or flashback at whim. This includes a romantic song in flashback after the couple is married which does not quite interest a viewer. As a result of the script, the director has no hold on the proceedings and the film keeps meandering even as attempts at some light moments also fail. The film has some good songs in Tauba main vyaah karke pachtaya…, Bawla sa sapna, Desi romance… and Harry is not a brahmachari. However, these songs make for better listening on the audio track than they do in the film. Dialogue shows some sparks of wry humour in parts. 

    Yet, the main problem is with the film’s length, with two characters hogging most of the footage, it carries on for 145 minutes. This shortcoming shows as the film goes on to become unbearable in the second half. Vidya performs well as expected; but she is fast going out of shape to be appealing. Farhan is his usual casual self. Ram Kapoor is good in a brief role. Vir Das is loud. While Rati Agnihotri, Purab Kohli and Gautami Kapoor are okay in support, Ila Arun’s character looks forced.

    Shaadi Ke Side Effects has had a poor opening response despite much promotion; its reports won’t help further its prospects any more.

  • Jai Ho ….Not Quite Salman

    Jai Ho ….Not Quite Salman

    MUMBAI: With an array of blockbusters behind him, the burden of delivering a bigger grosser grows every time a new Salman Khan film hits the screens. Keeping up with these expectations is not an easy task.

     

    Too add more to it, with his latest, Salman, also attempts to promote his personal image that of a charitable pure heart which he is building through Being Human Foundation. That makes Salman’s character too goody-goody; he is all sugar.

     

    Jai Ho has is a remake of Telugu film Stalin which borrowed the idea from  Hollywood film Pay It Forward (2000) about creating a chain wherein every person who receives a favour from someone does favours for three other people when given a chance. The idea is to multiply the do-gooders in the society. That is one side of Salman; the other is that of fighting the evil forces which is represented by Danny and his son, daughter and son in law. This is a dampener since people have stopped caring about politicians’ character.

     

    Salman is an ex-army man, discharged for disobeying the orders of his high command. His intentions were noble, though. He ventured into enemy territory and freed some children held captive there. He always seems to be in the right place at the right time for wherever he goes someone or the other is in need of help. For instance, he helps an armless student, Genelia D’Souza, write her exam paper as her writer has not turned up and Salman happens to be around, dropping his nephew to school. Next, Salman spots a car driver rudely pushing and hitting a young beggar girl. He beats up the driver and here onwards starts his enmity with Danny clan. The driver happened to be his man and soon Danny’s goons are looking for him. The fights are the usual South Indian films kind very much in vogue with Hindi films lately: hundreds of swords and sickles wielding goons vs. Salman and how he annihilates them.

     

    But, this pure heart hero’s heart also throbs for other reasons, the romantic kind. He finds his lady love in his sister’s (Tabu) neighbour, Daisy Shah. There is no coochi-cooing. The romance is pure Rajshri film brand with heroine around mainly to sing songs with Salman.

     

    In between song and dance, Salman has to fight off Danny’s dirty tricks. Salman’s mother (Nadira Babbar) is run over by Danny’s men to warn him to back off while on another occasion his nephew is kidnapped and while saving him Salman ebds up killing Danny’s son in law (Mukul Dev). This adds more fuel to the fire. Even as Danny is desperate to kill Salman, his idea of doing three favours to others catches on; and everybody including the chief minister (Mohnish Behl) are curious to know whose noble idea it was.

     

    The CM, unhappy with the war between Salman and Danny, decides to intervene. Having learnt Salman’s background as a decorated army man he does not think it fair to punish Salman nor does he want his party to suffer because of Danny’s antics. The meeting between the three, Salman, Danny and Mohnish ends with a compromise and Salman has been asked to wait till Mohnish gives Danny a piece of his mind behind closed doors. Danny puts his plan in to effect; kill Mohnish, take his place as the CM and frame Salman for the murder.

