REVIEW 495: DOBAARA – SEE YOUR EVIL

Release date:	June 2, 2017
Director:	Prawaal Raman
Cast: Language:	Huma Qureshi, Adil Hussain, Saqib Saleem, Lisa Ray, Rhea Chakraborty Hindi

Let’s face it: Bollywood does not do horror and spook stories well. The long intervals between the very few effective supernatural thrillers the industry has produced in the past century – such as Mahal, Madhumati and Bhoot – is a testament to that. In the same year as Ram Gopal Varma’s Bhoot, in 2003, director Prawaal Raman did manage an interesting anthology of short stories titled Darna Mana Hai (Fear Is Not Allowed). The genre has suffered a drought since then.

Raman’s new film, Dobaara: See Your Evil, fails to end this dry spell.

Based on the 2014 Hollywood hit Oculus, Dobaara (featuring the original film’s director Mike Flanagan as its executive producer) tells the story of a 25-year-old woman called Natasha Merchant (Huma Qureshi) who believes a tragedy that befell her family 11 years earlier was caused by a haunted mirror that possessed her father, the artist Alex Merchant (Adil Hussain). Natasha and her brother Kabir Alex Merchant (played in adulthood by Saqib Saleem) were children when the police found them in their home in the English countryside, a gun in Kabir’s hand while Alex lay dead from a gunshot wound and the body of the mother (Lisa Ray) in another part of the house. Both siblings claimed that Kabir was innocent in the matter. After a decade of therapy, Kabir emerges in the real world, convinced that the ghostly happenings in their home were a figment of his and Natasha’s imagination, and that their parents’ deaths were a result of a marriage that had fallen apart because Dad was having an affair. Natasha remains convinced though that themirrordunnit.

Dobaara begins with Kabir’s release from a correctional facility. Natasha has spent the decade investigating the mirror and has found that many of its previous owners ended up dead in a gruesome fashion in mysterious circumstances. On Kabir’s return, she holds him to a promise he had made to her as a child – a promise to kill the mirror together. First though, she wants to prove to the world that her family was innocent in what happened to them. So, she has set up the mirror in her house with multiple cameras to record what happens when she and Kabir spend time before it.

Oculus, the material on which Dobaara is based, was much busier. This film has virtually nothing happening in the pre-interval portion except talk, talk and more boring talk between the siblings, and post-interval, when matters do speed up, it is too late.

The film runs on multiple tracks in the second half, inter-cutting between Natasha and Kabir’s childhood and present, and their differing viewpoints on occurrences within the house in their adulthood. It should have been fascinating and suspenseful, but Dobaara fails to recover from the absolute lack of energy that sets in in the first hour.

Besides, everything seems so pointless when Natasha, who set up all those cameras with such fanfare, does not bother to check the recorded footage at any point – as a result, we do not at any point get to see the difference between what she and Kabir think happened to them and what actually did.

The actors end up being victims of the film’s  listless writing, direction and editing. Saleem reveals a glimpse or two of his natural talent in a couple of scenes. Hussain – who was so brilliant in his last Bollywood film Mukti Bhawan just weeks back – tries his best to invest himself in the role, but is left struggling in the absence of overall heft. That said, for some reason, his English dialogue delivery sounds occasionally awkward here. It must be said too that the children’s accented English inexplicably gives way to perfectly desi speaking styles as grown-ups.

This lack of attention to detail is the least of Dobaara’s problems. The lack of ominousness is. The suggestive title, some mumbo jumbo about how everything that happens to us has already happened before and the allusion to a well-known children’s fairytale all amount to nothing in the face of such dull storytelling.

Dobaara takes forever to take off, and when it does, it is a non-starter.

And so the drought continues...

