Nikhil Advani has been trusted to introduce Salman Khan’s protégés, Sooraj Pancholi & Athiya Shetty, star kids of Aditya & Sunil respectively. Produced by Subhash Ghai & Salman Khan, I think most of all, it would be Mr. Ghai, who would want a big hit under the Mukta Arts banner, the most excited / nervous of the lot.
Staying true to the original story, the film is about a love story between the daughter of the IG of Mumbai, Radha & the goon, Sooraj who has kidnapped her at the behest of his Godfather, a local MLA, accused of murdering a journalist.
The old adage of ‘pyaar karne vaale, kabhi darte nahi, jo darte hai woh pyaar karte nahi’ was so much wanted here, but somehow the film’s plot moves more on the lines of a Rohit Shetty caper, rather than an action love story.
The film lacks the one thing, which was the most crucial, emotion. There is no chemistry between the lead pair whatsoever. Zilch. Hence you don’t feel for them ever.
The film’s screenplay is so poor, that post interval you start cracking jokes about the Avatar inspired heroine looks to the lack of interest of the director to develop any characters.
Shammi Kapoor, Sanjeev Kumar & Amrish Puri were strong actors but more than that their characters had an equally important role in engaging the viewer and making us like the onscreen pair of Jackie & Meenakshi. Unfortunately, Tigmanshu Dhulia, Sharad Kelkar & Aditya Pancholi, somehow are never given that opportunity to rise from being mere co-stars with a few scenes just to make the story move to the next scene between the debut pair.
The editing of the film definitely needed to be spruced up, since it makes this 130 minute movie also seem way tooooooo long. Likewise logic too has been given no place for a film set in today’s times. For example, when the cops raid the hut in the mountains, Sharad Kelkar (playing cop and Radha’s brother) shouts at the entrance of the door, but somehow Radha never hears her brother’s voice. Even during the chase which uses jeeps and chopper, he keeps yelling not to shoot, but never once calls out to his sister, who is under the impression that these are Pasha’s men in police disguise.
Music is okay, barring the Salman song and O Khuda, which plays as the romantic background score throughout the film.
Athiya is cute in places, which must have prompted her to take up acting, but somehow still doesn’t seem to be cut out for this. Whilst Sooraj is definitely star material, and as I mentioned, the launch vehicle will get today’s newcomers the platform, its what they do after that in their follow up, which will show how they play up.
Overall, the film has nothing to offer the viewer and hence you just wait as a true loyalist till the end to see Bhai sing.
Seems Advani was under too much pressure to showcase the 2 debutantes as stars, hence…
Rating: 2 / 5
By: Yusuf Poonawala
