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
Run
If a filmmaker can’t think of a better way to start a movie than a pointless song-and-dance in which the hero leers at village belles, he has lost the audience in the first five minutes.
Jeeva’s Run is a remake of a successful Telugu film, and of course, it makes you marvel as the tolerance level of Southern audiences.
Siddharth (Abhishek Bachchan) comes to Delhi to study. God knows what he does in college, he seems to spend all his time stalking Jahnvi (Bhumika Chawla). Films such as this, give the idea, specially to Delhi Romeos that girls fall in love with stalkers!
Jahnvi’s brother Ganpat (Mahesh Manjrekar), he of Marathi name and hybrid Haryana/Rajasthan dialect is a monster who beats and maims any guy who looks at his sister. (The father of one such victim says with unintended humour: “Girls don’t chase girls, boys do!”)
Siddharth, besides being the Casanova of Allahabad, is also a boxer, martial arts expert and tough street fighter, who easily flattens Ganpat’s goons. Ganpat hits back by targetting his family, at which Siddharth decides enough is enough and elopes with Jahnvi. Which he could have done to begin with, and saved everybody two hours of torture.
What is most offensive about Run – apart from the fact nobody actually runs anywhere—is the patriarchal treatment of women. Two men have to fight over her in the end, she has not much of a say in her own life. The next offensive element is Vijay Raaz’s comedy track, in which is keeps abusing his father.
Abhishek Bachchan has to do a lot of dancing, fighting and strutting, in which he copies his father Amitabh Bachchan down to the last facial twitch. While Bachchan Sr. carried it off with great élan and charm, Abhishek just ends up looking loutish. Bhumika Chawla is hardly the type a guy would spy from a bus window and fall in love with so heavily. Himesh Reshammiya’s songs are the only saving grace of this movie.
Jeeva’s Run is a remake of a successful Telugu film, and of course, it makes you marvel as the tolerance level of Southern audiences.
Siddharth (Abhishek Bachchan) comes to Delhi to study. God knows what he does in college, he seems to spend all his time stalking Jahnvi (Bhumika Chawla). Films such as this, give the idea, specially to Delhi Romeos that girls fall in love with stalkers!
Jahnvi’s brother Ganpat (Mahesh Manjrekar), he of Marathi name and hybrid Haryana/Rajasthan dialect is a monster who beats and maims any guy who looks at his sister. (The father of one such victim says with unintended humour: “Girls don’t chase girls, boys do!”)
Siddharth, besides being the Casanova of Allahabad, is also a boxer, martial arts expert and tough street fighter, who easily flattens Ganpat’s goons. Ganpat hits back by targetting his family, at which Siddharth decides enough is enough and elopes with Jahnvi. Which he could have done to begin with, and saved everybody two hours of torture.
What is most offensive about Run – apart from the fact nobody actually runs anywhere—is the patriarchal treatment of women. Two men have to fight over her in the end, she has not much of a say in her own life. The next offensive element is Vijay Raaz’s comedy track, in which is keeps abusing his father.
Abhishek Bachchan has to do a lot of dancing, fighting and strutting, in which he copies his father Amitabh Bachchan down to the last facial twitch. While Bachchan Sr. carried it off with great élan and charm, Abhishek just ends up looking loutish. Bhumika Chawla is hardly the type a guy would spy from a bus window and fall in love with so heavily. Himesh Reshammiya’s songs are the only saving grace of this movie.
Labels: Cinemaah
