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Danger all the way
DARK TALE: The protagonists in their private hell.
Danger (HINDI)
Cast: Ashutosh Rana,
Jas Arora, Tara Deshpande
Mus: DJ Whosane?
Dir: Vasant Chheda
FOLLOWING THE entirely unexpected success of 16 December and not so bad showing of Aankhen comes another film that attempts to put together a suspense story with minimum detractions. Vasant Chheda's Danger is unremitting and relentless in its focus.
Its straight-eye approach, its no no-nonsense tenor is unusual to put it politely, and unsettling if one is allowed a dash of hyperbole. It can even be unnerving for the viewers used to `toilet breaks' in Bollywood films.
It gives you nothing to cheer, nothing to feel happy about and inside the dark environs of the auditorium, it leaves you panting.
The director deserves full marks for sticking to his subject throughout but it is unlikely to translate into long queues at the turnstiles simply because the film is too grim, too methodical, too straight to allow for relief. Though it is able to retain the audiences till the climax largely due to the constant pace the director maintains throughout, they may not walk out at the end feeling satiated or rejuvenated.
As the only song at the end inquires: Aap ko meri film mein kya bura laga? Well, the answer is it is not a feel-good cinema or one that justifies it dark settings. Shot mainly indoors, it gives the viewers little breathing space. And seems too clearly derived from theatre for being suitable to the big screen.
Danger opens with Ashutosh Rana being a witness to a gruesome shock treatment in the den of the now ubiquitous `bhai'. Soon, he is himself sucked into it, scheduled, as he is to receive a couple of crores of cool cash. Predictably, there are pitfalls in receiving and keeping that cash for the bhai.
How the timid man guards his money and later allows an element of greed to creep in unannounced makes for interesting drama.
He has a cohort in winsome Tara Deshpande, willing to make ample compromises to create the actual atmosphere of a world without scruples.
The girl, however, loves his money more. And loves another man more -- played by Jas Arora. She plans to get him exterminated and elope with her love. How the first man comes to suspect her, and how she manages to outwit him is what Danger is all about. It is a film you will find difficult to switch off from. But it is not a film you would really like to watch a second time. And that, as they say, is the proof of a really well made film. This one obviously falls short.
ZIYA US SALAM
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