[amazon_link id=”B004S9KHIY” target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]
[/amazon_link]Rating : Above average (3.5/5)
Genre : Drama
Year : 2006
Running time : 3 hours
Director : Onir
Cast : Juhi Chawla, Jimmy Shergill, Sanjay Suri, Urmila
Matondkar, Rehaan Engineer
Bas ek Pal : One convoluted story
This film is a “Closer” of sorts – a love story for nincompoops. You know the type – he loves her but she doesn’t love him and she loves him but he is jealous, blah, blah, blah. A splurge of emotions; I am confused as I am sure the characters are too. From the songs which regularly play on MTV Desi I had expected am “arty”, thoughtful film, kind of like “My brother Nikhil”. Thoughtful it is; it’s just too much thought. It seems like Onir has tried to mesh many stories into one, and is unable to display completely the angst of any one character.
OK, so there’s Nikhil (Suri) an NRI, newly returned to India. He meets old friend Rahul (Shergill), and Rahul’s friend Steve (Engineer). Nikhil’s a Casanova of sorts, Rahul’s a nice guy and Steve’s a wife-beater. His wife Ira (Juhi), is an independent woman, who thinks of leaving him but never does. Rahul meets Anamika (Urmila) at a nightclub, and is enamored by her. However in another meeting at the club there is a scuffle over her, and Nikhil accidentally shoots Rahul. So, urban boy Nikhil lands in jail, and serves his time with just Anamika’s memory to console him. When he gets out on bail 3 years later, his one aim is to attain her . . .
The story tries too hard to be interesting – a simpler story would have been easier to digest. Some of the scenes are just absurd, like the one at the end where Ira is going around the city in pouring rain at night, telling everyone she’s leaving. One’d think that with Bombay’s history of flooding she’d stay home and use the phone.
The characters aren’t very well sketched. Nikhil who seems like a reasonable guy, has shades of the psychotic stalker, which don’t fit very well. Ira finally gets the strength to leave Steve, but how she gets here is unclear. She’s the kind of woman who causes harm by just being conscientious and forthright – such a pity. Anamika’s character is that of a woman who knows not her own mind, torn between love (?) and guilt/duty. And it’s not very well portrayed; Urmila in this film as in some of the previous ones, can’t project her character, and appears “off” undecided on whether she should be smiling or crying in that scene. The sheen of “Pinjar” in which she was superb, is now wearing off.
Rahul’s character is the true-nice-guy. However later in the film, Rahul has pangs of jealousy and actually tries to cause trouble, kinda unbelievable because we don’t really see the anger which would lead to that desperate step. If he’d have shouted and ranted a bit more, he would have been more believable. I know that Shergill could have done justice to Rahul’s character, so I blame the director and the twisted script for the lapse. Steve’s character seemed the most consistent, and the one I most believed.
The music of the film is beautiful though, and almost all the tracks are melodious, humm-able or just plain haunting, like the “Tere bin” number. This film is just about OK, notice I’m not whooping in my seat or anything. So, although I can’t really applaud the film for anything except the music, I’ve got to say that despite the convoluted story, inept scripting and blurred characters, this movie is loads better than the crap out there.
