Review : The Film

This film started off normally enough. Just when I was begining to have my doubts about the director (seemed juvenile), and nodding off to sleep the film changed course, to become a suspense thriller. Well, not thriller exactly but close enough. The debut vehicle for 20 year old director Junaid Memon, “The Film” develops a suspense drama around the extortion racket and the Hindi film industry. It has a large cast, with a great chunk of the action going to Mahima Chaudhary. Now Ms. Chaudhary I consider to be cute, peppy, bubbly (and now aging) and a very, very average actress. Therefore you correctly surmise that she hath not the goods to carry off the part, although she makes a very brave attempt. The rest of the cast are mostly TV artistes and/or newcomers, and the poor acting shows. Direction could have been a lot tighter, the film attempting to rise to the “suspense” genre. Here are the essentials :

Sushmita Mukherjee (who else but youthfully-clad Mahima) is a struggling script-writer. She lives in a sprawling bungalow in Bombay as a paying guest of Mrs. Braganza (Sulabha Deshpande) – hey, where’s the fun without a kindly Goan mother-figure ? The other paying guests of Mrs. B are : wanna-be-director Vijay (Khaled Siddiqui), aspiring lyricist Irfan (Vivek Madan), struggling singer Nandini (Ananya Khare – remember her from “Chandni Bar” ?), wanna-be-actress Ankita (Chahat Khanna), wanna-be-actor Aditya (Vaibhav Jhalani) and aspiring-music-composer Raman (Ravi Gosai). Now all these guys are strugglers trying to get a foot-hold in the film-industry, and really all nice people although they can’t pay the rent on time. Still, they go along trying, gamboling like young people do.

Sushmita has been trying for 12 years, but has not made it, because she isn’t willing to compromise on her principles/or tweak her scripts to suit producer/director tastes. One day, in fun, her friend suggests that she make her own film, with money extorted from the film industry – she can extort using Shameem bhai’s (a well-known gangster) name. Although said in jest, Sushmita acts upon it, enlisting the help of her other PG (paying guest) friends. The extortion plan has a few hitches but the seven do manage to get the money. However, just as they are rejoicing, people start dying and dissappearing. Can they escape their mysterious nemesis and the police ?

OK, the script is a little weak – I had trouble swallowing it whole. The motive is a little unclear and the crazed killer bit has been done once too often. I have already mentioned the troubles with the direction and acting. The songs are of the listen-and-forget variety. Even so, this film keeps you interested and that’s no small feat. It has “sustaining” power – not for a large theatre maybe, but surely for a home DVD viewing.

I’d say, at least watch it once.