Film Review: Grahan

JACKIE SHROFF'S star had eclipsed long before his first home production, ``Grahan'', hit the silver screen across the country this past week. And from the looks of it, ``Grahan'', which shimmers in parts and stutters in many others, may not suffice to bring this fading star back into the limelight.

Launched with much fanfare in late 1996, the film's promos have been interminably on satellite channels for a couple of years now. More than once the release date has been announced only for the distributors to develop cold feet at the last moment. First there was a problem with financiers, then the distributors before the film finally found some takers in this very bleak period for Hindi films.

``Grahan'' is the story of a wronged woman - first at the hands of the Chief Minister's son - played with restraint by Prasad Purandhare - then at the hands of law and a lawyer - played with customary dignity by Jackie Shroff. Manisha Koirala in a well- etched out role holds viewers' interest for the major part. But fails to elevate a competent performance to a truly magnificent one. She is fine as a fragile woman with a past. And she is mildly alluring in the song and dance sequences. But is unable to rise above Bollywood's stereotypes in the climax scene.

Anupama Verma repeats the folly. As Jackie Shroff's charming love interest, she holds attention. Her figure is sleek, her dialogue delivery passable and her screen presence better than many more successful contemporaries. However, as the woman who steps into the Chief Minister's shoes (shades of reel life overlapping real life?) she is miscast. And wasted. She neither has the persona nor the bearings to even remotely resemble a politician, leave alone the Chief Minister.

Kartik Raja's music is soothing - if memory serves me right, Asha Bhonsle's ``Aaj main khush hun...'' had made it to countdown shows a couple of springs ago. However, ``Grahan'' suffers because the captain (director K. Sashilal Nair, who has directed Jackie and Nana Patekar in ``Angaar'' in the mid-'90s) does not steer the ship to its destination. He fumbles, gropes his way through. The amazingly amateurish courtroom scenes fail to arouse interest. And the locales change with a suddenness which would have been appreciated had they been called for in the film. As such the beautiful visuals just seem picked out of a tourist booklet.

If, despite these flaws, ``Grahan'' manages to evoke interest in parts, it is because of the lead players and a consistent refusal to yield to temptation of capitalising on the distaff side's helplessness in cases of physical violation.

ZIYA US SALAM

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