While coming out of the theatre a sense of déjà vu was besieging my mind. No I am not talking of the plot or the story (though I ve heard that it?s a remake of a Malayalam movie ? Godfather?). The feeling which was coining my mind was that when was the last time a filmmaker had wasted a hugely talented star cast for nothing J.P.Dutta?s LOC was a friend?s reply and the correct one.
Picture this ? Jackie Shroff, Arbaaz Khan, Suniel Shetty , Shakti Kapoor, Asraani, Akhilesh Mishra, Manoj Joshi et al wasted, yes you read it right literally wasted in minuscule roles. The effect of which was that the length of roles given to main characters like Kareena, Paresh Rawal, Arshad Warsi was left wanting.
My review is most likely to be in complete contrast with what others will have to say about the movie. The reason for the fact is that all the expectations generated by the film promos fall flat on its face, which is mainly because of unfitting publicity of the movie.
You will be surprised to see that all the decently comic parts and dialogues in the movie have been aired in form of promos, holding nothing really for the movie to tickle the audience?s funny bones. This is quite similar to what we see in the publicity of so called bold movies in Bollywood; where they show all the movie?s highlights (pun intended) in the promos to arouse the audience. However as the story turns out to be, excitement converts into disappointment after watching the movie, as people find nothing new from what they have been watching on their TV sets.
The plot: As predictable from the beginning, as Dravid?s batting in a test match, the film begins with introduction and familiarization of its huge starcast ( a la ? Hungama?). This part of movie is quite boring and consumes a large part of first half.
Angaarchand (Amrish puri) is an arrogant Jamindar and a proud father of four hunks (Jackie, Arbaaz, Paresh and Akshaye).
? Women not allowed? seems to be the principle of their lives, as is the reading on the nameplate at the entrance of their Haweli.
Well when there is a Jamindar, there has got to be an enemy. The foe in this case is in form of another strong Landlord family from ?Angpura?. For a change though; the head of this family is a lady Laxmi Devi (played by yesteryear pron star ? Laxmi? {for those raising eyebrows, go find the VCD of ? Kuwari Dulhan? from the market).
The enmity, which is told later, is over the issue on which ?Qayamat se Qayamat tak? was made. Girl from a family runs away with a boy from other family. Families intervene, a gunshot from here and there, and the perennial enmity begins and transpires to the Gen next.
Back to the current, the girl (Kareena) aka ?Anjali? from the Laxmidevi Khandan is supposed to marry the youth minister of that state, but AngaarChand uses his political influence to get that called off.
As Anjali is brooding over her ill fortunes, her granny comes up with a solution to revenge her Khandaan?s humiliation. The solution, which later turns out to be a problem itself, kickstarts the movie, as far as the humour goes.
Anjali pretends to be in love with Jai ( Akshaye), who too enacts a similar emotion on persuasion by his close buddy Makkhi ..er..Lucky ( Arshad Warshi). As it would happen, real love blosoms and the trouble starts. The mission of young lovers is now to convince their rigid families to accept their love.
Jai finds a lifeline in form of his own brother Kishan ( paresh rawal) , who has a secret wife in the form of Gopi ( played by a bulky looking Farah) .. After a series of hilarious moments both ( Akshaye and Paresh ) are however thrown out of the house for going against family?s tradition. Anjali?s family meanwhile fixes her marriage elsewhere, while Laxmidevi is still contemplating her plans to defame Angaarchand?s family.
Angarchand along with his other two sons Balram ? Jackie? and Arbaaz Khan, falls for one such trap laid by Laxmi Devi and takes the responsibility of ensuring ?Akshaye free? (read hassle free) marriage of her ganddaugher.
Akshaye who finds a saviour from the girls family too, in form of her uncle Veer ( Suniel Shetty), manages to sneak in the house guarded by his own father and brothers on the marriage day. What happens thereafter is typical Bollywood finish. Go and see yourself.
The climax will remind you of umpteen old Hindi flicks including Priyadarshan?s own ?Hungama?.
? No body is doing comedy, the situations are themselves comical?, Priyadarshan claimed this before the release. I would say, he has managed to prove that, but only just.
Over a period of time Priyadarshan has made comedy his forte, by its high time he realizes, that in comedy it?s the QUALITY of comedy and not the QUANTITY of stars that matters.
As far as the acting department is concerned,
A. 9 mark each to Arshad and Paresh Rawal for doing par excellent job in a limited length of role given.
B. 8 marks to Akshaye and Kareena, for their wonderful expressions and excellent screen chemistry.
C. 7.5 to Amrish Puri, Suniel Shetty, Jackie and Arbaaz in doing justice to their small roles.
D. (-) 2 to others (Laxmi, Shakti, Farhah and other sundry actors) for shouting more than acting. (Go to theater wit some cotton and plug your ears immediately on seeing these actors).
Music of the movie is nothing short of ordinary. Except one or two, other songs are loud and irritating (your cotton balls will come into play here again).
Final verdict: Worth a watch, but really nothing special. Will not do well at the box office though, in view of some major releases next month.