Friday, January 23, 2004
Aetbaar
There seems to be no plausible reason for Vikram Bhatt to make another version of Fear, when he had already used up the plot in his Inteha last year.
Aetbaar is better shot and has a much better cast, but that isn’t enough to induce one to suffer this ‘no-surprises’ wannabe thriller.
Ria (Bipasha Basu), daughter of Dr Ranbir Malhotra (Amitabh Bachchan) and his mousy wife (Supriya Pilgaonkar), is rather overaged and underdressed to be allowed into a college, but she is there, studying economics.
Aryan (John Abraham) pursues her like a pest and that makes the dumb girl fall in love with him, though she sees his goonda friends and suffers his explosive temper—he almost strangles her to death for missing a date.
Ranbir finds out that Aryan is a killer and has a dark past, but his daughter – who till that point of time showed no signs of being oppressed or ill-treated—suddenly turns round and accuses her parents of smothering her, just because they had lost another child.
As Ranbir investigates further in order to protect his idiot daughter, he finds out that Aryan was and is an absolute psycho, only Ria can’t see it.
In the Cape Fear-kind of violent climax, Ranbir battles Aryan and his gang alone, while the two women stand rooted to the spot and make mewling sounds—such an irritatingly dim-witted heroine has not been seen in Hindi cinema in a long time.
Indifferently directed, with no novelty value, Aetbaar relies completely on Amitabh Bachchan, who musters up such honesty and earnestness even in a dead-end part. Bipasha Basu looks too tarty to pass off as a “nadaan” young girl, and talks to her father and boyfriend in the same heaving, seductive way. John Abraham, shudders and shakes every time he is meant to look scary, but looks like confused dude trying to pass off as a murderous maniac.
Aetbaar is better shot and has a much better cast, but that isn’t enough to induce one to suffer this ‘no-surprises’ wannabe thriller.
Ria (Bipasha Basu), daughter of Dr Ranbir Malhotra (Amitabh Bachchan) and his mousy wife (Supriya Pilgaonkar), is rather overaged and underdressed to be allowed into a college, but she is there, studying economics.
Aryan (John Abraham) pursues her like a pest and that makes the dumb girl fall in love with him, though she sees his goonda friends and suffers his explosive temper—he almost strangles her to death for missing a date.
Ranbir finds out that Aryan is a killer and has a dark past, but his daughter – who till that point of time showed no signs of being oppressed or ill-treated—suddenly turns round and accuses her parents of smothering her, just because they had lost another child.
As Ranbir investigates further in order to protect his idiot daughter, he finds out that Aryan was and is an absolute psycho, only Ria can’t see it.
In the Cape Fear-kind of violent climax, Ranbir battles Aryan and his gang alone, while the two women stand rooted to the spot and make mewling sounds—such an irritatingly dim-witted heroine has not been seen in Hindi cinema in a long time.
Indifferently directed, with no novelty value, Aetbaar relies completely on Amitabh Bachchan, who musters up such honesty and earnestness even in a dead-end part. Bipasha Basu looks too tarty to pass off as a “nadaan” young girl, and talks to her father and boyfriend in the same heaving, seductive way. John Abraham, shudders and shakes every time he is meant to look scary, but looks like confused dude trying to pass off as a murderous maniac.
Labels: Cinemaah
Khakee
What can be done in a cop film that hasn’t been done before? Rajkumar Santoshi does not even bother to come up with a fresh storyline; he simply concentrates on making a hackneyed cop-vs-crooks film on such a large scale, with furious action, several twists and mini-climaxes, so that people notice the plot holes and lapses in logic much later.
A tired over-the-hill cop DCP Anant Kumar (Amitabh Bachchan) is assigned the mission of bringing a terrorist Ansari (Atul Kulkarni) to Bombay from a small town in the interiors of Maharashtra. With him are inspector Shekhar (Akshay Kumar), sub-inspector Ashwin (Tusshar) and two constables. The routine chore is made complicated by the fact that an earlier police team had been shot dead in an ambush.
Things start going wrong as soon as they reach the place, and the enemy—a rogue ex-cop Angre (Ajay Devgan) --bent on getting to Ansari, snapping at the heels of Anant and his men, so there is one life-threatening crisis following another. A social worker Mahalaxmi (Aishwarya Rai), joins the convoy too, as a potential witness.
The first half of the film piles up the problems, and in the second, the various skeletons come tumbling out—who was doing what devious deed and why. This part is a bit too contrived – people seem to what the scriptwriters want—like Shekhar taking Mahalaxmi along to retrieve an important file; or a crucial character inexplicably dying without a whimper, or people having instant change of heart just because DCP Anant gives them a sermon. The investigating journalist (stereotyped kutra-jhola type), the evil minister and the corrupt office in cahoots with the villains are stock characters.
Where Santoshi is absolutely sure-footed is in the smooth narration and technical finesse – though the songs could have been dispensed with. Also, the performances are first-rate. Bachchan exudes sincerity; Akshay Kumar has some of the funniest lines, Tusshar looks the part of a newbie learning the ropes the hard way, Ajay Devgan drips venom and Atul Kulkarni expresses anguish very effectively with his eyes. Aishwarya Rai is the only grating element when everyone else fits their parts perfectly.
A tired over-the-hill cop DCP Anant Kumar (Amitabh Bachchan) is assigned the mission of bringing a terrorist Ansari (Atul Kulkarni) to Bombay from a small town in the interiors of Maharashtra. With him are inspector Shekhar (Akshay Kumar), sub-inspector Ashwin (Tusshar) and two constables. The routine chore is made complicated by the fact that an earlier police team had been shot dead in an ambush.
Things start going wrong as soon as they reach the place, and the enemy—a rogue ex-cop Angre (Ajay Devgan) --bent on getting to Ansari, snapping at the heels of Anant and his men, so there is one life-threatening crisis following another. A social worker Mahalaxmi (Aishwarya Rai), joins the convoy too, as a potential witness.
The first half of the film piles up the problems, and in the second, the various skeletons come tumbling out—who was doing what devious deed and why. This part is a bit too contrived – people seem to what the scriptwriters want—like Shekhar taking Mahalaxmi along to retrieve an important file; or a crucial character inexplicably dying without a whimper, or people having instant change of heart just because DCP Anant gives them a sermon. The investigating journalist (stereotyped kutra-jhola type), the evil minister and the corrupt office in cahoots with the villains are stock characters.
Where Santoshi is absolutely sure-footed is in the smooth narration and technical finesse – though the songs could have been dispensed with. Also, the performances are first-rate. Bachchan exudes sincerity; Akshay Kumar has some of the funniest lines, Tusshar looks the part of a newbie learning the ropes the hard way, Ajay Devgan drips venom and Atul Kulkarni expresses anguish very effectively with his eyes. Aishwarya Rai is the only grating element when everyone else fits their parts perfectly.
Labels: Cinemaah
