I watched this movie back to back with James and came away suitably impressed , heck after James any movie will impress you.
Chocolate - a multistarrer with names like Anil Kapoor , Sunil Shetty , Irfan Khan , Arshad Warsi , Emraan hashmi and wanna be Mallika - Tanushree Dutta and debutante Sushma Reddy.
The story goes like this - Its a story of 5 Indians in London.We are treated to people being killed and explosions on a boat in the opening sequence which leads to the arrest of 2 Indians Irfan and Tanushree. Susuhma Reddy plays a reporter who tries to help them and arranges for a hard nosed Lawyer Anil Kapoor to take up their case. What happens when Anil Kapoor tries to unwrap the mystery by questioning his clients forms the rest of the movie. Layer by layer the story of Chocolate unfolds and it keeps the viewer interested to an extent.
Acting - Anil Kapoor has a stylised role but I guess he hams too much and messes up. Sunil Shetty ....er well he is the same as he was in Balwaan. Arshad Warsi manages to raise a few laughs. Emraan Hashmi is a waste - his character and his acting. Irfan Khan is competent. Tanushree Dutta is well on the way to be the next Mallika - shows loads of cleavage and legs and even manages to cross and criss cross her legs like Sharon Stone , less said about her acting the better. Sushma Reddy , I frankly dont understand whether this character was even needed in the movie.
Music - Halka Halka sa nasha and the last song(i forgot how it goes) are kind of ok to listen.rest is a washout and to think the producers had to go to the courts to keep the words Tequila ka shot in a song. people walked out during songs.
Direction - Vivek Agnihotri has managed a international look to the movie. Cinematography is good. not so the control the director has on the story and screen play. The pacing is bad too - 1st half is too slow , while the 2nd half picks up pace suddenly as the director realised he had to finish the film. Some sequences shot on the expressway are shown to be shot in London and the car park shoot out shows a santro, esteem, lancer in London !! The Audience know better these days and this kind of mistakes should have been avoided.Sometimes we feel even the director didnt know what was happening. A loose effort. Editing was bad , atleast 2-3 songs and about 20-30 minutes could be edited out. Dissapointing overall.
Verdict - Watch it if you have to choose between James and This. Maybe watch it if you have nothing to do for a couple of hours.
cheerios