Friday, September 03, 2004
Rakht
The Gift was hardly a masterpiece, still if someone was loony enough to plagiarise it, at least they could have done a better job.
Mahesh Manjrekar packs Rakht with stars and then sells it in the media on the strength of its two item numbers. In one, the leading lady and her friend look at a photo album and she goes into flashback to the times when she was an aspiring singer, cut to item song in Singapore. The second time, a man whose daughter has gone missing gets a phone call saying some Jennifer is having a show, cut to Yana Gupta heaving and writhing; then Amrita Arora wearing almost nothing does a cabaret in her own house, in front of doting dad, to launch her music album!
What kind of hick town in India has women wandering around itsy-bitsy costumes and men killing to be mayor! Oh yeah, Rakht is that kind of brainless film, with director Manjrekar probably dozing in front of the video assist monitor!
Drishti (Bipasha Basu) is a clairvoyant who makes an enemy of a wifebeater, Sunny (Dino Morea) when she counsels his wife (Neha Dhupia). The sluttish daughter (Amrita Arora) of the town mayor goes missing, and turns up dead in Sunny’s pond. Drishti’s visions helped trace the body and sent Sunny to jail, but now she gets more visions, that indicate that he may not have been the killer.
After being humiliated in court by the defence lawyer (Sachin Khedekar sneering till his face almost split!), Drishti is in a dilemma.
Other characters include the dead girl’s fiancé (Sanjay Dutt) who is in love with Drishti; a mentally disturbed motor mechanic (Sunil Shetty), also in love with Drishti and the ‘item boy’ Abhishek Bachchan, also in love with Drishti. And she still trying to get over her dead husband, whose accident she foresaw but could not prevent. There’s Himanshu Malik too, as the public prosecutor, not in love with Drishti, mercifully!
Rakht has all the thriller elements, special effects, loud sound effects, large spooky house and a glut of characters who look and act insane—so much so that the audience treats it as a comedy. At one point Sunny, who must be dyslexic, scrawls “Bhut” (sic) all over Drishti’s house.
Bipasha Basu should try to act, Sunil Shetty should not try so hard to act, Sanjay Dutt should try not to sleepwalk through bad parts; as for the others, they are beyond help!
Mahesh Manjrekar packs Rakht with stars and then sells it in the media on the strength of its two item numbers. In one, the leading lady and her friend look at a photo album and she goes into flashback to the times when she was an aspiring singer, cut to item song in Singapore. The second time, a man whose daughter has gone missing gets a phone call saying some Jennifer is having a show, cut to Yana Gupta heaving and writhing; then Amrita Arora wearing almost nothing does a cabaret in her own house, in front of doting dad, to launch her music album!
What kind of hick town in India has women wandering around itsy-bitsy costumes and men killing to be mayor! Oh yeah, Rakht is that kind of brainless film, with director Manjrekar probably dozing in front of the video assist monitor!
Drishti (Bipasha Basu) is a clairvoyant who makes an enemy of a wifebeater, Sunny (Dino Morea) when she counsels his wife (Neha Dhupia). The sluttish daughter (Amrita Arora) of the town mayor goes missing, and turns up dead in Sunny’s pond. Drishti’s visions helped trace the body and sent Sunny to jail, but now she gets more visions, that indicate that he may not have been the killer.
After being humiliated in court by the defence lawyer (Sachin Khedekar sneering till his face almost split!), Drishti is in a dilemma.
Other characters include the dead girl’s fiancé (Sanjay Dutt) who is in love with Drishti; a mentally disturbed motor mechanic (Sunil Shetty), also in love with Drishti and the ‘item boy’ Abhishek Bachchan, also in love with Drishti. And she still trying to get over her dead husband, whose accident she foresaw but could not prevent. There’s Himanshu Malik too, as the public prosecutor, not in love with Drishti, mercifully!
Rakht has all the thriller elements, special effects, loud sound effects, large spooky house and a glut of characters who look and act insane—so much so that the audience treats it as a comedy. At one point Sunny, who must be dyslexic, scrawls “Bhut” (sic) all over Drishti’s house.
Bipasha Basu should try to act, Sunil Shetty should not try so hard to act, Sanjay Dutt should try not to sleepwalk through bad parts; as for the others, they are beyond help!
Labels: Cinemaah
Hum Kaun Hai?
Nicole Kidman starrer The Others gets mangled into what looks like a hurriedly assembled spook flick Hum Kaun Hai? with the grammatically incorrect title.
For some unfathomable reason, Amitabh Bachchan, Dimple Kapadia, Dharmendra and Moushumi Chatterji lent their combined talents to this thankless venture, misdirected by Ravi Shankar Sharma.
Sandra (Dimple Kapadia) lives in a lonely old house with her photosensitive kids (Hansika and Amaan). She gets three oddly dressed servants led by Mrs Pinto (Moushumi Chatterji) to look after the household while she waits for her husband Frank (Amitabh Bachchan) to return from the war (which war?)
Furniture moves, the piano plays, strange voices are heard and things go bump into the night in Sandra’s dark, candlelit household. Suddenly Frank appears, talks in cryptic puzzles and leaves again.
Many complications later comes the long-awaited climax with the Sixth Sense like twist in the end. You almost feel sorry for Dimple Kapadia, looking elegant and performing earnestly even in this shoddy-looking, B-grade film. Amitabh Bachchan, in his tiny role, does not even pretend to be enjoying what he is doing. Dharmendra as his friend, is referred to as “young man” in a scene, providing the only giggle in the film. There are no songs, so at least the running time is bearably short.
For some unfathomable reason, Amitabh Bachchan, Dimple Kapadia, Dharmendra and Moushumi Chatterji lent their combined talents to this thankless venture, misdirected by Ravi Shankar Sharma.
Sandra (Dimple Kapadia) lives in a lonely old house with her photosensitive kids (Hansika and Amaan). She gets three oddly dressed servants led by Mrs Pinto (Moushumi Chatterji) to look after the household while she waits for her husband Frank (Amitabh Bachchan) to return from the war (which war?)
Furniture moves, the piano plays, strange voices are heard and things go bump into the night in Sandra’s dark, candlelit household. Suddenly Frank appears, talks in cryptic puzzles and leaves again.
Many complications later comes the long-awaited climax with the Sixth Sense like twist in the end. You almost feel sorry for Dimple Kapadia, looking elegant and performing earnestly even in this shoddy-looking, B-grade film. Amitabh Bachchan, in his tiny role, does not even pretend to be enjoying what he is doing. Dharmendra as his friend, is referred to as “young man” in a scene, providing the only giggle in the film. There are no songs, so at least the running time is bearably short.
Labels: Cinemaah
