Saturday, December 14, 2013
Jackpot
Losers' Poker
Kaizad Gustad must have very strong powers of persuasion of the producer
of Jackpot very deep pockets, for them
to get Naseeruddin Shah to 1) sign up for this movie; 2) wear a ghastly wig; 3)
not disown the film.
Gustad, who shares with Ram Gopal Varma the dubious honour of giving
Amitabh Bachchan the worst role of his career (in Boom), now gives Shah the
worst get-up of his career, and a role that Gulshan Grover probably turned
down.
Then, there’s the chief attraction Sunny Leone, wearing skimpy clothes,
and having a character stare at her breasts, several times and ask her to show
them. The censors are definitely
neglecting their work.
Sachiin Joshi, who produced the film (because nobody else signed him
after Aazaan and Mumbai Mirror, which he also produced, plays a Goan layabout called
Francis, who plans an elaborate ‘jhol’
to con Boss (Shah) out of a few crores.
For a man who claims his real name is Boss, because he slapped the
doctor who delivered him, and runs a casino called Jackpot, the great
dreadlocked wonder is amazingly gullible.
The great con is so simple that a half witted child would see through it,
so instead of laying it out straight, Gustad creates a great deal of confusion
by scrambling the pages of his script and filming it in non-linear
fashion. A briefcase with ‘Jackpot’
written across it in gold letters keeps getting stolen with money in it and
found empty. Francis plays supercool even when there’s a gun to his head, or a
cop (Makrand Deshpande) at his heels. And why not, the unit had a holiday in
lovely Goa—the best part of the film; the second being a surprising lack of
violence.
The film is humourless, the music is tedious, the performances dull—yes,
even Shah—and Sunny Leone’s skin show is not enough of a draw, considering that these days, every lead actress is made to parade around in bikinis. As the Goans would say: No fun only, men!
Labels: Cinemaah