Rating (out of five stars): 1/2

CBFC Rating (India):	A
Running time:	107 minutes

This review has also been published on Firstpost:

http://www.firstpost.com/entertainment/dobaara-see-your-evil-movie-review-huma-qureshi-saqib-saleem-thriller-takes-forever-to-take-off-3509117.html

Poster courtesy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dobaara:_See_Your_Evil and IMDB

REVIEW 409: DISHOOM

Release date:	July 29, 2016
Director:	Rohit Dhawan
Cast: Language:	John Abraham, Varun Dhawan, Jacqueline Fernandez, Saqib Saleem, Akshaye Khanna, Rahul Dev Hindi

There is an  assumption in most films of the buddy crime/cop genre, that every Jai needs a Veeru, every Munna needs a Circuit and every Detective Inspector Lee needs a wisecracking Detective James Carter who will come through for his partner when push comes to shove.

Director Rohit Dhawan adopts this prototype for the action comedy Dishoom starring his brother Varun Dhawan and John Abraham. Mentioning the relationship between the film’s helmsman and the young actor in the very first paragraph is only fair because although Abraham is the bigger star, it becomes clear at some point that Dishoom is primarily a showcase for Master Dhawan.

Ah well, thankfully he is a charming chap, easy on the eye and always nice to watch ever since he entered our lives in 2012 with Karan Johar’s Student of the Year. In this film he plays the ever-smiling rookie cop Junaid Ansari – an Indian working with the Dubai Police – who finds a reluctant partner in the smouldering, intense, never-smiling Kabir Shergill (Abraham) from a Special Task Force in New Delhi. Kabir has been sent to assist the Dubai Police in saving the star Indian cricketer Viraj Sharma (Saqib Saleem) from his kidnapper/s. Sharma disappeared just days before a crucial India-Pakistan cricket match scheduled to take place in the desert state.

The mystery element in the story is not entirely uninteresting and the humour – when it does rear its head – is effective. Besides, Abraham and Varun have a neat little bromance budding in the film. If Dishoom is not wholly compelling at any point despite all this, it is because too much is left budding and nothing comprehensively explored.

So Varun elicits laughs with his natural comic timing – but there is not enough where that came from. There is some good action, including a helicopter chase of a boat down a large expanse of water, shot lavishly by Ayananka Bose – but there is not enough where that came from. Abraham has a sweetly patronising, fond look in his eyes when he gazes at Varun and the two even get their own mobike-with-a-sidecar in a bow to Sholay – but there is not enough where that male bonding came from either.

It is as if the film’s director and writers (story and screenplay: Rohit himself with Tushar Hiranandani, dialogues: Hussain Dalal) were really kicked about their concept at the start, but lost steam somewhere along the way. This can be the only explanation for why, for instance, they got so many talented supporting artistes in the cast yet no character leaves a lasting impression. Rahul Dev has a fascinating face, but does not get the space he deserves playing the villain’s menacing flunkey in Dishoom. Akshaye Khanna manages to lend notable touches to that villain, but remains a victim of an under-written role. Vijay Raaz makes an inexplicable, just-a-few-minutes-long appearance as an inexplicable person inexplicably called Khabri Chacha. Mona Ambegaonkar – who plays India’s Minister for External Affairs – and her stylist do a rather decent Sushma Swaraj impression, but the minister seems curiously staff-less and entourage-less. And in a film that seeks more from her than merely to cash in on that gorgeous face and stunning body, Jacqueline Fernandez shows us that “ladki mein kuchh toh hai (there’s something about that girl)” as filmwallahs tend to say, including a funny bone that Hindi cinema is yet to explore, but she too operates on the margins of Dishoom.

All of them get less out of this film than Akshay Kumar does in a guest appearance. Playing a character who could easily have been stereotypically camp, Kumar manages to hold back just enough to ensure that he is intentionally over-the-top yet not crude.

The film’s fatal flaw, then, is its failure to persist with any particular idea, concept, theme or thought. There is, for instance, a potentially sweet scene when a bad guy barges into a group of Muslim men at prayer and Junaid stops Kabir from chasing him through the group, saying: “Namaz ki izzat rakh le, khuda hamari rakh lega (Honour the namaz and God will take care of us).” The few seconds of silence that follow are poignant, especially in the context of the Islamophobia pervading the world right now. And then … boom! … something goes wrong, and the entire point is lost, though it is clear that it was not Rohit or his co-writers’ intention to suggest that khuda was not bothered. Team Dishoom, it appears, were unable to sustain their own involvement in the moment.

