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City/Entertainment
Kachche Dhaage
(Hindi) SANTOSH
This is racy stuff. The story has a few interesting twists; it’s the screenplay that keeps it throbbing.
Aftab (Ajay Devgan) is a small-time thief who lives with his mother somewhere near the border. This broody, irascible guy lives life on the edge. He is hitter over the fact that he doesn’t know who his father is. Having to live with such a slur in a tiny village is no mean task. And the bitterness shows up in his attitude towards life.
Along the border, few wretched army personnel make big bucks selling arms and ammunition to terrorists. Once, out on rounds to pull off a heist, the plucky Aftab gets in the way of the smugglers. He queers their pitch. And they vow to get hack at him.
Meanwhile, Aftab’s father turns up from nowhere. The man, who is on his deathbed, adds a new twist to Aftab’s life in the form of Dhananjay (Saif Khan) his son from a second marriage.
Dhananjay is a city-bred, upwardly-mobile brat, who is raring to make it big,in the ad world. This chap is apprehensive of most things, except his lady love Namrata Shirodkar. The sleazy gun-runners chasing Aftab find Dhananjay too attractive a proposition to let go. They use Aftab to trap him. Dhananjay plays into their hands and finds himself caught in a web of troubles. With things getting murkier with every single move, the half-brothers team up for a showdown with the baddies.
The wait to know the mastermind behind the sordid plot is worthwhile.
The action is splendid. Ajay does ample justice to his role, since his own sullen self matches that of the character he plays. Saif is surprisingly convincing. Manisha hardly has a role. Govind Namdeo as the malicious, spiteful cop excels.
Music by the late Nusrat Fateb All Khan is something to look forward to. The songs are pulsating, leading up to the ecstatic qawwali towards the end, sung by the maestro himself.
Mukhtar Anjoom
Aayaal Katha Ezhuthunnu
(Malayalam) LIDO (11 am)
The masala age has finally arrived in Malayalam cinema and is being accepted by houseful, packed movie halls. The latest offering from Kamal is a much-hyped, much-awaited social drama supposed to have revived the Mohanlal magic. (Hard-core fans may dislike the word revived but the fact is that the market has been kind of dull for the superstar.) Mohanlal will sure draw the crowds but hopefully they will be able to sit patiently through the drawn-out process of a story-writer’s clash with real life.
Kausalya (Nandini as she is known to Malayalam crowds) is the feminist tahsildar who breathes fire and brooks no indiscipline among her underlings. When Srinivasan arrives as the new tahsildar she somehow takes personal affront and goes all out to send him packing. Till the new tahsildar’s friend and famed novelist Sagar lands in tow and decides to teach the female dragon a lesson. Sagar is a self-declared woman-hater.
When our virago finds herself transferred, she gets Ramesh and Sagar arrested on a false rape charge. Sagar who comes out on bail decides to have his revenge through his story columns in magazines. -Gazetted yakshi’ is a story that throws public mud in the woman’s face.
Just when the viewer is getting restless, the story unfurls. Of a child deprived of parental love, and circumstances that lead her to believe herself lobe ‘tainted’ after an innocent night in a hotel room. She refuses marriage on the same belief. Finally, it takes Sagar to devise a game plan to rid her of her guilt. And tell her that she is as delectable as any man may want his bride to be!
A weak storyline that drags through the first half is held alive by some witty dialogues and some very good acting by Kausalya. Mohanlal and Srinivasan remind us of the good old times the two have had in Priyadarshan films. There are the song and dance sessions for those who like it.
Jayalakshmi K
Pratibhatane
(Kannada) SAPNA
Villages and villagers are by and large neglected sections of Indian society. Such socially relevant films deserve maximum coverage. With lAS officer K Shivaramu himself at the helm, the theme in this film has gained even more importance.
Sudha’s (Vijayalakshmi) ageing father, (a retired teacher in the village), hailing from a typical upper-class family but living in poor economic conditions is unable to find a groom for Sudha. Basava (K Shivaramu) is an uneducated good samaritan, but with a progressive mind. When Sudha is unable to stomach the idea of living under increasing familial burden, she tries to commit suicide but Basava saves her. Sudha who takes on a campaign to educate the villagers is drawn towards Basava and asks him to marry her. Basava agrees. There is Shivanna, the feudal lord of the village who makes life difficult for the villagers. The rest is on how the villagers stand up for themselves and solve their problems.
Director Rajendra Arya has given a clean social film with he himself pitching in with a good performance. V Manohar is back with a bang, with a good musical score. The editing could have been tighter.
Srikanth Srinivasa
Kaun
(Hindi) SWAGATH
A crummy con job. Thats what Ramgopal Varma’s Kaun is. Drunk on the success of Satya if the man thinks slick packaging can sell a lousy product, he sure has another thought coming.
