Sunday movie is hit
February 2nd, 2008 by admin
Stars: Ajay Devgan, Ayesha Takia, Irrfan Khan
‘What if one day went missing from your life?’ is the tagline to this attempt at a comic murder caper. A more appropriate blurb should have been: ‘Are you prepared to lose two and a half hours of your time?’
It opens in Delhi with the murder of a young woman by her lover. We then meet crooked cop Rajvir (Ajay Devgan) as he chases a drug dealer across the rooftops of Chandni Chowk, a suburb. Meanwhile, dubbing artist Shahar (Ayesha Takia) decides to party at a disco on Saturday night. She is understandably worried when she wakes up the next day and realises it’s actually Monday. Shahar has no recollection of her ‘missing Sunday’.
“How could I forget?” is the profound query Shahar poses to Rajvir as they attempt to unravel events. It emerges that she encountered various strangers on her way home. These include a cabbie, a struggling actor and two lads with mischief on their minds. She becomes a murder suspect when one of them is found murdered.
Will Sundays ever be the same again for our hapless heroine?
Director Rohit Shetty aims for an entertaining comic thriller. He flounders on all counts. Expect Bollywood base humour. Targets include deriving laughs from people with speech and voice impediments, the on-going Kashmiri conflict between India and Pakistan, South Indians, gay rape and, most outrageously, the 9/11 tragedy.
Frequent ‘Matrix meets Charlie Angels’ type action sequences with lots of split screen montages and slow motion shots of men and chillies flying in the air are resorted to in order to generate thrills. This would be forgivable if had Shetty adopted a propulsive pace. Instead, just as the mystery deepens, the plot pauses for the lovers to sing the obligatory romantic duet. Further, proceedings are swamped by two ‘item’ dance numbers, performed by star kids.
Talented actors like Devgan, Arshad Warsi and Irrfan Khan retain their dignity in the feeble frolics. The top heavy Takia, sporting a frilly dress and denim jacket, delivers the surprise performance and you almost feel sorry for her character’s plight.
The denouement, when it finally comes, is as predictable as the numerous touristy shots of New Delhi and the filmic Tarantino flourishes. Tighter plotting and some sophisticated jokes would have lifted this remake of a Telugu flop to a worth a look level. As it is, this is an amnesic Sunday.