Jeena Hai Toh Thok Daal

On one hand we had The Tabloid (read TOI) calling out Barfi! as a 4.5 on 5 – mind you that’s a very very very high score for any movie. In the same breath, the same tabloid called out this super low budget movie with a bunch of really good actors – a 1 on 5. That’s like the abyss in terms of movie ratings from the tabloid. What it also proves is that the tabloids reviews have to be taken with a pinch of salt – make that a table spoon the way reviews have been written in the past few years.

With a name like Jeena Hai Toh Thok Daal (JHTTD) I didn’t have too much of a choice to skip the movie. And I must say that in the first few minutes I wasn’t too disappointed. Set in a place that I have personally visited – Purnea – in North East Bihar, JHTTD is the story of 4 very close friends – as close as brothers. Together they form a gang that is quite dreaded in that part of the world and used by the incumbent Senior Inspector – Hanumant Singh (Murli Sharma) – for running contract killings as the situation may demand.

Yashpal Sharma (Mehkoo) is the eldest in the gang and has actually picked up Atka (Manish Vatsalya), Bitwa (Rahul Kumar) and Chandrabhan (Ravi Kissen) from the streets. He has actually bought them up in his backyard. Chandrabhan is the most respected of the lot because he is the only one with a stable head on his shoulders. The others have a short fuse.

The four have to now run a contract for a big don from Mumbai called Rana (Sharat Saxena). A contract that has been set up by Hanumant. The job is to kill Shrishti (Hazel Croney) – the daughter of a media baron called Pawar (Govind Namdeo). Pawar has been running a series of exposes on Rana and his more than dodgy operation. Despite several threats from Rana, Pawar doesn’t budge from his stand.

I must put in a disclaimer here. My call out I the earlier paragraphs was only to indicate that the movie is not as bad as the reviews claim. It is a standard gangster movie with some good performances from the usual suspects – Yashpal Sharma, Govind Namdeo, Murli Sharma, Sharat Saxena and Ravi Kissen do a damn good job. Director Manish Vatsalya should consider sticking to acting because he is quite good at it.

In sharp contrast, the female cast is really sad. Pooja Welling who is the narrator is one of the most lifeless faces and voices I have seen in recent times. Hazel Croney is the lead actress and has added little or no value to herself or the movie. And the screenplay at times makes you want to strangle the writer. Random lines like, “If you cannot save the innocent, then kill the bastard” or “Kya rakha hai zindagi mein. Laga aag pani mein”. Totally “duh” lines which had no reason to be there. Add to that the 30 minutes which could have been easily chopped.

Overall, if you have nothing better to do, this is not a bad way to spend an afternoon. But don’t expect too much. 4 on 10.

Watch the trailer on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=maKP9c2Bsoo