     

    The original, Stalin was released in 2006 and the concept has become outdated. What is more, like many South films, Jai Ho also tends to get preachy and that is not what fans of Salman’s one-liners want. There is not much to the story and the first half becomes boring. The villain and his goons provide some mass entertainment. Yes, and there are also some mushy moments. Music is weak with just one song worth a mention. The film lacks finesse. As for performances, the film hinges totally on Salman and he is at his usual physical and acrobatic best. Daisy is fair, this being her debut film. Nadira Babbar is stagy. Tabu and the rest are okay. The film has a few known faces doing cameo roles in Suniel Shetty, Aditya Panscholi, Mahesh Manjrekar, Genelia, Mohnish, providing variety.

     

    Jai Ho, despite Salman, has had a tepid opening response even from single screens; having been made to pay high MGs, the single screens stand to lose their earnings from couple of recent money spinners. 

     

    Producers: Sunil Lulla, Sohail Khan.

    Director: Sohail Khan.

    Cast: Salman Khan, Daisy Shah, Tabu, Danny Danzongpa, Nadira Babbar, Mukul Dev, Mahesh Thakur, Resham Tipnis, Ashmit Patel, Yash Tonk, Haroon Qazi, Genelia D’Souza, Suniel Shetty, Aditya Panscholi, Mahesh Manjrekar, Sharad Kapoor.

  • ‘Karle Pyar Karle’, a dull fare…

    ‘Karle Pyar Karle’, a dull fare…

    MUMBAI: Karle Pyar Karle is the launch pad for the third generation Darshan, Shiv Darshan, the son of Suneel Darshan, writer, producer and director of a number of films. Shiv’s grandfather, Darshan Sabharwal, was a producer himself besides having distributed hundreds of films in Central India.

     

    Shiv is a 6’2” hulk of a lad and that limits his launch vehicle to be an action romance. Also, one does not usually expect a newcomer with such a frame to fit an emotional drama. As such, Karle Pyar Karle is designed to be so, a campus romance that soon turns into a fight for survival against a gang lord. This combination of romance and action gives Shiv an ample scope to showcase his proficiency with action, stunts and dance, things one can be trained for.

     

    Shiv and Hasleen are star-crossed lovers forced to part ways in their childhood; Hasleen as well as Shiv’s family is convinced Hasleen is bad news for Shiv because of which he keeps landing in trouble. The duo meets again after a gap of 12 years at a police station. Shiv has been arrested to messing with the city’s traffic system; no idea what is Hasleen doing there! While Shiv has recognised her, she has not despite her childhood claims that she would always recognise him whatever the time lag.

     

    That is not an issue since both happen to be in the same institution, ‘the game is on’ as they often dare each other since childhood. On the campus, there is the usual lot of a villain and his sidekicks. Shiv, now starts to woo back Hasleen till she finds out he is her childhood mate, which she soon does, thanks to a bracelet he had gifted her as a child. They are together again, much in love and it is time for the villain to create a rift between them and create a situation for the interval break.

     

    The second half is all about gangsters. Shiv getting better of each other alternately till the villains are all dead and the lead pair is almost dead! Which is a miracle since the villains are armed with everything from knives, swords, guns and rocket launchers while Shiv prefers to fight with bare hands, well, also legs?

     

    The choice of predictable story and script, among other aspects of the film, is surprising, coming as it does from Suneel Darshan, and for a launch film of his son at that! The hero starts off with a bike stunt, a dance and a fight scene within first few minutes in to the film and with that he has run out of his repertoire of qualifications.

     

    For the rest of the film, things become repetitive. Also, having licked the villain in the opening fight along with his sidekick within seconds it hardly makes any sense to have a long climax fight between the hero and the villain’s sidekick again.

     

    Shiv has limitations. Hasleen lacks screen presence. Direction is below par. For a love story, music is not up to the mark and despite five composers and as many lyric writers on its roaster, the film has just one decent tune in Teri saanson mein…

     

    Karle Pyar Karle faces poor prospects.

    Producer: Suneel Darshan.

    Director: Rajesh Pandey.

    Cast: Shiv Darshan, Hasleen Kaur.