Friday, May 14, 2004
Lakeer
Since most of our leading men are way past their teen years, may be it’s time filmmakers found a better backdrop for romance than colleges that look like anything but educational institutions.
The college in Ahmed Khan’s Lakeer is a gaudy American style affair with cheerleaders and baseball players. Here Karan (Sohail Khan) brother of don Arjun (Sunny Deol) and Saahil (John Abraham), brother of mechanic and aspiring don Sanju (Sunil Shetty) woo blank-faced bimbette Bindiya (Nauheed Cyrusi)
A lot of time is taken to establish the character of Arjun, who is supposed to be a ‘good’ gangster—the kind whose birthday is celebrated by millions in Mumbai and covered by TV channels. By the time you finish gagging on that one, the film had thrown buckets of testosterone at the viewer, what with constant flexing of muscles and endless swaggering in slow motion. The lean John Abraham attempts to outdo the beefiness of the three other actors by refusing to button his shirt!
Nobody talks to the girl in question openly, always waiting “for the right time” and till many bones are broken, nobody tells the bewildered Arjun what the hell’s going on, and why everybody is bashing everyone else. In between slugfests, they sing weird Mehboob- AR Rahman songs with the choreographer-turned-writer/director shooting them in a riot of colour, Gothic sets and distorted camera angles. The film seems to shout “Look dude, I got style.” Yeah, but dude where’s the story?
Karan’s cohort pushes around Saahil, who breaks a lot of glass. Sanju sees blood and beats Karan to pulp. Arjun’s henchmen burn down Sanju’s basti. In short, nothing much happens in the film, except a lot of needless macho fighting, over a rather uninspiring young woman.
Cracking knuckles and gnashing teeth is not considered acting, so not much to admire in that department either, except to note that Sunny Deol had quietly and imperceptibly moved to ‘bade bhaiya’ roles.
The college in Ahmed Khan’s Lakeer is a gaudy American style affair with cheerleaders and baseball players. Here Karan (Sohail Khan) brother of don Arjun (Sunny Deol) and Saahil (John Abraham), brother of mechanic and aspiring don Sanju (Sunil Shetty) woo blank-faced bimbette Bindiya (Nauheed Cyrusi)
A lot of time is taken to establish the character of Arjun, who is supposed to be a ‘good’ gangster—the kind whose birthday is celebrated by millions in Mumbai and covered by TV channels. By the time you finish gagging on that one, the film had thrown buckets of testosterone at the viewer, what with constant flexing of muscles and endless swaggering in slow motion. The lean John Abraham attempts to outdo the beefiness of the three other actors by refusing to button his shirt!
Nobody talks to the girl in question openly, always waiting “for the right time” and till many bones are broken, nobody tells the bewildered Arjun what the hell’s going on, and why everybody is bashing everyone else. In between slugfests, they sing weird Mehboob- AR Rahman songs with the choreographer-turned-writer/director shooting them in a riot of colour, Gothic sets and distorted camera angles. The film seems to shout “Look dude, I got style.” Yeah, but dude where’s the story?
Karan’s cohort pushes around Saahil, who breaks a lot of glass. Sanju sees blood and beats Karan to pulp. Arjun’s henchmen burn down Sanju’s basti. In short, nothing much happens in the film, except a lot of needless macho fighting, over a rather uninspiring young woman.
Cracking knuckles and gnashing teeth is not considered acting, so not much to admire in that department either, except to note that Sunny Deol had quietly and imperceptibly moved to ‘bade bhaiya’ roles.
Labels: Cinemaah
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