The Hindu : Karnataka News : The message is lost in the conundrum

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Saturday, Nov 15, 2008
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Karnataka

The message is lost in the conundrum

Kamaal Khan in Deshdrohi

Deshdrohi (Hindi)

Cast: Kamaal Khan,

Director: Jagdish Sharma

Himesh Reshammiya has got competition. Those who thought Himesh should be credited for having the guts to be on screen, have a look at Kamaal Khan. The man beats Himesh hollow in the art of understatement. He simply doesn’t act. Words like intonation, modulation don’t exist for him. He delivers everything with a straight face. One can understand the plight of director Jagdish Sharma. For Kamaal happens to be the producer of this lacklustre venture. The film does raise some pertinent points about regionalism and vote bank politics but the treatment is so shoddy that even the front benchers will find it tough to digest.

To top it, he has names like Aman Verma, Mukesh Tiwari, Yashpal Sharma and Raza Murad to contend with. The idea of underdog striking back is fine as long as the audience believe in its potential. Here every time Kamaal cries, audience breaks into laughter at the improbability.

Kamaal has brought back times where the lead actors used to sing songs in lavish dream sequences after every 15 minutes. The outfits used to change six times in a song and size never mattered. If you are a hero you can throw somebody thrice your size. It’s a matter of will after all.

As for the story, it’s a tale of Raja, a bhaiyya from North India who goes to Mumbai to eke out a decent living. He encounters regional bias, inadvertently kills the brother of a politician and is used as a pawn by selfish politicians. So where is the source of controversy?

The film paints all the politicians with the same brush and the main villain is a North Indian politician who uses Raja for his own interests.

A.K.

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