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The week of poor jokes and jokers from Bollywood Cinema

Different strokes: Bollywood churns out a comedy, ‘One two three’ (left), while Hollywood brings in a monster story with ‘D-war’.

Different strokes: Bollywood churns out a comedy, ‘One two three’ (left), while Hollywood brings in a monster story with ‘D-war’.

The dumb just got dumber. And the not-so-dumb join in laughter as Ashwani Dhir spins together a comedy where moments’ worth outstrips the couple of hours one spends inside the hall.

Not quite a winning formula, one would say, but quite workable to be sure. Hand-pick a few moments of the film and you will find yourself warming up to this laugh saga that travels the “Kya Kool Hain Hum” and “No Entry” highway .

Oh, by the way, for all the critical lampooning such films are generally treated to, they are beginning to re-write the norms at the box office. Unlike the Dada Kondke kind of films in years past, this new genre is beginning to find acceptance among the unlettered as well as the upwardly mobile professionals, often talking and abusing in English.

Like the simplistic name of the film, some of the jokes are tried and tired all right, like Mukesh Tiwari’s attempt to do an Ajit. Others pack in warmth, wit and wisdom even if they go overboard. Then there are many, many others that tend to cater to the baser human instincts. Often situational, they are uniformly coarse and repetitively vulgar. But it is all deliberate: Dhir goes for a relentless overstatement, knowing that his single-strand storyline of three men with the same name and the consequent mistaken identity crisis won’t pass muster if the viewers have time to sit and ponder.

So he packs in lots of pace in his story, adds more than a bit of female flesh, and treats his heroines as nothing but a ruse to appeal to the carnal instincts in men. Sameera Reddy, forever able and willing, does a bit of a strip-tease. Esha Deol and Tanisha, she who took the Yash Raj banner to the nadir with “Neil ‘N’ Nikki”, do their bit. Under-employed and over-eager, they let enthusiasm get the better of their craft.

Neetu Chandra is the odd one out. As a cop, she got to be covered. So she settles for a single unbuttoned shirt and words meant to titillate.

Guys, what? Well, except for the ever-reliable and prolific Paresh Rawal, others got to be grateful for the opportunity provided by Dhir, who has actually done a smart thing by taking along a host of actors affordable, available and willing. Here young Tusshar says all the double-liners with a straight face that he by now is quite accustomed to, courtesy “Kya Kool…” and “Golmaal”, etc. As a bhai out to claim his first murder victim, he marries innocence to his brutal profession with hilarious side-effects.

Then there is Sunil Shetty, hamming as usual, and once again telling us a scowl is actually better than no expression. Oh, by the way, Upen Patel is there too. What is he doing? Well, not sure he knows either, except he stands on the ground while Tanisha stands on a podium or a staircase to make up for their height difference.

Never mind. Dhir doesn’t either. He just gets the three guys, all named Laxmi Narayan, to come to the same hotel at the same time. One is out to buy a car, another to get a new range of women’s innerwear, and the third to bump off someone. How a guy who sells underwear by the street-side gets to share the same hotel as a guy who goes for vintage cars is a little detail Dhir is not bothered about. For uncomplaining and forever forgiving viewers, it does not take much intelligence to know what follows. Suffice to say, there are guffaws aplenty. And you will enjoy the fare if you are not too concerned about notions of prudery, are willing to turn a deaf ear to some of the dialogue that touches the gutter level, and poetry that you will find at the raunchiest of gatherings.

“One Two Three”…way to go? Decide which side of the moral fence you stand!

If imitation is the best form of flattery, Hollywood is getting the best of compliments these days: more and more film makers across the world are beginning to be “inspired” by their technique, content and canvas.

The latest compliment comes from Korean director Hyung-rae Shim who decides that if Hollywood can rake it in with monsters, so can he. So, after the likes of “Jurassic Park” and “King Kong”, we get “D-War”, yet another tale of an alien, monster or predator, whatever you call it, out to devour America. It seems these foreign wrecking machines have a special fondness for the US. Every time, a being from another planet or another era has to come looking for victims, America and Americans seem to be the preferred option.

Unfortunately, Shim’s film is a bit of a sham. It has too little action, interspersed with too many emotional and lighter moments to merit constant attention. For anyone having watched a couple of earlier films on a similar themes, this film has a sameness that is self-defeating. The element of surprise is not quite there. The expressions on the faces of the cast, the scenes of devastation all have a familiar ring.

To make things a shade worse, the Imoogi out to wreak havoc everywhere makes only cursory appearances. It is not a constant presence so essential to drive that feeling of fear into the viewers’ mind. The all-destroying creature comes and goes, gobbling up people, felling buildings and the like. Though the whole of Los Angeles stays transfixed, the viewers don’t quite get the tension because there is a lot of human drama, less of action. And even the scenes of destruction get repetitive. The creature runs on the highway, swallows buses, smashing buildings by the side -- or enters residential or commercial places, ransacking everything.

That feeling of a creature rising from the sea or striking from above is not there. Buildings fall like a pack of cards, human being are swallowed like pills. Not much novelty, just an attempt to cash in on the tried and the tested.

However, there are saving graces. For one, it is based on the Korean legend and with its tale of misery, it has a little love tale appended to it. There is a reporter, Ethan, and a beautiful girl, Sarah, who is supposed to be his comrade in arms, and life, for saving the world.

We know that good ultimately prevails over evil. We also know every war ends in peace. So if you are planning to watch “D-War” that is released in English as well as Hindi, make sure you don’t expect the unexpected.

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