Date:30/12/2007 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2007/12/30/stories/2007123058580200.htm

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Andhra Pradesh

Nothing to carry home

StereotypE romance: Mrinalini Sharma and Tushar Jalota in Showbiz

Film Showbiz

Cast: Mrinalini Sharma, Tushar Jalota

Director: Raju Khan

In our competitive times, hardly anyone can afford to rest on his laurels. And none can afford to have anybody trifling with his reputation built over years of solid work. Unfortunately, seasoned filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt, forever defiant, often a deviant, seems keen to play the exception to the norm.

Why else will he hand over somebody like Raju Khan to take the directorial baton of a film and lend his name to the credits! Truth must be told: ‘Showbiz’ has nothing, not even remotely, that will suggest that Bhatt took any interest in the proceedings. Even the customary music, the evening silhouettes go missing.

There is not even a dash of melancholy. All that remains is a ‘wooden’ Mrinalini Sharma. And termite-ridden new hero Tushar Jalota!

If you want to gamble, go to a casino. Don’t commit hara-kiri on the screen! Greed, like old age, is a deadly foe of all charm. And the maverick filmmaker is probably guilty of milking his reputation here.

The idea being to make hay while the sun shines. So, in recent times we have had films like ‘Nazar’, ‘Awarapan’ and ‘Rog’ from the camp that prides itself on its sensitivity.

All those films, despite all their obvious flaws, had something to carry home for the paying viewer. Here, that semblance is dropped as Raju decides to spin a story about a reality hunt winner – talk of capitalising on the new-found reality! Throw in a dirty bit about the media being too intrusive, too irresponsible, and you have a film that seems to have borrowed generous slices of stereotypes. Not content, Raju throws in a couple of his own!

Result? A mish-mash of a film that takes you nowhere. He does not do the viewers any favour with his pedestrian saga. Of course, it is too small to harm Mr Bhatt’s reputation, but is enough for a warning: Complacence is a veritable enemy of progress.

Stay glued to real life. Or the small screen. “Showbiz” is no show.

ZIYA US SALAM