Darwaza Bandh Rakho
Cast: Aftab Shivdasani, Manisha Koirala, Divya Dutta and Snehal Dhabi
Direction: Chekravarthy
This week's new release Darwaza Bandh Rakho is intended as a mad-hatter situational comedy - a comedy of errors, if you please.
It's about a group of four down-on-their-luck guys who figure out that the only way they can make big money is by kidnapping the daughter of a richie-rich businessman and demanding a ransom in exchange of her return. And that's exactly what they do.
Since these guys obviously aren't professional kidnappers, they're not exactly smooth at their job. They end up breaking into the home of a Gujarati family with this girl they've just kidnapped, and they end up staying here much longer than they'd intended to because the girl's father has just taken off to America.
Now even as they try to establish contact with Mr Moneybags to demand a fat ransom, they find things going increasingly out of control as more and more people begin showing up at this house for various different reasons, and as a result, this gang must hold them hostage as well, in addition to the girl and the Gujarati family whose home they've invaded.
By the end, there's a pizza delivery guy, a door-to-door salesgirl, a maidservant, a police constable, a real-estate broker, an animal doctor and a few more trapped in this house along with the family and the kidnapped girl.
Darwaza Bandh Rakho is that rare kind of film that provides about three minutes of genuine entertainment. The rest is rubbish. Utter and complete rubbish.
The film's humour is pedestrian and there is no way in the world that there was ever a script in place for this film. It's the kind of movie that's made with a plot idea in mind, and then actors are hired to improvise on set.
But that's not how movies are made. You can't string together gimmick after gimmick and expect to have a screenplay - it just doesn't happen.
I'm not against mindless comedies. David Dhawan has made several, and some of them have been hilarious. But let's face it, even mindless comedies require some sense of direction.
You have to know where you're going with your film. And the biggest problem that plagues this picture is that nobody associated with it seems like they had any idea where this film was going.
Directed by Chekravarthy, the actor who played the title role in Ramgopal Varma's Satya, this movie reeks of indulgence. Seeing the manner in which the director has wasted some reasonably good actors in this film, you wonder if it's his revenge on Bollywood for giving him a raw deal as an actor.
Now Aftab Shivdasani is reasonably good at comedy, Manisha Koirala and Divya Dutta are competent actors, and Snehal Dhabi, the Ramgopal Varma find who left a lasting impression in Satya, Mast and Love Ke Liye Kuch Bhi Karega is usually fantastic.
But none of these actors are allowed to shine.
The emphasis in Darwaza Bandh Rakho is on silly humour and amateurish jokes. Like I said earlier, there may be a few moments - and seriously I mean a few moments that'll make you laugh.
Like that scene where the man of the house is trying to convey to the pizza delivery guy that there's trouble in his home, only to be misunderstood by the delivery boy who thinks he's making an indecent proposal.
Or the time when a popular Himesh Reshammiya ringtone disturbs the silence in the house. Barring these moments, there's little else that'll make you smile.
Director Chekravarthy's Darwaza Bandh Rakho is a film whose only real merit is that it's only an hour and forty minutes long. Of course whoever came up with the title of this film couldn't have been more prophetic.
Really, do yourself a favour, and keep the door shut on this one.
Rating: 1 / 5 (Poor)
Next Page: Review of Anthony Kaun Hai
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Anthony Kaun Hai
Cast: Arshad Warsi and Sanjay Dutt
Direction: Raj Kaushal
This week's other new release Anthony Kaun Hai is also a comedy, but of another kind. In this movie that's set in Bangkok, Arshad Warsi plays Champ, a small-time conman who assumes the identity of a photographer Anthony Gonsalves, in the hope of chancing upon some diamonds.
But alas, Anthony is linked to a case involving murder and thus Arshad fast finds himself being chased by the mob.
In the midst of this adventure, he also finds time to romance the pretty daughter of the man who would have led him to the diamonds. And just when he's found the diamonds and thinks his life might actually have sorted itself out, he's discovered by mob hitman Sanjay Dutt who's been hired to wipe him out.
Champ insists he's no Anthony Gonsalves, but what evidence does he have, and who is the real Anthony then?
I'm going to confess I went into this film expecting nothing, but I came out pleasantly surprised.
Now the plot and the premise of Anthony Kaun Hai has been borrowed generously from the fairly obscure Hollywood movie Who is Cletis Tout? starring Christian Slater and Tim Allen, but in all fairness, director Raj Kaushal and his technicians give their film a look that is both distinct and consistent.
Sadly, there are too many gaping holes in the screenplay, and that is what comes in the way of this film achieving its full potential.
Nevertheless, it's a fun ride with a surprisingly top-of-the-pops performance by Arshad Warsi. Sanjay Dutt fans will be disappointed that the actor has what can be best described as a guest appearance, but his comic timing is in perfect place.
For director Raj Kaushal who delivered such duds as Pyaar Mein Kabhi Kabhi and Shaadi Ka Ladoo in the past, this is clearly his best effort yet.
Anthony Kaun Hai is no classic, by god it's not. But give it a chance and you'll be pleasantly surprised. That's two out of five, and an average rating for Raj Kaushal's Anthony Kaun Hai, a comedy that does raise a few laughs after all.
Rating: 2 / 5 (Average)
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