I have just spent the best part of last two hours drooling over Antara Mali’s figure. Hey, don’t stop reading. I don’t intend to subject you to a review full of Antara Mali.I might also tell you something about the movie...
Okay, so whats the story about. I am sure everyone knows the story very well but if I don’t mention the story, I can think of any number of ppl who will either rate this review low and mention that in the comments or even worse, just rate the review badly without giving any reason for it.
Yeah, so we have Arvind, played by Vivek Oberoi, who wants to marry Lakshmi, played by Antara Mali. There is only one problem, Antara’s dad. So the lovers plan to go to Rajgarh, Rajasthan and get married. So they set off to Rajgarh and on the way they pick up a hitch-hiker Babu, played by Manoj Bajpai. Unfortunately Babu turns out to be one hell of a loonie. Initially he is fun and as the trip goes on, he begins to irritate Arvind and eventually has Arvind hopping mad with lewd comments about Lakshmi. At this point, Arvind decides enough is enough and asks Babu to get out. Arvind ends up staring up the barrel of a loaded gun, literally....and thats when the action begins. Arvind gets thrown out of his own vehicle and Babu is off with Lakshmi, lucky guy! And so a game of cat and mouse ensues which kept me quite interested till the end.
The pace slackens off towards the end with some meaningless romantic song picturized on Babu and Lakshmi. I guess the director felt that Manoj Bajpai, being the star that he is, deserves a song with Antara Mali. As such the song only helps to irritate the viewer. Also I couldn’t understand why Babu had to fall in love with Lakshmi. I mean, can’t we have a ’’normal’’ loonie in our movies. I bet there would have been no song if some bits and pieces actor had played Babu’s role.
As far as the performances go, the movie belongs to Manoj Bajpai. He has acted brilliantly and it is hard to imagine any other actor in that role, maybe Ajay Devgan but maybe even he would be hard pressed to act the way Manoj Bajpai has. Vivek Oberoi is good, frankly he doesnt have much to do in the movie other than sing some songs and look frustrated and angry, which he has done quite well. If I had a girlfriend like Antara, which I don’t, and she had been kidnapped by a loonie like Manoj, I would be frustrated and angry too. But the person to really really watch for is Antara Mali. Somehow she doesn’t have the classical beautiful look that an Aishwarya Rai or Sonali Bendre has, but boy does she have ’’the’’ figure or what. I guess Antara Mali’s navel ring may start a trend where we see other heroines sport a navel ring too. There is enough focus on her navel to ensure that one doesn’t fail to notice the navel ring. For some reason, which I haven’t bothered to figure out and don’t want to either, Antara wears a shirt which always seems to be 2 sizes too small for her allowing her to display her navel adornment, not that I mind..
Hmm, what else. Oh yeah, the background score is pretty okay and the cinematography is very good too. The director has done really okay. He is able to set a good pace, but like I said earlier, the last song is totally out of place and releases any built-up tension. Another interesting thing is that for all practical purposes, the movie has only three players. There are some people who keep popping in and out, like the truck driver who helps Arvind or the police inspector who is intent on jailing Arvind, but they aren’t there long enough to take the spotlight away from the trio. Also redundant characters are at a minimum, but there are some, like the petrol pump attendant taking a dig at Shahrukh, which is not such a bad thing, but maybe he should have had some more dialogues making fun of Shahrukh and Devdas. Another redeeming feature of this movie is that it doesn’t have Farida Jalal. I dare you to name 5 recent movies in 1 minute that don’t have Farida Jalal playing the mother or mother-in-law or aunt or granny or whatever.
If you have read this far, do me a favour and rate this review. It would be even better if you also comment on it, but do rate it. I am sick and tired of stats like - read 10 times, rated by 2 or member visits/total visits is 2/15 and stuff like that.
And the moral of the story is Don’t give a lift to anyone when you are eloping with Antara Mali