<div class="section1"><div class="Normal"><span style="" font-weight:="" bold=""><script language="javascript">doweshowbellyad=0; </script></span></div> <div align="center" style="position:relative; left: -2"><table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2" align="center" border="0" width="70.3%"> <colgroup> <col width="100.0%" /> </colgroup> <tr valign="top"> <td width="100.0%" colspan="1" rowspan="1" style="" valign:="" top="" background-color:="" f3f3f3=""> <div class="Normal"><img src="/photo/990724.cms" alt="/photo/990724.cms" border="0" /></div> </td> </tr> </table></div> <div class="Normal"><br /><br /><span style="" font-weight:="" bold="">Movie name:</span> Elaan <br /><span style="" font-weight:="" bold="">Director:</span> Vikram Bhatt <br /><span style="" font-weight:="" bold="">Cast:</span> Mithun Chakraborty, Arjun Rampal, John Abraham, Rahul Khanna, Lara Dutta, Amisha Patel <span style="" font-weight:="" bold="">Rating:</span> **<br /><br /><span style="" font-weight:="" bold="">Plot:</span> Don kills dad, son seeks revenge, makes gang with a cop, a hitman and his girlfriend and one very pesky TV reporter.
<br /><br /><span style="" font-weight:="" bold="">Setting:</span> Starts from Mumbai, to Venice and Munich. <br /><br /><span style="" font-weight:="" bold="">Statutory warning:</span> See this movie strictly as a spoof on thrillers, action movies and the vendetta flicks. <br /><br />Why o'' why do desi directors lose the thread just as the film starts to end? Even though they fumble and stumble through the movie, there is some hope for salvaging the product, but come to the climax and they simply KILL the movie. <br /><br />Ditto for <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Elaan</span>, but before the end, here''s the beginning and the middle. <br /><br /></div> </div><div class="section2"><div class="Normal"><span style="" font-weight:="" bold=""><script language="javascript">doweshowbellyad=0; </script></span></div> <div align="center" style="position:relative; left: -2"><table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2" align="center" border="0" width="70.3%"> <colgroup> <col width="100.0%" /> </colgroup> <tr valign="top"> <td width="100.0%" colspan="1" rowspan="1" style="" valign:="" top="" background-color:="" f3f3f3=""> <div class="Normal"><img src="/photo/990715.cms" alt="/photo/990715.cms" border="0" /></div> </td> </tr> </table></div> <div class="Normal"><br /><br />True to tradition, Bhatt starts the movie with a woman crooning the title track <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Elaan</span>, with guns and women dancing in the shadows, a la a poor imitation of Bond. Even the title track sounds suspiciously like the Bond theme. <br /><br />"As long as they fear me, I will rule," says Baba Sikander as he first makes his appearance of screen. The front benchers cheer and you know why Mithunda''s movies work in the smaller towns. <br /><br />Unfortunately, the next entry, Rahul Khanna as big biz tycoon Karan Shah elicits no applause. In fact throughout the movie, Khanna is the weakest link, be it portraying the son avenging his father''s murder or as the master mind who has declared he will get back at the don. <br /><br />The story takes off with Sikander trying to extort money from Karan''s dad. The businessman refuses and is butchered. Karan avenges to get even with Sikander. <br /><br />Only glitch? The don is in a country that has no extradition treaty with India. <br /><br />So now Karan has to get together people to get Sikander back in the country.<br /><br /></div> </div><div class="section3"><div class="Normal"><span style="" font-weight:="" bold=""><script language="javascript">doweshowbellyad=0; </script></span></div> <div align="center" style="position:relative; left: -2"><table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2" align="center" border="0" width="70.3%"> <colgroup> <col width="100.0%" /> </colgroup> <tr valign="top"> <td width="100.0%" colspan="1" rowspan="1" style="" valign:="" top="" background-color:="" f3f3f3=""> <div class="Normal"><img src="/photo/990723.cms" alt="/photo/990723.cms" border="0" /></div> </td> </tr> </table></div> <div class="Normal"><br /><br />Enter the crotch — that''s the first part of dismissed cop Arjun (Arjun Rampal) that we see on screen. However, despite this below-the-belt introduction, Rampal is the best of the lot in the flick. <br /><br />But Karan and Arjun can''t get to Sikander alone and Arjun suggests they get an insider - Abhimanyu (John Abraham). <br /><br />Tattooed, bandana-ed and bare chested Abhimanyu (John Abraham) is the third brawn, we mean pawn, in the game. He is the don''s erstwhile hitman who has been double crossed and is currently in jail. <br /><br />Karan, Arjun and Abhimanyu, quite our little Mahabharata happening here. <br /><br />With John''s entry, the movie picks up pace - though the man needs to work on his Mumbaiya bhasha. Despite that he has the coolest lines in the film and in fact is quite okay with his comic timing. <br /><br />As for the girls? Well, Amisha Patel as Priya the TV reporter tries to look pretty with her blonde hair and blue contacts (sic) and is pretty much useless in the movie. Lara Dutta plays Sonia, Abhimanyu''s girlfriend and a bar dancer and makes her entry with — what else — a dance. <br /><br />Usually the heroines do little in action flicks, here there is a purpose. To look pretty and be pretty useles. Amisha wears short skirts when being chased by the goons and Lara either cries or dances in little backless numbers. <br /><br /></div> </div><div class="section4"><div class="Normal"><span style="" font-weight:="" bold=""><script language="javascript">doweshowbellyad=0; </script></span></div> <div align="center" style="position:relative; left: -2"><table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2" align="center" border="0" width="70.3%"> <colgroup> <col width="100.0%" /> </colgroup> <tr valign="top"> <td width="100.0%" colspan="1" rowspan="1" style="" valign:="" top="" background-color:="" f3f3f3=""> <div class="Normal"><img src="/photo/990750.cms" alt="/photo/990750.cms" border="0" /></div> </td> </tr> </table></div> <div class="Normal"><br /><br />Beyond the men and their women, the movie is your usual revenge saga. And that is where director Bhatt seriously falters. In fact the bloopers in the movie are so silly, you actually feel you are watching a comedy. <br /><br />For instance, the <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">goondas</span> are chasing the "five unlikely heroes". <br /><br />Priya the reporter is driving the vehicle, the boys are at the back shooting at the goons, Sonia hangs on to the vehicle and slips into the passenger seat through the window... then she pauses, gives a perfect party smile and says, "Hi, am Sonia." Female bonding during times of duress. Only the air kissing was left out. <br /><br />Then there''s the sequence were everyone is nervous. The gang has just 48 hours to plot on how they will nab the big don, there is tension in the air, everyone is nervous, until Arjun starts singing a song that goes "aanderloo maanderloo". WHAT?<br /><br />That''s when you know that the climax is going to be one sorry affair. <br /><br /></div> </div><div class="section5"><div class="Normal"><span style="" font-weight:="" bold=""><script language="javascript">doweshowbellyad=0; </script></span></div> <div align="center" style="position:relative; left: -2"><table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2" align="center" border="0" width="70.3%"> <colgroup> <col width="100.0%" /> </colgroup> <tr valign="top"> <td width="100.0%" colspan="1" rowspan="1" style="" valign:="" top="" background-color:="" f3f3f3=""> <div class="Normal"><img src="/photo/990734.cms" alt="/photo/990734.cms" border="0" /></div> </td> </tr> </table></div> <div class="Normal"><br /><br />We can''t forget the sequence where Arjun has been shot and Abhimanyu is going hysterical over his friend''s prostrate form. He is crying, asking his friend to get up and tries CPR - instead of the proper hand-over-hand method, he starts beating on Arjun''s chest a la Rudali. Guess it was the trauma. <br /><br />Not to be left behind is the climax, the Don is about to arrive and the gang has foxed him into taking another route by getting some paid actors to play traffic cops. So far so good. <br /><br />Amidst all the sneaking and whispering, Sonia takes out these envelopes with money, hands them to the bogus cops and again with her party smile in place says, "Go away before the real cops come." Perfect public relations we tell you. <br /><br />In the same sequence, Amisha is wearing a white mini skirt, with every hair coiffured in place. If the idea was to stay out of sight, guess she missed the point. <br /><br />But then we did say that if you see this movie as a spoof on thrillers, you will have a lot of fun. We did. We never took it seriously and laughed when John beat Arjun''s chest to pulp to revive him. <br /><br />Thankfully, Mithunda does not do any of his ''truck driver Suraj'' style fighting, no high kicks, no shrieking and is quite interesting to watch as the bad man. Enjoy. </div> </div>
