Just like the previous year, 2006 is also the year of comedies.Comedy films are the flavour of the season and “Darwaza Bandh Rakho” also features in the list of comedy films this year.
“Darwaza Bandh Rakho” , presented by Adlabs and produced by Ram Gopal Varma, is directed by J.D Chekravarthy, who previously featured in Ram Gopal Varma`s hit film, ”Satya” and also directed one of the episodes of RGV`s ‘Factory`s’ last film, ”Darna Zaroori Hai”.After the disastrous comedy film by RGV`s factory, ”Mr.Ya Miss”, the factory is back with “Darwaza Bandh Rakho” which stars Aftab Shivdasani, Chunky Pandey, Isha Sharvani, Manisha Koirala, Ishrat Ali, Smita Jayakar, Snehal Dabhi, Zakir Hussain, Divya Dutta and Gulshan Grover, with many other character actors. Fortunately, “Darwaza Bandh Rakho” is better than all the recent films that have been churned out by Ram Gopal Varma`s film factory.
“Darwaza Bandh Rakho” tells the story of one Gujarati family, headed by Shah (Ishrat Ali) who lives with his wife (Smita Jayakar), his strict mother-in-law, his son, his fashionable daughter who is always worried about her looks and a maid, Chameli (Divya Dutta). This ‘Shah’ family was once one of the richest family in town, but due to poor management of their money, they all became bankrupt. One night, when their doorbell rings and Shah opens the door, 4 kidnappers along with a victim enter into their house and house arrest the Shah family. The team of these 4 kidnappers consists of:
Ajay (Aftab Shivdasani), who was once upon a time a waiter and now dreams to be the owner of a restaurant.
Raghu (Chunky Pandey), who was once a driver but was thrown out of the job because he had his eyes on his master`s wife.
Abbas (Zakir Hussain), who used to sell black tickets outside cinema halls but was forced to leave this job, as films started flopping.
Goga (Snehal Dhabi) , a ‘paan’seller.
In order to pursue their dreams they had to kidnap Isha (Isha Sharvani), the daughter of a very rich businessman (Gulshan Grover).
The 4 kidnappers, in order to hide themselves, get into the house of the Shah family. After about every five minutes the doorbell starts ringing and once someone gets into the house, he cannot go outside and is taken as a hostage so that no one can tell the police about this kidnapping case. By the end, there are as many as 35 people who are taken as hostages which includes people such as a pizza delivery boy, a saleswoman Julie (Manisha Koirala) , a money lender, a doctor and many more.
One undeniable plus point of “Darwaza Bandh Rakho” is its originality. The concept of the film is good and the best thing is that it has not been copied from a Hollywood film. It`s quite rare to see such original films like this one. However, the film could have been more funny than how it has shaped up to be. There are many scenes which succeed in making the viewers laugh and in which Chekravarthy, as a director also succeeds but some of the scenes start dragging and stop looking funny after a while, such as the scene near the climax where Mr.Shah starts doing karate.Some of the scenes which manage to raise a few laughs are:
-Mr. Shah`s one liners (Incoming free…..outgoing cut), thanks to Ishrat Ali`s performance and Snehal Dabhi`s dialogues.
-When the kidnappers call Isha`s father and her father tells the kidnappers to kill her.
-When the doctor comes to treat the money lender, who gets a heart attack.
The heroes of the film are its cinematography and its background music by Amar Mohile. The cinematography in the scenes whenever the doorbell rings, is really good, because the way the door is shot in those scenes looks very mysterious, which goes down very well with the mood of the film. Secondly, the background music also goes very well with the mood of the film. The doorbell ring is very mysterious and funny.
Although there are many actors and character actors in this film but those who completely stand out are Ishrat Ali as Mr.Shah and Isha Sharvani as the happy-go-lucky victim. Ishrat Ali`s face expressions are excellent in each and every scene, especially whenever someone enters into the house or whenever Mr.Shah starts getting depressed. Isha Sharvani`s comic timing is also very good. She is especially very funny in the scene where she reacts to the news of her kidnap. She seems a lot more confident this time than she was in her previous film “Kisna”.
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