Since this is the first time I am putting keys to the board, I thought I would follow the prescribed MS guidelines to write a review. Reason to watch movie: I’ll be honest. - the cover on the DVD - reminded me of the dave mathews song ’’crash into me’’ (in a boy’s dream)’ . I was purely into the movie to watch Antara Mali strut her stuff for 90 odd minutes.
Surprise Surprise! - This movie has something more than just a scantily clad girl frolicking on the beach (which was my initial hope). Cast: Abhishek Bachhan, Antara Mali, Riteish (whts up with ppl changing the way they spell names, is this the new vastu-shastra?)
Story: As I was saying, this movie has an interesting idea- pitting an idealist against a pragmatist and evaluating their respective choices in life. Abhishek (Abhinav)- an actor who couldnt care less about the script, direction or music as long as it lands him an hit. Antara (Reva), a choreographer, who has lofty ideals and is unwilling to compromise on anything which affects the way she visualizes her dances.
Abhinav is promised a role in the movie, but on the condition that he must dance well...and who does he run into in a bus...our very own mithali jackson..Reva. Boy meets girl, girl teach dance to boy, fall in love, boy gets rich, girl doesnt, drift apart.... girl meets boy 2 (Retiesh)..triangle..end??(wait I am giving away too much of the story(?))
The point of my review is that this is a movie of what-could-have-been but is not. For starters, Reva cannot pay her room rent for three months, but looks she is a reality TV model for Christian Dior. There are many loose ends in the story, and we are really not able to understand the compromises Abhinav has had to make to become an actor. Also, Reva is not really seen struggling to stick to her ideals. C’mon, if a million bucks were dangled before me to ditch my ideals, I would at least have a sleepless night or two deciding between a porsche and wada-pav. Retiesh Deshmukh’s character is very sketchy and we dont really see any pining in his eyes for Reva.
Performances:
Abshishek is awesome.- one of his best performances to date. The emotion in his eyes, his mannerisms are just endearing. THis is a character which anyone would identify with.
Antara Mali- skin, skin, skin (without giving a good enough reason to show it)- not complaining. A fair to middling performance.
Riteish Deshmukh- hmmm, a no impact performance but didnt degrade the show either.
Direction and Music - Music-, sounded more like a compilation of mating calls from the mesozoic era. Didnt appeal to me at all. Why be pretentious with everything , Mr Verma? Remember the adage- Keep it Simple Stupid!
Direction - much better than the run of the mill movies, could identify with some of the characters, story made sense for a major part of the reels. Extracted a great performance out of Abshishek- need more on those lines. Could do better work tying up the loose ends. Dun bet everything on Antara’s legs.
Conclusion - Worth your money to give this movie a shot. Practise your catcalls. For the serious movie buff, not as dissapointing as 99.5% of the bollywood products.