Readers might be shocked to see that I am writing a review on a movie whose release date is still not finalised.Friends, this is what VCD piracy in India is all about.After reading reports that the VCD of the movie is available in black market I was shocked to see that my cable-guy actually showed the VCD at prime time 9p.m. in the heart of the capital city Delhi.The promos of the movie have been on air for
over 6 months.After watching the first promo I understood that this will be a diastrous movie.Well, after watching it(though not fully)I have to confess that it is indeed disastrous.
The setting is Bombay where an international fashion show is taking place.The 3 top models who take part are Shiela Bardez(Padmalakshmi), Anu Gaekwad(Madhu Sapre) and Rina Kaif(Katrina Kaif).While catwalking a stiffle takes
place between Anu and another model.Within few minutes we see that many diamonds fall from the hair of the model.Now starts what is supposed to be a cat
and mouse game.The 3 models share a flat in an apartment and are quite
independent.They have a maid Bharti(Seema Biswas, who seems hell-bent on doing a doctorate on playing maid after Bhoot) who cokks for them.Although she knows the model for 2 years still they feel that they do not know much about
Bharti, like who is her husband and who are her kids.
Now in contrast with these supermodels are the 3 Mias or underworld kingpins.The focus shifts to Dubai where the characters are introduced.Saleem Ahmad’Cut-Piece Saleem Suiting Shirting’ (Gulshan Grover) is also known as Chote
Mia.He has the suiting shirting name as he has a style of murdering men in a way that no blood is spilled on their suits and he can even take their suits and wear them as they do not have an iota of blood on them.He is Chote Mia as he works for Bade Mia(Amitabh Bachchan in a horrible wig and beard).Bade mia is ’THE MOST WANTED MAN ON THE LIST OF MOST WANTED MEN’’.He is supported by Alice(Zeenat
Aman) who is supposed to be his mistress.The 2 mias run their empire in Dubai.They
reside in what is supposed to be the world’s best hotel.Bade Mia isundergoing losses of many millions in their hotel business so they call for a meeting in
this hotel.In the meeting there are a motley of dumb
looking men including a 7 feet giant(u can view him easily when u see the men
walking behind Amitabh when they go for a murder).Bade mia hardly talks anything
and Chote Mia and Alice do most of the work.He reads cartton strips in the
meeting and breaks down into laughter talking about the plasma TV which is not
working in their hotel at Chicago or the toilet paperwhich was not in the right frame in their hotel in London.
Back in Bombay we have a armed buffoon Shankar(Javed Jaffery) who
calls himself Boom Shankar or Boom Boom.He raids the residence of the models
and take them to ’Abdul Wahab Barkatali Al Sabunchi’(Jackie Shroff).For the
ease of having a smaller name he is called as Medium Mia.He is also called
as 50-50 as he takes 50% of every deal.We come to know that the diamonds
were actually stolen by his men.The diamonds are to be send to Bade Mia in
Dubai.Medium Mia tightens the noose around the 3 models to getback the
diamonds.The models try to act smart and a sort of war takes place between
the models and the gangsters, as the models plan to get out of the trap of
underworld.Some twists later the 2 hour moviefinally ends.
Jackie Shroff and Ayesha Shroff have already
burnt their fingers in film
production.Boom was a big gamble for them and after
watching the movie and the
rampant availability of its VCD are a signal that
movie will be a dud at the box-office.The Shroffs
though deserve kudos for making Boom a really big
film.The movie is extensively shot in Dubai.It has
limousines, fashion shows and much portion
is shot in the world’s best 5 star hotel Burj al-Arab in Dubai.The
costumes have been
designed by ace designers like Rohit Bal and Hemant
Trivedi.Infact Rohit Bal is present in the movie as
well in a silly fight with Javed Jaffery.
The much hyped cameo by Bo
Derek also looks forced.She tries to recerate the
magic by coming out of sea, in the same way as she came
in the 1979 hit 10, but she also fails to look good in
an Asian dress and lots of jewellery.Kaizad faulters
again when he makes Zeenat Aman to dance on the top of
a table to the tune of her cult Ash Bhonsle number
’Dum Maaro Dum’.Zeenat although still in shape looks a
pale image of her past.The director has tried to add
authenticity to the characters by using their real
life photographs while giving their introduction.So u
get to see Amitabh, Zeenat and Gulshan Grover in their
pics right from their childhood till the present
day.Infact Gustad also shows a famous photograph
featuring Amitabh and Zeenat Aman from the movie ’The
Great Gambler’ to show their younger days.The film has
some scenes which wont be liked by the family
audience.The secene where Jackie talks to the 3 models
for the first time is really cheap.The way he
approaches his hands towards Madhu’s chest is rather
sick.Suddenly his body language suggests that he need
to go to the loo.After a while u realise that there
was a woman sitting beneath Jackie’s table who did
something with him and so he rushed to the
loo!!!!!!!!!In the same scene Javed discusses with
Jackie the ’rates’ of women from Supermodels to
Desi-queens.I doubt whether such things will be
accepted the way they are shown even by the urban
audience.The way Gulshan Grover slits the neck of a
man and he is shown dying slowly after being
’Halaal-Cut’is in bad taste.
For the performances, Padmalakshmi is the most
disappointing of the 3 models.Katrina Kaif is also not
far behind as she yet again proves that MOST female
models cannot act.However, Madhu Sapre looks quite
confident and is the only one who acts.Javed Jaffery
irritates throghout the movie.He had sung the famous
’Mumbhai..’ song in Gustad’s ’Bombay Boys’ and had
expressed a desire to act in a Gustad film.He is stuck
with the same image and his pelvic thrusts in his
introduction scene are tasteless and hopelessly vulgar.Zeenat Aman still
looks good but has nothing much to act.As
expected, Amitabh again gives a loud and irritating
performance.I guess he has developed this habit of
going over the top in the recent past.He is loud and
plays to the gallery without any success in a role
which has strong shades of Naseer’s role in Bombay
Boys..Still his performance is not the worst
performance of the movie.That is reserved for Jackie
Shroff.Jackie probably gives the worst performance of
his life in his home production.His performance is
sure to get brickbats from both the critics as well as
his dwindling number of fans.The only decent
performance surprisingly comes from Gulshan Grover.In
a role which gave him ample scope to go over the
top, Grover underplays his character and gives a decent
performance.
So we see that piracy has entered every corner
of the country.The VCD had ’Working Copy Not For
Showing’ written throghout the movie.However the cable
guy did not telecast the full movie as either the
police must have raided his place or the VCD was not
full.Plus the pirated version has no songs and picture
quality also is not great.That notwithstanding still
showing 85% of the movie weeks before it is supposed
to be released has dampened all the hopes(if any at
all) of Boom doing a good business.I condemn the
piracy wind but am thankful to the cable guy who
showed most of the movie and saved many of the people
residing in Delhi from watching this 2 hour torcher on
big screen.
P.S.-READ the comments by me as review is not complete.