Even the film’s obvious flag-waving ambitions are erratically executed. It is silly yet amusing when a star Indian cricketer smashes the ball all over a stadium for sixes and fours in an international match, just minutes after he was soundly walloped on a shoulder he had previously dislocated during a game. Amusing because the Saare Jahan Se Achchha playing in the background as he walks on to the field is no doubt meant to emotionally wave aside our powers of reasoning, and so, rather than be irritated, it is possible to chuckle over that scene.

When the Minister utters this line in the film’s opening minutes, “Duniya ke kisi bhi koney mein koi bhi ek Hindustani ko haath nahin laga sakta hai (Let no one dare to harm a hair on the head of any Indian in any corner of the globe),” it holds out the promise of much wolf-whistle-worthy, chest-thumping patriotism, but it is downright ridiculous to witness her addressing the Dubai Police like a condescending Aunty and to see Kabir bulldozing them as though India – not the United States – is the world’s Big Brother.

Half-heartedness pervades every department of the film. And so while the camera delivers some imposing shots of a Morocco mountainside during a bike chase scene, most all interior settings of the film look glaringly fake, particularly that underground den of vice in the fictional country Abudin.

Pritam’s music too is a mixed bag. While Sau tarah ke is infectiously upbeat, Jaaneman aah accompanying the closing credits is embarrassingly tuneless.

That closing track – shot with Varun and guest star Parineeti Chopra – epitomises the film’s problems. Abraham and Fernandez are curiously absent. Who is Dishoom’s protagonist? Is it meant to be a comedy? Is it meant to be an all-out action flick as you might assume from the title? What went wrong with this project is a mystery, but it is sad that the film is less than the sum of its many noteworthy parts.

Rohit Dhawan debuted with the unrelentingly funny Desi Boyz in which he managed to whip up bowlfuls of chemistry between his leading men Akshay Kumar and John Abraham. In Dishoom, Abraham looks as if he switched off halfway through the project as did most of the film’s team.

Result: Dishoom is a sporadically engaging, intermittently funny, yet always insubstantial film.

Rating (out of five): **

CBFC Rating (India):	UA
Running time:	124 minutes

This review has also been published on Firstpost:

http://www.firstpost.com/bollywood/dishoom-review-funny-but-flimsy-john-abraham-varun-dhawan-bromance-2922898.html

Poster courtesy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dishoom

REVIEW 85: MUJHSE FRAAANDSHIP KAROGE

Release date:	October 14, 2011
Director:	Nupur Asthana
Cast:	Saqib Saleem, Saba Azad, Nishant Dahiya, Tara D’souza, Mita Vashisht

Yaar, “uske naam mein bhi maal hai,” says Vishal while trying to coax Rahul to meet hottie Malvika. Why doesn’t Vishal meet her himself? Ah well, as relationship statuses often are on Facebook, “It’s complicated”.

Mujhse Fraaandship Karoge – the second venture from Yashraj Films’ new banner Y Films – is a love story set against the backdrop of FB. The place: a Mumbai college. The time: here and now. Vishal is the campus wise guy, good-looking, smart talking, sociable and smooth. Preity is the girl he loves to hate because she’s smart, confident, hard-working, aloof, attractive but uncaring about her style. When Vishal is not in class or Facebooking-ing, he hangs out with friends, parties and writes lyrics for the soppy songs that Rahul sings as the lead artiste of a popular local band. Fashion design student Malvika is Preity’s best friend, and happens to catch Vishal’s fancy at a show when Rahul picks her out of the crowd to dance with him on stage. Desperate to get Malvika’s attention, Vishal pretends to be Rahul and sends her a friend request on FB. Without Malvika’s knowledge, Preity – who has a crush on Rahul – accepts the friend request, and the two start chatting regularly online. Get it? Cute guy Vishal pretending to be hot guy Rahul is chatting with smart girl Preity because she is pretending to be hot girl Malvika!

