Well out of the six-odd releases this week I was only looking forward to watching Bas Ek Pal.
For the simple reason that the director has earlier directed My Brother Nikhil.
Someone who could make such a sensitive film and handle a real life story so beautifully had to be someone who would a second time around make a sensible film.
Bas Ek Pal sure starts off as a sensible and sensitive film but then unfortunately loses it somewhere along the way.
Bas Ek Pal is about real, complicated characters whose lives are not black and white but grey.
The central character of the film Sanjay Suri is best friends with Jimmy Shergill. Sanjay is a casanova who loves being with women. One night in a disco he meets the girl of his dreams but she isn’t charmed by him.
He frequents the discotheque every day after that hoping to meet her. The night he does, everything changes.
Sanjay’s character is one who is tough and is just at the wrong place at the wrong time and in love with the wrong girl. His obsession is not really love. He just wants to possess Urmila. It is more like something that you want.
Jimmy on the other hand is also a victim of circumstances and plays his part rather well.
Without really revealing the story, one can say that it is a well written story (not taking into account the climax) but not well narrated on screen.
Sanjay, Jimmy, Juhi, Urmila and Rehan’s characters are well intertwined with each other and how each of their complexities complicates the other’s lives.
But like I said it is a good story but hasn’t been cinematically translated well.
Everything that happens in the film is quite believable and one doesn’t mind that the film moves at a snail’s pace but by the time you reach the climax, the film looks completely shabby. The climax is what completely takes away from the film. It is a haphazard end.
The music of the film is quite nice but the background score could have been better.
The performances are all in place except for Rehan Engineer. Not the right choice for a hindi film. His was a great role and his casting is a complete disappointment. And at the end of it, so is the film.