The Hindu : Karnataka News : This one does not last the distance

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Aug 16, 2008
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

Karnataka

Karnataka

This one does not last the distance

Film: God Tussi Great Ho (Hindi)

Cast: Salman Khan, Priyanka

Chopra, Amitabh Bachchan

Life is all about worshipping One, hating none. Submit yourself to the will of the Almighty because

He alone knows what is best for us. His knowledge is unlimited, so is His mercy.

Yet man is foolhardy enough to believe that he can step beyond his mortal being, decide what is good for him, be the master of his destiny. Not to be. The pawn can never succeed the King.

That sums up Rumi Jafry’s long delayed “God Tussi Great Ho”, a film that comes with dollops of trademark Salman Khan humour. Also a film that makes a colossal waste of Amitabh Bachchan’s enviable talent.

If the film is all about projecting the power of the divine, the director commits a no mean crime by under utilising Bachchan to the extent that you end up feeling, “hey, have we come to see a Salman solo?”

The film though weak in script and floundering with forgettable dialogues, has several perky moments. Salman plays an electronic media journalist who must come up with a show that gets the best TRPs. With him is his colleague, Priyanka Chopra, who delivers the same lines even as the guy fumbles badly. Every time he fails, he blames it on Almighty — played with poise by Bachchan. When his dad screams at him for doing nothing, Almighty is to be blamed. When his boss fires him, God is to take the flak. All until one day God decides that He will temporarily give His powers to this floundering man.

It is a nice premise, amply borrowed from “Bruce Almighty”. However, despite the situational humour of Salman, the film falls short. Badly short.

When all that the director needed was a focussed narration of the evolving relationship between man and God, he introduces a love triangle — Sohail Khan, with his usual corny fare, wants Priyanka too. Then the director adds some lustreless songs that do nobody any favours. Except those eatable stalls which are frequented by people to get rid of the boredom of pedestrian music.

Even as Salman goes from one mistake to another, then redeems himself in the nick of time, Bachchan as god, just stands and stares, almost a bystander to the fortunes of the denizens of the earth. He is too shackled to lift the film in his sporadic and fleeting appearances.

As for Salman, he does his screech and scream routine, the kind of good boy, bad boy thing he specialises in.

Bina Kak, however, slides into the sandals of a good old Bollywood mother with laddoos and puja ki thali with ease. And Anupam Kher hams the way he has been doing for more than two decades.

Sorry, but this take on man and God has no divinity. And not enough clean laughs to last the distance.

A few moments of mirth and merriment is all it offers for two hours of mediocrity. Worship the Almighty at home rather than waste your time seeing His supremacy on the big screen.

ZUS

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Karnataka