Back
New Delhi
A mixed bag from Bollywood and Hollywood….
Different strokes: Saurabh Kabra’s ‘EMI’ brings a good new script, ‘Ek Vivah Aisa Bhi’ is a story about traditional family values and ‘James Bond – Quantum of Solace’ is a typical Bond movie.
New story, good script, some skilled actors, some melodious music, some glamour, some skin, some comedy and a lot of love – and yet something seems amiss throughout this Saurabh Kabra film. Like a sumptuous dish minus the required amount of salt!
The story features four characters who take bank loans to meet different needs. There is a deejay (Arjun Rampal) who wants money to pay up his girlfriends’ expenses, a middle class couple (Ashish Choudhry and Neha Oberoi) who want to buy a car, a house and a honeymoon trip, a retired father (Kulbhushan Kharbanda) who wants to send his son abroad for higher education, and a widow (Urmila Matondkar) of a rich man who needs to pay off an underworld “bhai” to pass her husband’s suicide off as murder!
The film begins lazily with focus on Arjun Rampal, giving you ample opportunity to think when he would be out of the skin of a model on the ramp. He dons the role of Rayan, a broke deejay who lives on credit card loans. Arjun’s poor expressions continue even when he dances, albeit with perfect steps.
Thanks to Balaji Films and Suniel Shetty, the film’s producer, for choosing Sanjay Dutt to play the role of Sattar Bhai, a money recovery agent, who carries the entire film on his shoulders. What would have Kabra done without him? Sattar Bhai first uses muscle power and then “Gandhigiri” to recover the loans from the defaulters – two aspects that cinemagoers well identify with Sanjay Dutt.
Soon the film takes an expected turn and moves away from the business of EMIs. You feel the director seems to have lost his way in the middle and messes it up. But thanks to a good script, it somehow succeeds in ending up as a social satire. Also, one would not like to take away the credit of good work from the film’s art director Prithvi Patil and also the dress designer for that perfect look.
But finally, take this EMI only if you have nothing to fall back on.
Ek Vivah Aisa Bhi (At Golcha, Delhi, and other theatres)A mix of good old Hum Aapke Hain Kaun and Tapasya (remember the Rakhi-Parikshit Sahni starrer of the early 1970s?), Ek Vivaah Aisa Bhi, true to Rajshri style, is a feel-good film with an uneasy-to-gulp utopian situation. It’s a litmus test for Rajshri itself.
It is primarily a love story woven round a tragic situation. A man dies on the day of engagement of his young daughter Chandni (Isha Koppikar) and leaves four of her younger siblings (Ishita Panchal/Amrita Prakash and Vishal Malhota/Amey Pandyaa) behind to be looked after by her. At stake for Chandni is also her own life and marriage to Prem (Sonu Sood).
It’s a tale of self-respect, tolerance, sacrifice, love, hate, realisation and a conflict of the old and new age blended with some beautiful songs like “Neend main hai….” and “Dono nibhayain apna dharma….” Koppikar as the small town girl from Bhopal gives her best shots in grim situations though Sonu Sood takes the cake as the new age Prem. His smile seduces and his voice impresses. The picturisation of the songs is better than the sum total of the whole film.
What irks you is that the director Kaushik Ghatak wants you to believe that someone (even a habitual gym goer) can look exactly the same after 12 years. Here both Prem and Chandni defy the natural law of ageing.
Some other stereotypes are there too, like a Muslim tabla player Junaid (Kunal Kumar) wearing a thick line of kohl in his eyes. The director shows some trained classical singers speaking wrong Urdu too. And yet he seems to have taken care of the minor details like his middle class characters don’t change into designer dresses in every frame but repeat them.
Full of family value messages and a catchphrase, “It’s not about 12 years of wait but 12 years of romance”, the film leaves you moist-eyed in many emotional frames. Watch it if you aren’t tired of Rajshri’s utopian ideas about life, and also watch it to remind yourself of the values you may have forgotten on the way. And, yes, keep a handkerchief ready!
James Bond - Quantum of Solace (Batra Glitz, Delhi, and other theatres)Well, you have to believe that this James Bond film comes with a dash of Bollywood! We have tried several such stories that this one has: revenge at any cost. Quantum of Solace, the sequel to Casino Royale, picks up from where the latter ended.
After being betrayed by his beloved Vesper, Bond has a mission – to uncover the truth and the organisation behind the betrayal, though he captures many links but ‘kills’ them – so much to earn the wrath of his employer and an ouster! And in typical Bollywood-like situation, he meets Cammie (Olga Kurylenko), who is also tailing the man who set her house on fire. Now, together, they unravel and brave organisations and tricks! Saw it somewhere?
It has an impressive Dominique Greene (played by Mathieu Amalric) who runs an organisation called Quantum and is all set to take control of the world’s important natural resources and is hand in gloves with an exiled General Medrano.
A case of manipulations, deceit and surprises, this Bond is short on speech and high on emotions. Hold your breath for it gives you a terrific chase on land, water and air and calms you with the scenic beauty of Italy, Austria and London.
Some slick moments and a predictable end seem affordable in this one – after all we haven’t exactly seen a dark-skinned, green-eyed Bond with tears in his eyes, ever!
© Copyright 2000 - 2009 The Hindu