Genre : Drama
Year : 2009
Running time : 2 hours
Director : Jehagir Surti
Cast : Neil Nitin Mukesh, Bipasha Basu, Rahul Dev, Sophie Chaudhary
Kid rating : PG
AA DEKHEN ZARAA : Predictable pot-boiler !
One is often wary of watching films with bad actors in them. And so it was with “Aa dekhen zaraa”. The fact that Neil Nitin Mukesh also starred in it somewhat mitigated that fear, because after the wonderful “Johnny Gaddar”, his next appearance was highly anticipated. Now, he’s not a master actor, but compared to Lady Bips, he is the King.
And then, of course, you have the , er . . , scientific angle. Because this film involves concepts of time travel – yeah, not so much that you’d have to stress that precious noggin, but just palatable enough for a casually entertaining desi flick. Me, being this huge time-travel fan, you’d think I’d go see this film the first chance I got, no ? But no, getting these many bad reviews of a film does put you off. So I waited. And finally did see the film. Here’s the plot :
Lady B plays Simi, a singer/DJ – nice, swanky looking club, and she looking marvelously hip and all. In a flat close by her’s, resides our photographer hero Ray (Neil). Now Ray has been left a camera by his grand-father, and it’s not an ordinary one. It can foretell the future – you click the snap and turn a handy dial, develop said photo, and voila ! the developed photo will be of the subject in the future. Awesome, you think ! Well, guess who else thinks this is awesome ? The villains of course. And there are many.
Anyway, with our boy Ray merrily clicking away, he has one photo taken of himself, and discovers that there’s something quite unwelcome looming in his future. Simi, who by this time has become serious girl-friend steps in, talks some sense, and together they try to beat this thing. The evil villains, predictably are hot on their trail . . .
Well, that’s as far as I can take you. And if you haven’t yet guessed the ending, please go see the film. It isn’t as bad as anticipated – for a masala movie. For one thing, the songs are pretty good – especially the title track, and that slow romantic number “Mohabbat aap se”. However the lead pair don’t have much chemistry; she looks quite a bit older and way more worldly-wise than dewy-eyed Mukesh. The direction is a bit slapdash, the film’s coherence hangs by a thread, and events and characters pop out of nowhere. Aah, and the logic – let’s just say that there isn’t much of that.
Rahul Dev as villanous “Captain” essays his role with some panache, while Sophie in yet another baby-doll-with-anglicized-Hindi is her usual self – bad. Bipasha can’t act but has personality, and Neil can’t act either but has this very earnest appeal thing about him. Makes you wish they got better scripts, and directors who knew what they were doing.
It is believed that we are attracted to the shiny and the colorful, as compared to the reliably hued. So it is with this movie – it’s thoroughly pulpy, cool angles, cool clothes, and quite a bit of bling. But for about 2 hours of mindless entertainment, I’d choose this over, say, a “Race”.
