Date:02/10/2005 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2005/10/02/stories/2005100217490200.htm

Karnataka - Bangalore

An experiment that does not quite click

Siskiyaan (Hindi)

Director: Ashwini Chaudhary

Cast: Neha Dhupia, Sinu Sood, Sachin Khedekar

Does a rapist have two horns? Does he have three hands or four legs? Whatever he is, a rapist is not a man. On such lines flows director Ashwini Chaudhary's "Siskiyaan", a serious take on the life of one such victim in the Gujarat genocide.

Should she pardon the perpetrator when she has him begging for mercy? Or should she forget humanity, just as he did when she pleaded with him? There are myriad questions that this essay raises. Unfortunately, there are no easy answers and this film ends up as another experiment that does not quite click.

For the masses, there is Neha Dhupia. Their expectations are raised. She plays a Muslim girl and refreshingly behaves like a normal girl, and not like some gharara-clad assault victim that Bollywood is so fond of showing. The scope for skin show is minimum. The masses, used to her "Julie" ways, would be disappointed and the critics would be disappointed by the laboured, single-layered performance. And they would be hopping mad with Chaudhary who showed such brilliance in "Dhoop". Here, the sun has set. Everything is gloomy. Watch it for a ghazal by Bhupinder Singh. But why watch a film for a song? Buy the audio instead!

ZIYA US SALAM