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Saturday, August 21, 2010

LP+ 1 

Lafangey Parindey

The Mumbai ‘wadi’-bred tapori isn’t seen around in cinema all that much these days—but if he were to turn up, he certainly wouldn’t look like Neil Nitin Mukesh, and a ‘wadi’ girl would not look as chic as Deepika Padukone. Suspending disbelief to accept these two stars as poor dreamers is the least of the problems with Pradeep Sarkar’s Lafangey Parindey. The words that come out of their mouths may be peppered with Mumbai slang, but don’t sound right. Nor does a chawl girl’s aspiration to be a skating champ ring true—some Hollywood influence as work here. Closer home, inspiration from Gulzar’s Kinara and Telugu film Nuvvu Vasthavani. In short, not a film Pradeep Sarkar seems comfortable with.

One-shot Nandu (Neil Nitin Mukesh) is called by the nickname because he knocks opponents down in one blow in the boxing matches organized by Usmaanbhai (Piyush Mishra). He has the usual filmi bunch of idle cohorts around him with names like Chaddi, Diesel, Gulkand (and not a Circuit among them.) On a rainy night, helping a bhai (Kay Kay Menon) escape, he knocks down and blinds Pinky (Deepika Padukone).

Guilty at ruining her life and her ‘India’s Got Talent’ dreams, he trains her to work around her handicap and reluctantly becomes her dance-skating partner. All this while, a cop doggedly investigates and the threat of Nandu’s secret coming out looms over him.

But, there is hardly any drama, little build-up and no surprises. Both actors look like they were visiting from a neighbouring YRF set, and just trying out lines for fun. A YRF slum can never look convincingly grungy or their characters sufficiently downtrodden. And because of that Pinky’s desire to get out of their just never reaches the viewer’s heart. Plus large chunks of it are dull, and the skating scenes never make the spirit soar, as they were meant to. It just looks like one of those films that was put together because they had the stars’ dates, and a gap in the production schedule.


And Once Again

Even if you missed the credits, it would be quite clear that the Government of Sikkim is associated with Amol Palekar’s And Once Again. The mountain state is seen in all its touristy glory-- the landscape, the monasteries, folk dances and all. Somewhere in there, is a flimsy story about a man coming out of a personal trauma only to be confronted with his past again.

Rishi (Rajat Kapoor) and Manu (Rituparna Sengupta) come to Sikkim, and when they are walking around pointing out the sights to the audience, he sees his ex-wife Savitri (Antara Mali), long believed dead. The plot, tedious enough as it is, tries itself up in knots by needlessly going back and forth in time, when it would work perfectly well in linear format, had it been better written, instead of cringe-makingly florid English.

Eighteen years ago, Savitri has been thought dead in a bomb blast, while Rishi—already suffering from the deaths of his parents and sister in other accidents-- unravels completely. Manu is the daughter of his shrink (Gerson da Cunha), and insists of marrying him, kinks and all. Savitri is now a monk, with shaven head and a neat S-shaped scar on her face, raising an irritating foundling. On sighting her Rishi understandably goes into a funk, and sends Manu into hysterics as well.

All this while, the meagre multiplex audience is probably wondering what happened to the once talented Amol Palekar, some of whose films like Ankahee and Daayra are still memorable. They must have spent hefty multiplex rates to see a trace of the old Paleker, and felt short-changed. Despite the unflattering get-up Antara Mali is the only one among the actors who makes an attempt to do some justice to her part.

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