The Hindu : New Delhi News : From good old days to not so good days ... .

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Dec 11, 2005

New Delhi

New Delhi

From good old days to not so good days ... .

ZIYA US SALAM

EK AJNABEE

(At PVR Spice, Noida; and Delhi theatres)

Much about Amitabh Bachchan is understated, including his ability to rise above mediocre films. Throughout a career of three decades and more he has made it a habit to tower above the film he stars in. In many ways, he is a throwback to the good old times - he has never really been strong around the shoulders, nor has he pumped iron in the gym like most guys these days. Yet he has been the angry young man for a spell long enough to make infinity intelligible! He is not even the conventional hero - he has long since passed the age of running around the trees, and, at his best, is not too many directors' idea of a romantic lead. Yet he has gone about doing his job, knowing wherever he might be in the frame, the camera will shift to him - hero or no hero. He revels in all the spotlight here - and his fans won't complain. But look a bit deeper, this Apoorva Lakhia film though a vast improvement on his earlier foray, "Mumbai Se Aaya Mera Dost" is actually just a single-layered, one-thread film. There is Bachchan. Period.

He needs nothing else. No hero, no heroine. Not much by way of song and dance. No complaints on that count either. Bachchan, after all, has been at it for years. He adds nuances you thought were deserving of a better product; he steals the show like he has all the way through. He evokes pathos, he garners sympathy, and at the end he wins applause too.

Many of his expressions are multi-layered, you derive the meaning you want - the master artiste reveals the art, conceals the self, the spectator participates. There is just a small little problem all the way - there is not much of a script. And in this thriller where Bachchan acts as a bodyguard who fails in his duty to protect the child, there is as much surprise as yesterday's weather bulletin. The film involves the viewers all right but never really has then in a thrall.

Bachchan's colonel here finds himself defending the life of a millionaire's kid. The plot is a challenge to logic - army top guns are not really known to be going around playing a driver, swimming instructor, a bodyguard to the high and mighty. Never mind, again - reason and experience are always given the go-by in the entertainment industry. Enjoy the moments with Bachchan - and he is there in almost every frame. Keep a little corner for Perizaad Zorabian too, who never loses her composure in front of the veteran. And just turn a blind eye, oops, deaf ear, to Arjun Rampal. A smashingly good-looking guy, he is yet to understand the A of acting.

Want to make friends with "Ek Ajnabee" in this season of heightened interest in Bachchan? Go ahead, Bachchan never disappoints.

Can't say the same about Lakhia, though. This one is yet another case of a star being better than the film.

NEAL `N' NIKKI

(At Delite and other Delhi theatres)

"I am hot. I am not a virgin. I want to show my body... ." So says Tanishaa Mukerji, here packaged anew, ostensibly just the way guys want their girls to be! Welcome the New Age heroine. No bindiya, no kangan, no sari. She is all body, no soul, little substance.

Her gravity-defying bustier makes innerwear an avoidable luxury, her gravity-following minis make hot pants an impudent add-on. She is sexy? Yes, but only if your idea of sexy is less and lesser clothes, and a nincompoop who could trade her language with a girl from the sleaze street.

Sorry, Arjun Sablok, if you messed it up with "Na Tum Jaano Na Hum" a couple of years ago, this time you have really reached the dead end. There is no story, no spark, no performances to speak of. Just a series of picture postcard Vancouver locales, just a series of inanities between the lead pair in the name of sweet nothings which make a simple expression like "Good morning!" appear profound. If this is cinema aimed at the young, you might as well substitute the young with the juvenile. And if Sablok thinks this is the lingo of the hip and happening, well, that is not happening!

Of course, Sablok is helped not a whit by two "actors" who are neither performers nor stars. They ensure neither an initial at the box office nor steady collections picking up through word of mouth. Tanishaa is all skin and giggles. Her smile would have been sweet in a nursery, not as a supposedly sex symbol. She wears little, very little, gives it all. Unfortunately, all of it to no avail. When she shows her legs, you prefer to look at the trees in the background, when she makes a splash in the swimming pool, you find beauty in the rising and falling water drops. A bubble in a swimming pool never seemed more attractive.

Ditto for Uday Chopra, who it seems, is an earnest trier, one who would not stop until the door has been firmly closed shut, bolted and locked.

A passable actor with the charisma of a fly on the wall, he is at best a miscast. At worst, he has no business to be on the screen - his family showbiz notwithstanding!

Want to watch "Neal `n' Nikki" just to see how a guy and girl meet in Vancouver when he is out to enjoy the last few weeks of bachelorhood? Do so at your own risk.

"Neal `n' Nikki" has neither nice moments to rev up an evening nor a minute to tickle you. Just good music wasted in a bad, bad film. As for the New Age heroine, give us nostalgia any day.

KALYUG

(At Shiela and other Delhi theatres)

This seems to be the week of second-time directors. After Lakhia and Sablok, here comes Mohit Suri. Unlike the other two who had given us duds in the first round, Suri tasted the sweet nectar of success with "Zeher".

He just about manages to keep his untarnished record in this Mahesh Bhatt camp film which is right up the veteran's alley.

The subject is pornography. There is scope for some good music, some nice locales, some dark humour.

Of course, there is a possibility of sensuality too. Not to forget the melancholy which seeps in unannounced in a Bhatt production. Suri does not let the opportunity go abegging, and in a film where he could have gone overboard, he manages to rein in the drama in the nick of time.

There is little skin show in the film - that would disappoint those who go to watch it simply because the film was initially called "Blue Film". But that helps in retaining the focus on the storyline of a young man who finds his intimate moments with his wife put on the Internet by some international mafia. His plight makes everyone appear vulnerable to blackmail; however, his hunt for the tormentors leaves a lot to be desired. His journey from India to Switzerland on their trail, without a penny earned anywhere, is open to question - but then when did Bollywood pride itself in attention to detail?

Oh, by the way, "Kalyug" comes riding on young talent - there is Kunal who would another day be a finer version of Emraan Hashmi.

There is Deepal Shaw, all gait and no talk. There is Smylie Suri, perfect sister material. Of course, there is Hashmi too, giving a better account of himself than in the past. And Amrita Singh making a dignified comeback after "Shaheed". If you intend to watch "Kalyug", a mirror jagged around the edges, make sure you keep your expectation level low.

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