Complicated and disjointed

Once upon a time in Bombay, they made films which were not very sensible. Folks flocked as the stories were pleasant and backed by some great music and supported by some fine acting. The story was predictable. The love triangles and the love tragedies then gave way to the anger and angst of a young angry man and the script of a duo who told of a simmering social order. Then once upon a time in Mumbai, they started telling the stories of mafias and the grey lives they lived.

We now have an entire genre of cinema dealing with the under belly of Mumbai. The stables of the likes of Mahesh Bhat and RGV have told the tale in different moods at different times, but always telling how there is more black than grey.

The film starts on a wrong note. It seems to advocate that the philosophy of the Mahatma has outlived its utility. The protagonist Vikki (Harman Baweja) is in conversation with soulmate Lakhwa (Sunny Deol! Yes Deol). He suffers patriarchal rejection from a Gandhian (Rajit Kapoor) and is enticed by the local warlord Mota Tony (Prashant Narayanan). The gang war of the war lords includes Gujjar (Rajesh Vivek –cliched) Rocky Chu (Anand Tiwari) and IqbalKhalifa (Sumeet Nijhawan). It’s all about who is double crossing whom and how long. Why he is doing it and how successfully, is what forms the gist. Then you also have a parallel love story of a bold cigarette smoking Meera (Ayesha Khanna) with Vikky.

There is the intriguing disconnect in this world between talent and acceptance (or success as the world may chose to call it!) The grossly under marketed ‘Dishkiyaaoon’ is not without its positives. The problem is that the intrigue gets too complicated and the shoot seems disjointed. The script fails the narration. The tale is not very fresh but is told with a certain degree of style and panache. Now with someone like Sunny Deol (of dhai kilo ka haath) leading the cast you would imagine that you are not going to get much from the cast but that is exactly where the film scores. Sumeet Nijahawan, Prashant Narayanan, Anand Tiwari do fine jobs of half etched characters.

Ayesha Khanna is a welcome addition to the heroine club and we hope to see more of her. She has a Chitrangadda kind of persona and does brilliantly for a debutant. Kudos to Shilpa Shetty for finding some one very unlike her to be the heroine of the film. She too has very little screen time and presence but does complete justice to what is offered. Harman Baweja is an amazing surprise. The guy has talent. It is indeed unfortunate that he makes news only for the person he is dating. Our cinema needs to give him a better chance and more opportunity. It would be richer with his contributions. He has the looks, the body and beef and can dance. No reason for summary rejection as has happened thus far. Queer are the diktats of our cinema. Hopefully like legendary examples he will survive the low phase , get better films and in the process be noticed. Success is just a hit away. The film may have too many bullets and guns but it also has some emotion packed moments that make for a heady cocktail for entertainment. Where it looses out is the narration which gets too intriguing and meandering. Such films would require supply of a notebook and a pen for making notes on who is killing whom and how!-LR