Entertainment - Cinema   

BARSAAT

ZIYA US SALAM

(At Shiela and other Delhi theatres)

Ah! These deceitful purveyors of feminine charm! They beckon, we respond; they simmer, we are reduced to ash! There is a girl here - Bipasha Basu - for whom no poet would ever pen "Baharon phool barsao mera mehboob aaya hai... ." And why should one? She is not a dew-fresh beauty. She does not need to be - her charms are for the wee hours, when the sun is asleep, when the moon hides behind floating clouds. It is then she glows.

There is another girl - Priyanka Chopra - a girl with a waist so slender that if the breeze were accompanied by anything like a gust, she would be toppled. She too gets drenched under the rainfall. She too beckons, the most chivalrous, and the most adulterous of men!

Oh! Why should, we, helpless men, be attracted to them like moth to a flame! Why should we court death when all that lies in store is a fleeting delight? Nothing more.

And pray, why should they lead you on? All for a mediocre love triangle by Suneel Darshan? All for a film where the director promised a peep into the real life of girls in Punjab, girls who are brides for a fortnight, then forgotten by husbands enamoured of green bucks in the Wild West? And all that Darshan manages to deliver is a film that is a routine mushy story with dated music! We have Bobby as a confused man who has a childhood bride - yes, bride! - and a beloved from adulthood. While the wife simmers and prays - yawn, how many times have we seen whimpering wives! - the beloved falls all over him - yes, haven't we all seen the other woman and all her trademark tricks on the silver screen since childhood! The girls are ready with their curls and curves, the guy just appears lost, making you wonder if Bobby has grown even an inch as an actor since he made his debut in Rajkumar Santoshi's film by the same name.

Want to watch this one? A moth-eaten love triangle with all the stereotypes Bollywood survives on - a devoted wife with her karva chauth ki thali, the other woman with her mini-skirts, a joint family, songs, festivities. All that you and I have seen, initially admired, and are now probably retired from! Watch it if you relish the idea of taking a trip down familiar, if tiresome, lane. No shower of rejuvenation, this "Barsaat" is just drenched in mediocrity.

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