I think I had my
typewriting class on the 22nd May 1991 around 9 am. I was eager to attend because I was
struggling to get the hang of it. But
when I stepped out of home (and I hadn’t read the newspaper that morning) I was
greeted by empty streets. I walked all
the way to the station only to be greeted by silence. It was only about 20 minutes later when I got
back home that I realized what had happened less than 12 hours back.
Those who were
around at that time know what I am talking about. Those who weren’t, can look into their
history books because it was one of the darkest days in the history of this
country. I would have expected Shoojit
Sircar (fresh off the success of Vicky Donor) to have done more justice to a
man who was arguably the harbinger of change into this country. Sadly, he turns it into yet another mockery.
A Major in the
Indian Army, Vikram Singh (John Abraham) is roped in for a covert operation in
Sri Lanka as part of the RAW. His
mission is to infiltrate the rebel army and cause a rift in the line of power
so that the rebels can self destruct. He
lands up doing everything but that. He
also gets caught in the bargain and is saved, only to go back pretending as a
news reporter – in Sircar’s world, all this is a walk in the park.
He also, happens
to meet an international Indian journalist Maya Sahni (Nargis Fakhri) who is dressed
like Maddy Bowen in Blood Diamond but shows a bit more cleavage through her
maroon wife beater vest. She also
happens to speak only in English (Thank God!!!) but for some reason Vikram
speaks to her in Hindi only. There is no
justification given for the same but as I said, it happens in Sircar’s world.
Of course, in
Sircar's world, RAW Agents dress up in jazzy denim and speak in Hindi and don’t
get caught in the bargain either. In
Sircar’s world, things of utmost importance cannot be spoken over the phone but
can wait for 2 days when Maya will travel from London to Delhi. In Sircar’s world, Tamil refugees
coincidentally have developed a Malayalam accent. Of course.
Cochin is closer than Chennai.
Horrible
editing, disastrous work with the sound, dialogues that inspire no confidence
and a script / story that is absolutely baseless ensure that Sircar’s follow up
to Vicky Donor is just about short of a disaster. To his credit, he at least pays attention to
some details to recreate props from 1991 such as VHS Tapes, manual telephone
exchanges, green screen computers and dot matrix printers.
But there is no
other aspect that makes any sense. Nothing
is logical or sensibly arranged. It was
as if, “I have tried my hand at comedy, it worked. So let me try my hand at a Political
Espionage Drama revolving around the assassination of one of our most preferred
Prime Ministers. It should work. No”?
No comments on
the performances but I wasn’t expecting anything great. John Abraham is sincere as always but this is
as much as he can deliver. Nargis Fakhri
thankfully doesn’t have too much of screen time. Siddhartha Basu & Piyush Pandey appear
lost more often than not. Disappointed,
both with the effort and a wasted opportunity to tell a story that most of
India would have been eager to know about.
4 on 10.
Watch the trailer
on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RA9EF75Xc-8
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