From a confused spelling to a confused plot, direction and characterization this movie spells nothing but .. well, confusion! It has nothing of the magic and opulence of a subhash ghai magnum opus – which seems a thing of the past, in line with the string of flops ghai has of late produced. It’s high time bollywood stopped taking the Indian cine goer for granted, and stopped inflicting mediocre, intellectually challenging , plagiarized fare upon our senses. The bollywood movies of late comprise cut and paste jobs, lifted shamelessly from popular movies or scenes. This one is subhash ghai’s ‘rainman’. And naturally the result is no match for the original classic.
The plot is that salman needs to become a billionaire in 40 days to wed his sweetheart , Katrina, failing which the father can marry her off to another rich suitor. To get rich salman has a simple idea; inherit his dead fathers fortune. But the father pulls a plug on his plans by leaving it all to an autistic elder brother, anil. Zayed is the third brother who tries his hand at being a playboy, gambler and vicious brother and also needs the money to pay off his debts, keep his white girlfriend and sustain his life style. In the second half he is lachrymose and has nothing to say except shed tears and wring his hands in despair. He appears most uncomfortable during close ups as he has to bring on some expression on his face. Mithun as the pony-tailed lawyer whose intentions seem most unclear as the guardian of the will , and the autistic brother with an exceptional talent in music, has the last word when he says , ‘united we stand divided we fall’ ending the movie. The director picks a leaf from farah khans MHN in the credits by showing the culprits responsible for the movie. We really don’t know whether anil shares the money with his brothers and salman marries Katrina and zayed pays off his debts or not – coz it’s not told to us!
This movie was so bad I didn’t even fall asleep ! strange it may seem, but a soothing story, a well structured plot, consistency in characterization tends to lull one into a state of semi anaesthetization – much like reading shaekespeare. Here everything jarred, and I was so restless I downloaded an entire e book on my mobile.
The music is loud, bass and the white leggy dancers fail to improve its lack of hummability. Apart from a small monologue in classical vocal, this movie doesn’t deserve to be called a musical. The dialogues are out of context, the script is abrupt and the entire movie is a lazy and tired attempt at film-making. A simple formula cannot guarantee a nice story. The formula is stale here – foreign locales, white dancers, technologically advanced cinematography, shirtless salman , family intrigue, love interest, brotherly bonding, a little comic and tragic relief , and lo and behold – you have the movie- but it just doesn’t jell together. The characters are inconsistent and keep springing surprises at you, prompting you to ask your neighbor whether you missed a scene of two , or if they continued the movie during intermission.
After spending the first half in building up the mutual suspicion and dislike between the three brothers, it takes just a car breakdown to reunite them. A brief teary monologue by salman wins over his truant father in law, bomen, who seems as incredulous about his role as we. He needs a character which must have kinks, hence a normal , stern father who doesn’t want to give his daughter to a loser, abandoned and disinherited by his own father, is beyond bomen’s turf. A blue eyed mamaji, a luscious bhabiji, a pony tailed lawyer, hindi opera in prague, a semi serious father in law , a flying retard, are some of the improbable characters that you will encounter in the movie, for which you must temporarily suspend your disbelief!