Hate Story

Paoli Dam’s controversy before the release of Hate Story and the extreme emphasis on the sexual nature of the movie probably gave it enough impetus to go through the first weekend. The smart marketer probably thought that even if the movie bombs eventually, I may as well take advantage of the initial excitement created by a semi naked poster – believe me the corny one liner definitely did not create any impact whatsoever (He took her soul – now her body seeks revenge). And the smart marketer was right I guess. Hate Story was running quite full. At least on the Friday that it released.

But that does not at any time give any credence to Vivek Agnihotri who still sucks at directing. Yep. Apologies for the use of the word. But SUCKS is the operative word when it comes to Agnihotri. There is absolutely nothing that he does in Hate Story that tempts me to change my opinion of him. The part that I am trying to figure out is which movie was Hate Story copied from. Chocolate was Agnihotri’s first and it was a rip off of my favourite movie – Usual Suspects. His 2nd was Dhan Dhana Dhan Goal which was inspired by several Hollywood sports movies. So brownie points to someone who is able to tell me the inspiration for Hate Story. Would love to know it.

Paoli Dam is actually very confident on the screen. Why she has to resort to shedding clothes at the drop of a hat is beyond me. It is definitely an art – shedding clothes that is – an entire industry has spawned thanks to the same. Dam gives a reasonable performance but she does have a long way to go. The crowds are definitely going to love her because she is definitely the hottest actress to have hit the screen in a long time. The rest of the cast – if you do manage to see them – has no one worth mentioning with the exception of Gulshan Devaiah. Devaiah continues from where he left off in Shaitan. His performances in front of his father with his stammering is very good indeed. No one else comes close to worth a mention.

The story is good and adds to the list of disappointments in Bollywood because there is so much that could have been achieved. Instead it is relegated to a B Grade soft porn movie. Kaavya Krishna (Paoli Dam) is a journalist who gets a scandal involving Cementec Infra out in the open and therefore rubs its director Siddharth Dhanrajgir (Gulshan Devaiah) the wrong way. Sid is anyways on a weak wicket with his father to whom the 1000 crore ($200 million) business is just one of the small fish in his empire. He therefore resorts to ruining Kaavya by romancing her and then eventually dumping her when she is pregnant. What follows is a ping pong of stupidity where each person tries to get the better of the other. Watch it if you have nothing better to do. 4 on 10.

Trailer on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wyAIdYRTPg

Dum Maro Dum

That Abhishek Bachchan will live in the shadow of Yuva for the rest of his life and continue to try and benchmark himself to that level is a foregone conculsion in any of his movies. But to his credit this time around, he does give you some glimpses of the intensity that he showed in his best performance to date. Hope Floats for all your fans of the Jr. B (count me out of that list for the time being). After Game I thought it was all over folks. It was definitely time to get the fat lady in.

What makes his performance look better than what it actually is the sheer presence of John Abraham’s ex who has this innate capability of making anyone look better on screen. If there was a plastic meter for performances on screen then Bipasha Basu would have scored 12 on 10. And then you also wonder what Rohan Sippy was thinking when he cast Aditya Panscholi. Definitely a case of the ex Mr. Zareena Wahab (whats with these exes?) having put in money into the production.

And then there is rest of the cast led by Tollywood hero Rana Daggubatti who manages to hold his own in his Bollywood debut. Pratiek (without the Babbar) is sincere, but as always seems to have tried really hard to make things look as real has he possibly can. The saving grace in the acting department is however the natural, ice cold performance from Govind Namdeo who comes out on tops once again.

Dum Maro Dum revolves around the elusive Michael Barbossa aka Vincent Vega aka Colin Coutinhon aka Tobby Follet who is the savior of the drug mafia in Goa. Whenever the narcotics business in Goa starts to take a beating, Barbossa or one of his avatars comes in to save business which is primarily led by Lorsa Biscuita (Aditya Panscholi). But Barbossa’s days are about to be numbered when the Home Minster Ponda (Bugs Bharagava) calls on ex-cop ACP Vishnu Kamat (Jr. B) to clean up the state. In his previous assignments related to narcotics, ACP Kamat was notorious for maximizing his personal wealth. But he loses it when his family dies in a car crash. Poetic justice because the drivers of the other car were high on drugs. He picks his own team – Rane (Govind Namdeo) and Mercy (Gulshan Devaiya) to help him. His first breakthrough happens when he manages to foil Lawrence Eduardo Gomes aka Lorry (Pratiek) who is forced to become a carrier to pay his fees for a US University. All poor Lorry wanted to do was to be with his girl, Tani (Anaitha Nair) who gets through to the same uni with a 100% scholarship. Lorry’s close friend Joaquim aka DJ Joki (Rana) tries to convince him to come clean and even manages to strike a deal with ACP Kamath but Lorry chickens out and Joki’s only chance to get back @ Biscuita goes abegging. You see Biscuita has stolen Joki’s girl i.e. Zoe (Bipasha Basu) in the same manner as Lorry manages to get himself into jail. All these characters try to solve the big mystery – Who is Barbossa???

Poorly written dialogues are the bane of DMD which could have been a much better movie than it turned out. Lines such as “Moscow ke DJ tyaon tyaon aur pussycats meow meow. Live FTV no censor” and “Barbossa ka pata chahiye. Baaki sab ke liye google hai” and “MC ya BC? Middle Class ya Business Class”. I mean what was Rohan Sippy thinking? He didn’t have Rajanikant to carry these lines off right? Pritam’s music continues to be heavily and now obviously “inspired” and inspid. Rohan Sippy still tries his best to keep the movie racy enough for you not to get bored. Would have expected better coz this one doesn’t come upto the previous mark he set with Bluff Master. The random use of Konkani words fall flat. As a good friend says, “That’s the magic of it all. You aren’t Goan till you are Goin man”. Overall a below average effort. 4 on 10 is my final verdict. Was tempted to give it a point more but nah. Not happening.

Watch the trailer on http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi2560597273/