The suspense (this is a thriller, remember?) is supposed to keep you on the edge of your seat. Instead, all the mindless shrieking, door-slamming, glasspane-shattering make you want to sink deeper and deeper into the creaky seat, never mind even it it-s bug-infested. By the time Varma has created the ambience of terror (via a sweating, stumbling Urmila in a scrap of a negligee) there are so many gaping holes in the story that you can try a round of bungee jumping there.
And when he finally gets down to brasstacks, you’re so sick of the cloak and dagger stuff that you’re ready to plunge a knife into whoever thought up this tacky idea.
For those naive souls looking for the plot, here’s a bit of unsolicited advice. Don’t bother. There’s not a modicum of sense in all the screeching from Urmila and gang. Why is she so terrified? Oh well, she’s home alone. On a stormy night. With a kitten for company. This poor lil' rich kid who’s terrified of her own shadow now has zillions of doors, windows and ventilators to bolt and bar in her sprawling house. Just when she’s finished this awesome task, the bell chimes and her- trauma begins. The caller, Manoj Bajpai, is delightfully kinky. Tricking his way in, he proceeds to watch TV, plonked on the handcrafted Italian leather sofa while Urmi dear quivers and quakes. Just when she’s sure he’ll wring her dainty neck, there’s another visitor and this time, the tough talking guy outside (Sushanth) calls himself a friendly neighbourhood cop. Minus uniform. Minus morals. The three then proceed to turn a perfectly sane night into a circus with able assistance from Varma. Not even gleaming kitchen knives and bundled up bodies will stave off your yawns.
And when the so-called mystery is unravelled, you will wish Varma would fork out Rs 10 and rent a video of Woh Kaun Thi or any other truly classy mystery of Hindi filmdom. Because if he continues to churn out such pathetic stuff, movie-goers will soon be saying Ramgopal Varma.. Kaun? But even crappy films have classy moments. In this one, it is Manoj Bajpai who notches up another stunning performance. Pity, it’s a wasted effort.
Kavitha K
Housefull
(Tamil) LAVANYA
THIS film, conceived and directed by Parthiban, is about Parthiban. About Parthiban in the role of the righteous man in who moral authority works as a mirror image of a micro version of order at large — Shivaji’s Thevar in Thevormagon, Sharath Kumar in Simharasi.
The difference like that between gem in bad imitations. Parthihan’s been projecting himself into these sort of roles once too often, its becoming awfully tedious and boring. In Housefull, he plays the owner of Bharath Talkies, handed to him by his “Aiyya.” He himself is now the “Ayya” --- this is fast becoming the most misused term in Tamil films everybody wants to be one; every story writer has to have one in the story. I guess the temptation is difficult to resist because its a chord that plays all too well people understand, respect and are even relieved in the face of that sort of authority. If you’ve noticed, everyone of this kind of film will have a chair (wooden and double armed).
Anyway, it is discovered that there are bombs in Bharath Talkies. The police come, so does the bomb squad — they search and search and go on searching. This constitutes the major part of the film, and. its really torturous. There’s a hit of everything in here
someone has a baby, someone's mother dies, someone’s husband is caught inside. Someone’s (Aishwarya — Lakshmi’s daughter, playing a bomb squad officer) mother dies, but she stays on, because "... - - there are so many mothers inside.. - to save them...”
There’s communal amity in the form of the lovers Vikram and Suvvalakshmy who are not too bad, except that she slips into mimicking Sarita all the time (who she strongly resembles).
Finally, the theatre is emptied and everyone’s leaving when Aiyya Parthiban hears a child crying and rushes back in, only to find its on screen, and of course the bombs goes off. This is meant probably to show that the aiyya will even die to preserve order. But it falls flat, because there’s no continuing link — Shivaji Thevan bad his continuation in Kamalahasan, so also Sharath Kumar had a son to carry on.
Anyway, Housefull is awfully silly, and seems to serve no other purpose than to show Parthiban, as being capable of political authority Surprisingly, there’s a long line of credits, and in English at the end of the film, including drivers etc.
Kala Krishnan Ramesh
Rambe Urvashi Menake
(Kannada) KAILASH
Of late, films are being made that revolve around film-makers themselves. If the audience was happy with A and not-so-happy with Z, here comes another that would pander to a select audience. With Kashinath in this film, viewers get to see glimpses of his earlier films like Anubhavo and Ananthana avanthara..
in this film, Kashinath sets out to correct his image of a film-maker who thrives on doublemeaning dialogues. So he selects a totally different role for himself in the film - an actor and director with a difference. Kashinath’s parents force him into a marriage with his niece Tilaka (Uttara). As he’s not too happy with the arrangement, he leaves Tilaka in the lurch.
He then fools his wife and parents about a non-existent affair with the heroines of his film Rambe, Urvashi and Menaka. The heroines, in turn, start fooling him after some time.
The director finally unravels and unties the knots in time for the finale.
A couple of songs by Hamsalekha are soothing to the ears.
Vijayalakshmi has turned out a good performance Kashinath has truly lived up to his image and is hilarious as ever.
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