The Hindu : New Delhi News : Looking for a bit of Paradise? Not this week…. Cinema

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Looking for a bit of Paradise? Not this week…. Cinema

ZIYA US SALAM

mediocre show: ‘The chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian’ (left) offers a mixed, slow-paced watch, while director Kunal Deshmukh’s ‘Jannat’ (right) clearly falls short of its name

mediocre show: ‘The chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian’ (left) offers a mixed, slow-paced watch, while director Kunal Deshmukh’s ‘Jannat’ (right) clearly falls short of its name

JANNAT

(At Delite and other theatres in Delhi and elsewhere)

If there is a paradise on earth, it ain’t “Jannat”, it ain’t “Jannat”. Sorry, but this new film from director Kunal Deshmukh has little to recommend beyond its name which turns out to be a misnomer. A beautiful beginning, a tepid middle and a familiar end; the film comes replete with all the stereotypes expected of a Mahesh Bhatt camp film.

There is Emraan Hashmi, almost as predictable a fixture of the Bhatt camp as the seven o’ clock shadow on a young man’s face. Then there is Sonal Chauhan, yet another long-legged beauty, just like countless others in Bhatt’s films. She is svelte, wears middling hair, covers her top and only a little of her legs. Very little acting ability, and nil dancing skills. Just an ability to pout and make the maximum use of those legs, long, almost unending. That was the mantra adopted by the likes of Mrinalini Sharma, Tulip Joshi and others. That is the route chosen for Sonal too. It is familiar territory.

Then there is the mandatory air of melancholy. A couple of songs with passable lyrics and a general rich, urban feel to the film. To offset gloom, there is a bedroom scene, and an item number too.

Seen it all? Yes, many times over, sure, right from the time Mahesh Bhatt passed on the directorial baton to the likes of Anurag Basu, Mohit Suri and now Deshmukh. And decided that shadow direction was better. But wait, besides a feeling of familiarity, there is one more thing about this movie that strikes you immediately. Like “Gangster” and to a lesser extent “Dhokha”, this film too takes motley real life incidents and gives them a cloak of fantasy to put together a saga that has several identifiable points but the sum total falls short.

When it was launched last year, there was talk of the film being based on the death of Pakistan cricket coach Bob Woolmer. Turns out Woolmer’s mysterious death – mentioned almost in passing here – is incidental to the story. As are the oblique references to a former Indian cricket captain with an eye for diamonds and watches, another former opener who laughs on television without ever having done that on a cricket field. The masses love it when the director sends out messages, some strong, some subtle, through witty dialogues. For instance, a former captain, later accused of match fixing, is said to be a guy who cannot speak, cannot model. So he has opted for an easier way of making money! Another time, India is shown winning the NatWest trophy, and Mohammed Kaif and Zaheer Khan are at the crease after Yuvraj Singh has done more than his bit. Amid all this stands Hashmi as Arjun, an upstart who gets into betting and match-fixing because he does not want his child to suffer from the deprivation he experienced as a son of an honest bookseller. There is Sonal as Zoya to lend romantic appeal. But it is essentially a simplistic storyline that derives its sustenance only from its resemblance to match fixing and betting incidents that hit the headlines not too long ago.

Unfortunately, too much time has lapsed since the cricketers were accused of the worst. And a year after his death Woolmer does not quite ring a bell among the cinemagoers. Ditto for the film. Despite its moments, the film does not quite hold the viewers in thrall. Amid a host of non-actors only Javed Sheikh as the betting kingpin makes a mark. Everybody might aspire for “Jannat” but this one here falls short of its name.

THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: PRINCE CASPIAN

(At Spice, Noida, and other theatres)

Prepare to be surprised. For all the thrills and adventure of the original, the Narnia sequel is a film so gentle, with a pace so leisurely that you could as well have been sitting on the river bank, waiting for the next ripple to kiss the shore. Bows and arrows, shields and swords are all there but scarcely is there an emotion unworthy of repetition. Enduring love, nascent romance, bravery…are all lauded. Even deceit and vanity acquire hues of mild acceptance; and d eath evokes only a mild rebuke.

Such are the characters, so are the fables of Narnia, a world untouched by technology, unaccustomed to progress. Yet not really backward, just a timeless world that has stayed the way it was though some 1300 years have lapsed since the original!

Here hearths still rule and swords are not so much as weapons of destruction as a tool for self-preservation. The long locks, the customary dresses with frills, and those tall torches illuminating caves and palaces, lend a touch of yesterday, pure and simple.

The new “Narnia”, not quite the wonderful world it was supposed to be, is for those who can suspend reason but can sail along a fantasy. All that is thanks to a decent screenplay and some wafting fable-like qualities in treatment by director Andrew Adamson.

It is a story of human ambition, treachery and those qualities we lay much stock by: loyalty, fearlessness, discipline. Yes, it is about Prince Caspian and a world where the heir is being denied his right to take over the reins, but it could have been about any regent, an heir with little power, or closer home a yuvraj.

The struggle for power, the defendants, the assailants are all like the original. The ‘courtroom’ drama is a little more elaborate, the knights not always in gleaming armour. Where the film lacks is in drama. There is too much fair play, too much predictability, too little suspense.

Agreed the four young boys and girls, though they have grown up a bit, can do only as much, but this time round the smoothness of narration occasionally lapses into monotony. And action is not high octane stuff, rather some half stabs at getting the adrenaline running. The first romance is a nice little aside that evokes smiles though. As does the cinematographer. The wilds are appealing, and the timelessness of the characters does not make them completely unidentifiable. Their emotions are very human.

The “Prince Caspian” saga, based loosely on C.S. Lewis’s novel, could have done with better editing. And maybe a better pace for kids. The adults might like the leisurely flow of events but, hey, “Narnia” was essentially a kiddy land? Never mind. You can still enjoy this sequel. Just make sure that the watch on your wrist does not tick along too fast.

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