Phew! It truly is complicated! 

Or rather, it’s complicated for them but not confusing for us. Quite to the contrary, director Nupur Asthana – helmswoman of Yashraj’s popular TV series Mahi Way – gives us a breezy 1 hour 44 minute ride through teenland bereft of clichés, aided by Raghu Dixit’s peppy and youthful music, and dialogue writer Anvita Dutt who seems to really understand this milieu. Unlike director Roshan Abbas’ Always Kabhi Kabhi (produced by SRK and released this June), this film is not trying to be cool – it actually is cool. And unlike Y Films’ own Luv ka The End, Mujhse Fraaandship Karoge goes beyond just getting the look and lingo right.

On the face of it, this is a re-telling of Yashraj’s earlier film Mujhse Dosti Karoge (MDK) from which this one derives its slightly misleading title. MDK was a Hrithik Roshan-Rani Mukerji-Kareena Kapoor-starrer about a guy who falls in love with Girl X with whom he’s been exchanging e-mails for years, not knowing that she’s in fact Girl Y pretending to be X. But the protagonists in Mujhse Fraaandship Karoge are younger, the pace here is snappier, and the melodrama that at one time was automatically associated with love triangles and quadrilaterals in Hindi films is missing here – when the corny, cheesy ending comes around, it’s actually believable because the film and each of its characters treats it exactly the way you and I would treat such a corny, cheesy turn of events. Thankfully too, this is not a clichéd modern-day Cinderella story where the non-glamorous nerdy stereotype of a girl transforms overnight into a Princess and is saved by the Prince from her harried existence. This film does not toe the Kuch Kuch Hota Hai line that the guy you love will not realise he feels the same way about you till you exchange your ‘tomboyish’ (oh how I hate that word!) attire for acceptably feminine clothes and lose to him in a game of basketball! Not on your life! Preity in Mujhse Fraaandship Karoge can give as good as she gets, and does so right till the end.

Any weak links? Well yes. The dialogue writing that’s pitch perfect during exchanges between Preity, Vishal and their college mates, turns a tad awkward when the slightly older Rahul and Malvika come around. Also, youngsters Saqib Saleem (Vishal) and Saba Azad (Preity) are live wires; Tara D’souza (Malvika) and Nishant Dahiya (Rahul) are interesting too; but Dahiya – a handsome fellow no doubt – slips up by failing to tailor his English diction to fit the slot that he’s placed in here … I’m not saying he should have sounded British or American, but that he should have sounded more like the English-speaking Indian city dude that he’s supposed to be. Also, the music gets so loud at places that the lyrics become indecipherable.

At a superficial level, Mujhse Fraaandship Karoge may seem like a silly film about squabbling teenagers in love. But look closer and what you see is the director and writers’ keen understanding of a world where rumours and cruel jokes spread like wildfire on SMS and social networking online media; where youngsters often mistake notoriety for popularity; where it’s so easy to be deceived by the person on the other end of the line; and where this apparent constant flow of communication in the virtual world has the potential to kill communication in the real world.

It’s possible that you may not enjoy this film if you aren’t addicted to the online social media or if you aren’t constantly rubbing shoulders with crazy, Facebook-addicted teenagers the way I am. On the other end of the social spectrum, it’s possible that the teenagers in the hall where I watched this film would give it double the number of stars that I’ve given it, judging by their hysterical laughter throughout. As they’d probably say, go figure. For my part, I’ve gotta rush off to write another review! BRB! ;)

Rating (out of five): ***

CBFC Rating:                       U/A without cuts

Running time:                       104 Minutes

Language:                             Hindi

Photograph courtesy: https://www.facebook.com/YFilms#!/MujhseFraaandshipKaroge