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THE FULL MONTY

Writing credits: Simon Beaufoy

Cast: Robert Carlyle, William Snape, Mark Addy, Tom Wilkinson, Steve Huison, Paul Barber, Hugo Speer and Lesly Sharpe

Directed by Peter Cattaneo

Fox Searchlights, DVD,

Rs. 499, 91 minutes

A small-budget film that turned out to be the biggest money-spinner in British cinema, grossing over £160 million, The Full Monty is a triumph for English movies made away from Hollywood. Interestingly, Fox Searchlight Studios, which distributed the film, was rather sceptical of its success and wanted the title changed (there's nobody called Monty in the film, some executives said) and even had to distribute pamphlets explaining the colloquial language of the Yorkshireman so that American audiences could follow the dialogue. The film actually had couple of other working titles (Eggs, Beans and Chippendales and No Man's Land) but the final choice became a well-used phrase in English.

A word of caution: the film is rife with ribald language and some scenes could be distasteful to prudes, but nothing is out of place.

The Full Monty depicts the lives of six out-of-work men in the once booming steel industry in Sheffield. The desperate and depressed gang of laid-off workers need to get their lives on the rails and Gaz (Robert Carlyle) gets a brainwave that could spell a windfall for them. The solution to their travails is to have a one-off male strip show, which would give their audience "The Full Monty", meaning go the whole way.

But the strippers really are a motley crew of guys who can't dance, don't look like studs and would not attract a second look from women. "You're fat, he's thin and you are both ugly," says Gerald, their former supervisor.

Gerry knows a bit of dancing and is cajoled into becoming the choreographer for the bump and grind show. After a series of yes, no, maybe sequences, the gang fulfils its promise to a sell-out audience filled with whistling and shrieking women urging the lot to go full frontal even as Tom Jones croons, "You Can Leave Your Hat On".

The film is replete with incidents from the lives of ordinary people. Gary has been on dole for six months but has not confided in his wife. She has been blissfully swiping her credit card and plans exotic holidays till the day all their goods are repossessed.

Dave, Gaz's best mate, goes through pangs of self-deprecation and even suffers from erectile dysfunction, while Gaz himself is desperately trying to bond with his young son over whom he is on the verge of losing visiting rights. The young lad (William Snape) plays convincingly plays the role of a doting son desperate to reunite his mom and dad.

Some scenes in the film stand out from the plethora of deft directorial touches: the gang is queuing up for their dole. In the background Donna Summers is belting out "Hot Stuff" and each one of the would-be strippers is grooving.

Then there's the scene in which the impressively equipped Guy (Hugo Speer) does the full monty at the audition and an awestruck Gaz remarks: "Gentlemen, the lunch box has landed."

Unforgettable, innit?

D. RAVI SHANKAR

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