Sanjay Dutt ki to...

<div class="section1"><div class="Normal"></div> <div class="Normal" style="" text-align:="" center=""><img src="/photo/955125.cms" alt="/photo/955125.cms" border="0" /></div> <div class="Normal"><br /><span style="" font-weight:="" bold="">Movie: </span><span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Musafir</span><br /><span style="" font-weight:="" bold="">Director: </span>Sanjay Gupta<br /><span style="" font-weight:="" bold="">Cast: </span>Sanjay Dutt, Anil Kapoor, Mahesh Manjrekar, Sameera Reddy, Koena Mitra, Aditya Pancholi<br /><br />Rating: ** 1/2<br /><br />The last thing you expect from a gangster movie is to get bored.<br /><br />Especially when it''s made by Sanjay Dutt and his Three Musketeers (Gupta, Manjrekar, Pancholi). Sanjay Gupta should have stuck to the making a faithful rendition of U-Turn. With <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Musafir</span>, all he does is an about-turn from the basic tenets of moviemaking. <br /><br />What is the movie about? "<span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Lag gayi, baj gayi</span> and <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">phat gayi</span>" (our apologies, we quote here) and a bag of money that changes too many hands, too many times and is totally unconvincing. There is a limit to coincidence. <br /><br />The movie starts with Billa (Sanjay Dutt) dressed in a Darth Vader-like cape dictating his opinions on what was wrong with Gabbar Singh of <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Sholay</span> and other "Hindi picture" villains. <br /><br />All his homilies - and his gun - are directed/pointed at Lucky (Anil Kapooor) who then launches into a recap of the "last four days" of his life. So you think the movie is about Lucky-Billa and whatever transpired between the two. <br /><script language="javascript">doweshowbellyad=0; </script><br /><br /></div> </div><div class="section2"><div class="Normal"><br /></div> <div class="Normal" style="" text-align:="" center=""><img src="/photo/955126.cms" alt="/photo/955126.cms" border="0" /></div> <div class="Normal"><br />However, in between you meet Tiger (Aditya Pancholi), the rogue cop who would do anything for money. <br /><br />You also bump into Sam (Sameera Reddy) the distraught wife of Luca (Mahesh Manjrekar), there is Lara (Koena Mitra) who is Lucky''s girlfriend and Whacko Jacko (Shakti Kapoor), who might as well not have been there. <br /><br />Holding these characters together is supposedly the plot - we had a hard time finding it. Holding the plot together are the dialogues - we had a hard time not cringing when hearing those. In fact if "<span style="" font-style:="" italic="">lag gayi, baj gayi</span> and <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">phat gayi</span>" were removed from the script, no one in the movie will have anything to say! <br /><br />But then, if Gupta made <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">''phat gayi''</span> the hero in <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Kaante</span>, you should not expect much else. <br /><br />Beyond the non-existant script and plot, there''s the supposed technical wizardry. Somehow, our <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">desi</span> filmmakers think that to give any movie an ''international'' feel, all you have to do is introduce filters.<br /><br />So you have the initial sequences of the movie shot under the blue filter, which changes to a yellow-bordering-on-sepia filter in the Goa sequences and a charcoal filter in a song sequence. <br /><br />''Hollywood <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">ishtyle''</span> also means tousled hair, tattoos, a Harley Davidson, cowboy boots with more metal than anyone can walk with and babes in cleavage-bearing tube tops.<br /><br />Oh yes, there is also a John Woo-style horizontal mid-air shooting sequence (Mission Impossible and many others). But strangely, while shooting, Lucky has his eyes closed - and still manages a perfect aim. <br /><script language="javascript">doweshowbellyad=0; </script><br /><br /></div> </div><div class="section3"><div class="Normal"><br /></div> <div class="Normal" style="" text-align:="" center=""><img src="/photo/955127.cms" alt="/photo/955127.cms" border="0" /></div> <div class="Normal"><br />There are other bloopers as well - Lucky is continually shown smoking Malboro lights (white butt), and then suddenly, very clearly, you see him smoking a cigarette with a yellow butt. <br /><br />Again in another scene, Tiger is shooting with a round-nosed pistol, which mid-way in the scene changes to your standard <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">filmi</span>-police revolver and then back to the pistol again. <br /><br />Wasn''t the director watching or does he think the audience is not watching? There is a difference between cool and wannabe-cool. ALL characters in <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Musafir </span>are the latter variety. <br /><br />The dialogues, which were perhaps meant to leave an impact are at best jarring. There is so much effort put into them that they end up being putting-off. <br /><br />Especially Anil Kapoor doing the "<span style="" font-style:="" italic="">teri lag jayegi</span>" routine is just so off - he should stick to what he does best, and this is not it. And ah, you get to see his body without his natural fur-covering for the first time (seems he has finally waxed).<br /><script language="javascript">doweshowbellyad=0; </script><br /><br /></div> </div><div class="section4"><div class="Normal"><br /></div> <div class="Normal" style="" text-align:="" center=""><img src="/photo/955128.cms" alt="/photo/955128.cms" border="0" /></div> <div class="Normal"><br />Lucky''s lust-interest in the flick is Sameera Reddy, who sports stretch marks on her waist, an ugly under-arm stubble and sweat patches, love handles that some might find ''cute'', a less-than-flat tummy that sneaks over the waist band of her jeans in dance sequences and thighs that can be mistaken to be instruments of physical harm.<br /><br />Sanjay Gupta should ONLY make frame-by-frame remakes (if at all), Sanjay Dutt should stop playing the <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">bhai</span> now (even he looks bored in the flick), Anil Kapoor should stick to the drama genre and leave action alone and Sameera Reddy needs to quit the Gupta gang. Perhaps then she could better tap the acting potential in her, which does appear... now and then. <br /><br />Phew! We could continue, but we''ve already dedicated more words than the movie deserves. To conclude, we borrow from Billa (Dutt) in the movie. There is a sequence where he says, "People were thinking, the story is finishing and there is still no action." <br /><br />Very right Mr Dutt, where IS the action?<br /><script language="javascript">doweshowbellyad=0; </script></div> </div>