Sunday, January 27, 2008
Sunday
The cop’s so ‘cool’, he always has an ice-cream cone in his hand. A large chunk of the film takes place in a red ambassador cab, the likes of which you are not likely to see in Delhi, where Rohit Shetty’s Sunday is set.
What might cause some surprise in the otherwise ho-hum film is that Irrfan Khan manages to do a comic role quite successfully, and that for a change the heroine has an unusual profession—she dubs for cartoon films; sadly her talent for doing voices is not made use of well in the script.
Based on Telugu film Anukokunda Oka Roju ( which could have a foreign film source), Sunday is about Seher (Ayesha Takia), who does not remember what happened to her on a Saturday night, when she wandered around Delhi leaving chaos in her wake. What actually happens to Seher is so prosaic, it’s not worth the effort of making a whole film about!
Shetty tries to put in too many ‘items’ into the film, whether it is a long chase through crowded Chandni Chowk, or a running track involving a cabbie (Arshad Warsi) his actor buddy (Irrfan Khan), a gang of thugs led by a squeaky voiced fellow and a comedian who speaks with a Malayalee accent.
The script is purely one of convenience—if the girl bumps into a cop Rajveer (Ajay Devgan), he turns out to be the guy her mother wants her to marry. If the cop chases a drug dealer, he is the one who will have crucial information when it is needed. In a huge city like Delhi, the cabbie keeps running into Seher all the time. The cop has a minor run-in with a minister’s son, who turns out to be the key to the mystery.. and so on. You’d think the action was taking place in a one-horse town with a population of twenty.
Shetty is not going to turn into Hitchcock in a hurry, the suspense and thriller aspects of the film are duds; He can’t handle the romance either, the songs are dull, so you switch off and wait for the bits when Arshad Warsi appears, because he has the funniest lines and Irrfan just feeds off his cues, so the two make an excellent comic team that carries off the film from the indifferent lead pair, without straining a muscle.
What might cause some surprise in the otherwise ho-hum film is that Irrfan Khan manages to do a comic role quite successfully, and that for a change the heroine has an unusual profession—she dubs for cartoon films; sadly her talent for doing voices is not made use of well in the script.
Based on Telugu film Anukokunda Oka Roju ( which could have a foreign film source), Sunday is about Seher (Ayesha Takia), who does not remember what happened to her on a Saturday night, when she wandered around Delhi leaving chaos in her wake. What actually happens to Seher is so prosaic, it’s not worth the effort of making a whole film about!
Shetty tries to put in too many ‘items’ into the film, whether it is a long chase through crowded Chandni Chowk, or a running track involving a cabbie (Arshad Warsi) his actor buddy (Irrfan Khan), a gang of thugs led by a squeaky voiced fellow and a comedian who speaks with a Malayalee accent.
The script is purely one of convenience—if the girl bumps into a cop Rajveer (Ajay Devgan), he turns out to be the guy her mother wants her to marry. If the cop chases a drug dealer, he is the one who will have crucial information when it is needed. In a huge city like Delhi, the cabbie keeps running into Seher all the time. The cop has a minor run-in with a minister’s son, who turns out to be the key to the mystery.. and so on. You’d think the action was taking place in a one-horse town with a population of twenty.
Shetty is not going to turn into Hitchcock in a hurry, the suspense and thriller aspects of the film are duds; He can’t handle the romance either, the songs are dull, so you switch off and wait for the bits when Arshad Warsi appears, because he has the funniest lines and Irrfan just feeds off his cues, so the two make an excellent comic team that carries off the film from the indifferent lead pair, without straining a muscle.
Labels: Cinemaah
