|
 | Director:
Mohit Suri
Producer: Mukesh Bhatt
Cast: Emraan Hashmi, Neha
Sharma, Arjan Bajwa, Kavin Dave |
MUMBAI:
Crook: It Is Good To Be Bad is a typical Mukesh Bhatt film where the hero
has no scruples and would exploit anybody or any situation to his advantage. The
hero, Emraan Hashmi, is an ordinary liar whose father was a smuggler who unwittingly
imported the RDX used in Mumbai serial blasts. While he is confessing his crime
like a petty pickpocket (who he looks like, anyway) to Police Commissioner, he
is shot by the latter; this is Emraan’s justification for being what he is,
a petty and selfish man. To call him crook is glorifying this character. Emraan
lands in Australia on false papers and passport (why?) as a student. While he
is seen indulging in everything, from wooing a desi girl to charming an Australian
pole dancer, he is never seen on a campus! He wants PR, Permanent Residence, status
in Australia and for that he needs to marry an Australian citizen! He is sheltered
by a Punjabi group headed by one Goldie who runs taxis and soon it looks as if
Emraan had sheltered Goldie and his boys! The group also believes in keeping out
of racist attacks on Indians in the country. It even goes on to show the local
police hands in glove with the attackers! Thirty
minutes into the film and you know it is a lost cause! Nearer end, you don’t
even know if this was a love story or a racist issue based film you were watching! If
Emraan Hashmi has been counting on luck to be in films, he is smart because acting
is not his forte; and talking of luck that too seems to be running out on him
fast. Neha Sharma is okay. Arjan Bajwa is effective. Gulshan Grover, playing a
sub-inspector in a hawaldar uniform, has but two scenes. Rest of the crowd is
passable. Dialogue is pedestrian. Music is below par. Direction is average. Crook:
It Is Good To Be Bad is a confessional title; it is a bad film!
| Do
Dooni Chaar has a paper thin theme |
| Director:
Habib Faisal
Producer: Arindam Chaudhury
Cast: Rishi Kapoor,
Neetu Kapoor, Aditi Vasudev, Archit Krishna |
Do
Dooni Chaar is about a middle class Punjabi family of four; Mr Duggal (Rishi
Kapoor), Mrs Duggal (Neetu Kapoor) and their two teenage children which have to
try all the tricks in the book to juggle their monthly budget to make ends meet.
Rishi
Kapoor is a school teacher who also teaches at a coaching class to add to his
take home. Just when the Duggals feel they have a surplus of few thousands, there
is sure to be an unexpected expense. This being a Punjabi family and Delhi, the
culture is to show more than one possessed. Rishi
Kapoor owns a run down rickety scooter which is a subject of ridicule for his
students and own kids alike. For the Duggals, things and their meagre finances
go out of control when they borrow a neighbour’s car to go to a family wedding
to nearby Meerut. The car is dented, the Duggals are insulted and humiliated by
the neighbour and, in the heat of the moment, Rishi Kapoor declares to his neighbourhood
that he will have a car outside his doors too within 15 days! What
follows are various ploys employed by the family to work out monthly instalments
and, when that done, only to realize that they still needed to raise the 60,000
for down payment. From buying cartons of detergent promising a car as first prize
to money for marks in exam paper are the various options. While
Do Dooni Chaar brings back the romantic pair of 70s, Rishi Kapoor and Neetu
Kapoor, to screen as middle class parents, the problem with the film is that it
has a paper thin theme and revolves mainly around four characters. It has very
ordinary gags and fillers to generate interest of the viewer at any point of time
throughout its length. While the family chemistry almost works, the kids’
tracks don’t and resorting to imagination every so often and narration of
the story from the daughter’s point of view shows lack of penmanship. Rishi
Kapoor and Neetu Kapoor excel with the young actors, Aditi Vasudev and Archit
Krishna, matching the veterans with natural flair. Director uses his observations
well. Music is no help. Do
Dooni Chaar is too slow and a family in pursuit of realising a dream to buy
a car looks too unrealistic and a 60s middle class idea to jell with today's audience.
| Lava
Kusa has a limited appeal |
 | Director:
Dhavala Satyam
Producer: Rayudu V Sashank
Studio: Kanipakam
Creations RVML Animation |
Lava
Kusa (2D-Animation) is a colourful animation film about the growing up years
of Lava and Kusa at the ashram of Sage Valmiki. The
twins, oblivious of the status of their mother, are trained in all aspects of
warfare. Sage Valmiki has penned Ramayana and the twins are also taught to hero
worship Rama. On the occasion of the Ashwamedh Yagna, the twins accompany Sage
Valmiki to Ayodhya where they sing in praise of Lord Rama.
However, they
soon learn that Lord Rama had treated his spouse Sita unfairly and evicted her
from the palace as well as Ayodhya in a pregnant state on the basis of insinuation
of a local washer-man. Raged at this injustice, they march out of Ayodhya and
stop singing praises of Lord Rama. Lord
Rama proceeds with his Ashwamedh Yagna as the white stallion bearing the banner
of Ayodhya marches through the country claming allegiance from various kings whose
kingdom the Ashwa passes. It is when the Yagna stallion enters the sanctity of
the Valmiki ashram that it faces resistance; it is stopped by Lava and Kusa and
its escort, Shatrughan, the brother of Lord Rama, is neutralised. Laxman, who
comes to check the situation, is also not successful. Eventually Lord Rama himself
decides to defeat Lava and Kusa, unaware that they are his sons. The
film, looking at its treatment, is aimed mainly at kids with its song picturisations
and war scene with the army of squirrels, monkeys, rabbits, tortoises, a giant
falcon and magic fruits and magical arrows shot at each other. Lava
Kusa as a film story has a limited appeal since except for the confrontation
with their father, there is little drama in their life. Script also has some contradictions
and though the music may have cost 10 per cent of the film’s reported total
budget of Rs 250 million, there is not a single song that may help prop up the
film or become a favourite with children.
The biggest drawback is the
language used; it is highbrow Hindi, which sounds alien even to grownups. Prospects:
Very poor. | 
