Karnataka   

Hard to admire or appreciate

No sting: Shweta Bhardwaj Viveik Oberoi, Zayed Khan and Shriya Saran in ‘Mission Istanbul’.

Mission Istanbul (Hindi)

Cast: Viveik Oberoi, Zayed Khan, Shriya Saran, Shweta Bhardwaj

Director: Apoorva Lakhia

It is hard to admire “Mission Istanbul” and even harder to appreciate it. Director Apoorva Lakhia’s film shows all signs of bankruptcy of ideas that is the privilege of the mediocre. For all the hype, and low expectations, “Mission Istaanbul” is a ragtag jumble of inexplicable action, lots of loopholes, and three — or was it four? — songs that do nobody any justice.

Arriving at an intersection of crude commerce and an artiste’s licence to creativity, Lakhia’s film could have been easily accepted a few years ago.

But circa 2008, you have to be particularly dumb or easily acquiescing to ignore this marriage of market with movie. But hey, a few years back the film would not have seemed as obnoxious as it does now: then audiences were largely undemanding. Films did not make too many claims on our intelligence.

Unfortunately, it is not the same anymore. And Lakhia, fresh from the success of “Shootout at Lokhandwala”, but a couple of years after directors of all classes, languages and regions have milked the terrorist tap dry, comes up with a film that has such a familiar look to it that you feel, well, you have seen it, heard it and read about it.

For convenience, Lakhia chooses a simple story: after the U.S. and the U.K., Turkey is the next target of terrorists — wonder what ever happened to India? And one media house has devised a technique whereby a terrorist, probably dead, is revived through CDs to evoke awe and horror. If there is a guise here, it is thin. A journalist from India ends up joining hands with an Indian at the receiving end of a terrorist attack. And lo and behold, Bush and company might sleep, but they want to put an end to terror by raiding the offices of the channel!

Too many reels are wasted, too much directionless untamed energy in full blast before the final denouement. And all along, the cast, led by Viveik Oberoi and Zayed Khan, and “helped” by Shriya Saran and newcomer Shweta Bhardwaj, keep pace. Never suspected of being generously talented, they compete to evoke yawns.

Fragmented, deceitful, “Mission Istanbul” has no sting. As for the chances of box office success, well, mission impossible!

ZIYA US SALAM

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