If you need an example of a **film with promise going down the drain**, this is one of those. The film’s 1st half built up the issues well – a businessman (Ajay Devgan) who believes money defines success, his friend who is a gold medallist who chooses to work in the Government sincerely, the friend’s father (Amitabh) who believes that ethics & giving back to society are most important to a person, the friend’s wife (Amrita) who is a good wife & daughter-in-law.
Kareena Khan (yes she is the new Khan in business) is introduced as a no-nonsense reporter briefly. Also introduced briefly are Manoj Bajpai as a local politician who is a key component of the Government & Arjun Rampal, a local ‘social worker’ who is an expelled ex-student of Amitabh.
The film shows some incidents building up to Amitabh taking a dislike to Ajay followed by the marriage of the contractor friend to Amrita. 3 years later, a flyover under the care of the contractor friend collapses leading to some deaths & a few days later on he himself dies in a road accident. The minister promises Rs. 25 lakh compensation which does not come & in frustration Amitabh slaps the District Collector.
This becomes the turning point for the film as Amitabh is put into a cell for this after which Ajay & Kareena land up to get him out. They are joined by Arjun in the fight. But Amitabh has other ideas. He vows to clear up all the pending application in his block & starts a campaign for that. Meanwhile, the campaign gets discredited & Ajay’s past bribery acts catch up with him courtesy the wily politician Manoj. However, Ajay gives up all his profits & comes back to work with the people. The local police officer gets so moved that he also quits his post to help the people.
If above is not confusing enough, the next part of the film takes us through what clearly is **inspired by the Anna Hazare movement** with Ajay probably playing the part of Arvind Kejriwal. Amitabh on a fast unto death, involvement of different political shades in the movement & finally the non-violent Satyagraha becoming a violent movement ends with the death of Amitabh killed by the henchmen of Manoj who is then arrested.
*The film plot is haphazard** – one does not know whether the issue is of murder of the contractor or corruption. There is also confusion on who stands where on the ethics scale – everyone seems to be running his own confused agenda. The Chief Minister appears as an honest guy in some scenes but is shown as part of the corrupt system mid way & becomes clean again at the end.
The team of Ajay & others, when they come to know that the contractor was murdered due to a leak of a confidential report exposing the scam, surprisingly seem ok to ignore the role of the CM just to get the lorry driver (brother of Manoj) behind bars. Towards the end, Amitabh is on a fast unto death (like Anna) & can’t even stand up in one shot but ends up running up the stairs in the next shot.
Then there is the scene where the flyover collapses & 8 laborers are dead. The contractor says "I told these guys to uses ULTRATECH cement but they used some sastha maal" which is a ridiculous statement in that serious circumstance. **But the strong points are the acting – almost everyone has stood his / her ground on this; Manoj excelling out of all.*