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No great heights at the theatres this week

ZIYA US SALAM

DELHII HEIGHTS

(At Satyam, Patel Nagar, and other Delhi theatres)

Life for an average cinemagoer is often like a department store. There is plenty to admire at every step. Nothing is consecutive, little that cannot be savoured. However, this is the kind of week you dread as a filmgoer. There are plenty of films but little to cheer.

Leading the bunch is Anand Kumar's "Delhii Heights", a half-baked, fumbling, stuttering attempt at showing urban angst through the life of a husband and wife who are professional competitors as well. At night they share a roof; during day they slug it out.

The idea has a lot of scope with not too many filmmakers having talked of the male ego or the female ambition since the time of the much talked about Amitabh-Jaya Bachchan starrer "Abhimaan". But Anand Kumar here botches it up with real crude cuts, jumps, and a stop-start narration. To compound the agony, his lead girl Neha Dhupia's talents don't go much beyond her skin.

A sheet of iron, a slab of wood can depict the ripples of an ocean but Neha's face won't register a note that is worthy of attention. She has the pacific face of a monk to go with the voice of the detached. Indifference could as well have been her middle name.

On paper, "Delhii Heights" is the story of an upwardly mobile couple in Delhi; a couple surviving on eating out every day, flying in and out of the city every other day. But the way things shape up, their home rebuts all that a home stands for: the surroundings are impersonal, the relationship is casual, the warmth of an intimate bond is missing. Neha and Jimmy Shergill are alternately effusive and evasive, their marriage seemingly on the rocks following the lady's victory in netting a prime advertisement campaign which her hubby was aspiring for too. It is at this point that Anand Kumar could have saved the day by focusing on the life of the individuals for whom professional glory is often a surrogate for love, and exaltation of boardroom success is the supreme virtue. Not to be. Anand caves in to the supposed market pressure, inserts songs and dances when none is called for, and adds a couple of parallel tracks.

Result? A well intentioned film that goes awry with only Om Puri and Kamini Khanna as good natured neighbours bringing up some innocent laughs. The music does not thrill, the dances strike a discordant note and the supporting characters are less than well fleshed out.

With Neha's acting skills and Anand's directorial baton, "Delhii Heights" is a tragedy that needs no villain.

KHANNA & IYER

(At Delite Diamond and other Delhi theatres)

For long it was the safest way to stardom: a young boy and a girl desperately in love, resisting family pressures and everything else for undying love. Now, it turns out, playing for safety is the riskiest thing to do. Sarvar Ahuja and Aditi Sharma walk down the lane peopled with success by the likes of Kamal Hasan and Rati Agnihotri in "Ek Duje Ke Liye", Kumar Gaurav-Vijeyta Pandit in "Love Story" and Aamir Khan-Juhi Chawla in "Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak".

Under the circumstances if you want something new in the story you might as well look for a drop of honey in the Indian Ocean. On their part, the youngsters do nothing to suggest they are here for a long innings. They are both adequate without an ounce of charisma. And Aditi, for no fault of hers, does not even look like a South Indian girl. She walks, talks and behaves like a girl straight out of Delhi University. Just miscast.

That is not the only fault of director Hemant Hegde. His film has neither logic nor enough of love. So the tale of love birds becomes a foray into the life of a brigand, also a little peep into the inequities of life facing us all, from a lassi-downing Punjabi to a mundu-clad Tamil.

Redeeming feature? A parallel comedy track featuring the Punjabi and Tamil parents of the two kids. Mushtaq Khan and Manoj Pahwa evoke some laughs too. But the compensation is too meagre to make the film anything less than a couple of hours of relentless tedium.

Interested in debutants' love stories? Bring the past fast forward. There is joy in nostalgia. Hegde covers himself with little credit. Better to leave "Khanna & Iyer" to their fate.

SAY SALAAM INDIA

(At Adlabs, Pacific Mall, Kaushambi; and Delhi theatres)

Good cricket need not necessarily make for good cinema. From "Allrounder" to Awwal Number" to the more recent "Hattrick", many filmmakers over the years have burnt their fingers but no lessons learnt yet. Subhash Kapoor tries his hand at "Iqbal" and realises too late he is no Nagesh Kukunoor. Not only has the film been released after the Indian team's unceremonious ouster from the World Cup, its tagline, "Let's Bring the Cup home", seems just a cruel joke.

Sad to say but this tale of four kids from a humble background being pushed, shoved and helped along to realise their dream does not hold. And Sanjay Suri, who gave us a lump in the throat with his portrayal of a champion swimmer in "My Brother... Nikhil" not long ago, is just a shadow of the affable guy here. To put it politely, Hari Sadu is not quite the best character he has etched in his career. And Milind Soman? For all his looks, the man has never scored on the acting quotient. He maintains his clean slate here too.

Neither about the Indian cricket team nor really a cry for the fading sports of kabaddi and wrestling, not even an insight into the match-fixing saga that tainted our cricket some time ago, director Subhash Kapoor's "Say Salaam India" is actually good-bye cinema. Just bringing up the numbers really.

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