Date:27/04/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/04/27/stories/2008042750810200.htm

Andhra Pradesh

Stay away from this routine fare Film Review

Urban problems: Manisha Koirala and Ranvir Shorey in Sirf

Film: Sirf

Cast: Manisha Koirala,Kay Kay Menon

Direction: Rajaatesh Nayar

In this Nayar film full of under-utilised or un-utilisable actors, Manisha Koirala is the only one to have tasted stardom. But that was aeons ago, when she was fresh and frothy. Today, she is all puffed up and worn out.

But in an irony of sorts, “Sirf” is just the kind of vehicle she can hope to get on in a badly floundering career.

A weak take-off on Anurag Basu’s “Metro” which portrayed urban angst with some sensitivity, Nayar’s film talks of four urban couples, each of whom has its problems.

The problems are all common place: a small town girl married to an upwardly mobile ad guy, a hard-working man who draws less than his wife, another man too busy reaping the fruits of individual success to share with spouse and the like.

With an array of actors including Kay Kay Menon, Rituparna Sengupta and Sonali Kulkarni, besides Manisha, performances are not a concern in this film. What is a concern is the loose grip the director has on the proceedings, the lack of drama in the story, the predictable problems and repetitive sequences.

And a sameness to the proceedings which does nothing to endear the debutant to the viewers.

ZIYA US SALAM