The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : No hurray about this holiday

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Feb 11, 2006

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

No hurray about this holiday

FUN TIME: Dino Morea and Anjolee Nair in 'Holiday'

Holiday (Hindi)

Cast: Dino Morea,

Anjolee Nair, Gulshan Grover

Director: Pooja Bhatt

Here comes a film where silence is a winner. Here frames speak with a beautiful interplay of light and darkness. Silhouettes are beautiful, sunshine more so. Symbolism abounds as a girl, who has flunked her maths exams but is encouraged to pass the test of life, looks for fulfilment on the undulating sands of Goa. She is no pretty thing waiting to show off those long legs. She is a girl you would lose in a crowd. In vulnerability lies her strength - she is a girl with whom you can have enduring dreams that go beyond midnight rhapsody. She wants to be the ace dancer, she can at least be an able partner.

Soothing tunes

Add to that a music score that is soothing without being memorable. However, Pooja Bhatt's "Holiday" is not just music director Ranjit Barot and cinematographer Anshuman Mahaley's film. It is a film where ordinariness is a virtue, and beauty not the final destination of every girl, nor Adonis the cherished state for every guy.

Pooja builds her film so slowly that you wonder where are you headed. . What she does not have in the script and story , she tries to make up in the style section. And does not do too badly with the lead actors - Gulshan Grover is a bit of pleasant surprise as a protective father. Dino Morea manages to show his soft side, and two right feet in dancing. His partner, newcomer Anjolee Nair, is adequate without being awesome. Unfortunately, "Holiday" is unlikely to score simply because the pace is too leisurely, there are holes in story-telling. It depends too much on a poet's whims than the common man's reason to score at the box office. There is not much suspense, the storyline is paper-thin and dialogues, mediocre. And what could have been a delectable tale of an hour is forced into a full-length feature film.

Ziya Us Salam

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