The Hindu : New Delhi News : It’s a week of funny rides and sunny performances

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Sunday, Jul 12, 2009
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It’s a week of funny rides and sunny performances

Anuj Kumar

Bright choices: While Divya Dutta and Anupam Kher give close to reality performances in ‘Morning Walk’ (left), ‘Sankat City’ (middle) weaves several humorous plots together and ‘The Proposal’ is an interesting opportunity to re-explore the joy of watching a predictable tale all over again.

SHORT KUT – THE CON IS ON

(Golcha and other theatres in Delhi and elsewhere)

Of late Bollywood has been busy taking pot-shots at its own queer ways. Here you have director Neeraj Vora joining the bandwagon but he has opted for a rather loud vehicle. The script doesn’t demand it, but old habits die hard. The popular dialogue writer-turned-director, who gave us Phir Hera Pheri, keeps pressing the fifth gear in a film which requires careful manoeuvring. Considering he has lifted the idea from a Malayalam film, this is not aski ng for much.

Akshaye Khanna plays Shekhar, a wannabe film-maker who doesn’t believe in short-cuts to fame. After assisting some big names for more than a decade, he has written the script of his first film. In comes Raju (Arshad Warsi), a bad actor, who is looking for a short route to the summit. He steals Akshaye’s brilliant script and uses it as a bait to get his acting career going. The bad actor becomes a star and a genius is about to wither even before he bloomed.

An interesting premise, it reminds you of Sai Paranjype’s Katha, with its endearing Bombay chawl ambience. And Neeraj has got a bunch of talented actors but he seems determined to turn an entertaining drama into a shrill comedy. The subject required a layered approach without taking away the witty repartees and humorous situations.

There is no point keeping Arshad’s character over the top all through. The situation calls for certain change in him after he gets his first hit by his machinations, but Raju inexplicably remains a buffoon. Arshad is capable of a nuanced performance, but Neeraj has hardly tested him. No wonder he looks uncharacteristically haggard.

It is being touted as a makeover film for Amrita Rao, which it is not. As the superstar girlfriend/wife of Shekhar, whatever change the pretty lass has got is only cosmetic. Her character graph remains sweet and syrupy.

Neeraj has handled the film’s second half better when Shekhar decides to direct Raju but then his editor has gone asleep and some lifeless songs don’t help his cause.

If you can handle the noise, go have a blast!

SANKAT CITY

(PVR Select City Walk, Delhi, and other theatres)

The fresh breeze is back from Bollywood after a few dreary weeks. It combines a series of crazy characters set in the craziest of cities, Mumbai. A con woman cons a car thief, a menacing ganglord is deferential to a non-vegetarian godman, a film producer wants his actor dead…..the list is long and complex but hilariously engaging.

Kay Kay Menon plays Guru, a small time car thief who together with his aged mechanic friend Ganpat specialises in giving the stolen cars a makeover and then sells them for a neat profit. One day he walks away with a Mercedes and one crore rupees stashed in it, not realising that it belongs to an eccentric ganglord, Fauzdar (Anupam Kher).

This spirals a series of events, each nicely linked to the other. At the core is a subtext which subtly reminds of man’s insatiable greed for material needs. He doesn’t mind digging deep into heaps of waste for a fortune. As always Kay Kay is gritty as Guru, Rimi surprises with her performance and after some time Anupam has something new to offer.

Such plots work only when the surprise element lasts the screen time and builds up into a taut climax. Director Pankaj Advani is up to the task. He remains one step ahead all through and the frayed edges give it a raw feel. When the logic looks like going for a toss, he questions it and comes with believable excuses. The one-liners are original and come at the opportune moment. The characterisation is detailed and perhaps that is the reason that even the outlandish ways of the performers appear plausible.

Take the risk, this city is worth a visit!

MORNING WALK

(DT Star, Delhi, and other theatres)

Every few years we have a film which talks of parents’ relationship with their grown-up kids. Avtaar, Ghar Dwar, Baghban..…. Arup Dutta has ventured into the same lane but unfortunately he gets lost midway.

It is heartening to have a film which talks of the emotions of the elderly. They sing and talk of not only their past but the future as well. Anupam Kher, in yet another sterling performance of the week, plays a retired professor, Joymohan, who comes to live with his son (Rajit Kapoor) but soon discovers that his daughter-in-law’s (Divya Dutta) affection is conditional. She wants him to sell his house in Kolkata so that she could have a home in Mumbai. On a morning walk one day the old man comes across his old flame Neelima (Sharmila Tagore). One thing leads to another and soon the professor comes to know that he shares a special bond with Neelima’s daughter and wants to fulfil his responsibilities. Obviously, his decision leads to discord.

The film has some believable performances, particularly by Divya Dutta, as the edgy daughter-in-law but the screenplay lacks dramatic tension. The film gets conveniently silent after raising a pertinent point and the director escapes from indulging in the dilemmas of his characters. When Joymohan was so much in love with Neelima, why the two didn’t keep in touch for so long?

Good enough only for a lazy Sunday afternoon on television.
THE PROPOSAL

(PVR Naraina, Delhi, and other theatres)

At times you know what to expect from a film, particularly when it is described as a romantic comedy, which they call romcom these days. Two persons who hate each other are destined to meet by the end. But sometimes even when you know where it is headed after the first few scenes, you fall for it because something along the way touches your heart and you say what the heck! Let’s do it all over again. After all, all weddings are similar but all marriages are different . It is one of those cases where the sheer clarity of love hooks you.

The ever elegant Sandra Bullock plays Margaret, a hard-nosed editor-in-chief of a publishing house who is about to be deported from the US because she is a Canadian. With no way in sight, at the spur of the moment, she decides to marry her assistant, Andrew (Ryan Reynolds), who hates her like everybody else in the office.

When the government investigator informs them that they will undergo rigorous testing to prove that the marriage is not fraudulent, Andrew reluctantly accepts on condition that he is promoted to the position of editor and his manuscript is published. You begin to believe the “deal” is going to take a romantic turn and it does and the way it unfolds leaves an impression. Don’t judge by the clichéd cover, take this proposal. It is appealing.
TRANSFORMERS — REVENGE OF THE FALLEN

(Spice, Noida, and other theatres)

Hollywood continues to astonish us with CGI adventures and kaleidoscopes of machinery. Director Michael Bay has assembled yet another bloated, incomprehensible, non-stop battle of machines which grabs your eyeballs for a few minutes but ultimately leaves you cold.

Sam (Shia LaBeouf), who killed Megatron in the first instalment, now wants to invest his energy in academics. Leaving behind his ravishing girlfriend (Megan Fox), he joins college but soon he begins to have flashes of some strange symbols about the energon on Earth. So the evil Decepticons are after him to get the information as it will give them enormous power. Fox returns and the two join an international team to get the matrix to save the mankind and the friendly alien robot Optimus Prime, who is with the humans in the war against Decepticons.

In this battle of bots, which tests your endurance for well over two hours, even emotions are robotic. You don’t mind who is dying and who is winning because there is no human pain, no human triumph involved. Even technically the bots, who masquerade as cars and jets of different vintage, are too much of nuts and bolts that you fail to decipher, who is hitting whom. As after a couple of blows, the metallic origami is reduced to a humungous trash.

Strictly for the boys who are unable to give up their toys!

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