Saturday, May 12, 2012
Dangerous Ishq
Fancy Dress Ball
Vikram Bhatt’s Dangerous Ishq has been publicized as Karisma Kapoor’s comeback film, and she is the centre of attraction. During her tenure as leading lady, she got just a handful of films that focussed on performances; mostly she was just the singing-dancing romantic lead. So it is interesting to see that on her return she is allowed to carry a film on her shoulders. Also, she gets to change her look from contemporary to period and show how lovely she looks in various costumes.
As for the film in 3D –waste of the technology—it is a laughably corny reincarnation tale. Supermodel Sanjana (Kapoor) abandons a career in Paris to settle down with boyfriend Rohan (Rajneesh Duggal—plank of wood), when he is kidnapped. A ransom of fifty crore is demanded.
Sanjana starts getting strange hallucinations, and a doctor solemnly tells her that her soul is trying to tell her something. So how can I get in touch with my soul, Sanjana asks seriously. A past life regression session takes her to Partition era Pakistan, where she, Hindu girl, is in love with a Muslim man (Rohan in that birth). The doctor concludes that her enemies from the past life are behind the kidnapping.
One more Mughal era flashback and another in Chittorgarh where Meerabai (Gracy Singh) is involved, and finally the mystery is unravelled. In the current incarnation, Sanjana runs around in six inch heels, with a cop (Jimmy Shergill) who is investigating, and her best buddy (Divya Dutta) who was her well wishes in the past births too.
The film is a drag, studded with moments of unintentional hilarity. For an actress, getting to play so many parts in one film must be a challenge, unfortunately Dangerous Ishq does not rise above the level of a fancy dress game.
Labels: Cinemaah
Friday, May 11, 2012
Ishaqzaade
Love And Guns
A little girl in a small North Indian town of Almor is seen spewing rage at a group of boys following her school rickshaw. This one grows up to the sharp-tongued, political aspirant, who trades her jhumkas for a pistol—a very interesting character, who drives this film forward.
Like Habib Faisal’s Do Dooni Char, Ishaqzaade is set in ‘real’ India, ugly, dirty, lawless (cops are conspicuous by their absence), not prettified in any way. In this macho world, young men take pride in being uncouth, academic duffers and believe that violence against the weak is a way of life.
Faisal casts Parineeti Chopra as his Uttar Pradesh Juliet/ Zoya and Arjun Kapoor as Romeo/Parma, and fills the rest of the cast with unknowns who look like they have been picked up off the streets of Almor. Two families of political rivals—the Chauhans and Qureshis-- driven further apart by their religions, have carved up the town between them.
Patriarchs of both clans, have gun-toting men on call, and violence is unleashed on minor matters as getting extra diesel to light up a party, or who will get the prized nautch girl Chand (Gauhar Khan) to dance at his function.
Pampered, tomboyish Zoya who wants to be an MLA, gets into verbal spats with Parma. But the hatred soon turns to love. The story diverts from the Romeo and Juliet plot, and at intermission time, is a shocking twist. When Parma and Zoya finally run away, and have a tranquil few days at Chand’s kotha; in the outside world, love has no value.
After the high energy first half, the second half slows down in pace, and then moves towards an expected climax. Faisal’s script has some powerful scenes—in a world where women have no value or power, Parma’s widowed mother (Natasha Rastogi) wields influence on her wayward son, and pushes him into doing the right thing. That women of the kotha are independent enough to defy the male order is an ironical comment on that society flaunting its mardangi.
The film was meant to launch Arjun Kapoor, and he does well to choose a film that uses his talent rather than his looks, but Ishaqzaade totally belongs to Parineeti Chopra, who can project fire and vulnerability at the same time, using her eyes, voice and body language to create a remarkable Zoya. Gauhar Khan is charming as the hooker with a heart.
Ishaqzaade is not entertaining in the light way audiences go for, but the narration makes you care for the two youngsters who want to escape the savagery around them, and hope love will be the solution. Studded with some good songs, the film is worth a look.
Labels: Cinemaah
