Thursday 10 January 2013

Dehraadun Diary

How many more movies will Adhyayan Suman continue to torture us with before producers actually pull the stops on him? Adhyayan is a live case study of someone who has consistently gotten away with murder – this time in the literal sense of the word, he is involved with a movie that has murder as the topic. Unfortunately, it is the audience that gets killed in the bargain.

Vishesh Thakur (Vishal Bhonsle) is the super spoilt rich kid of the incumbent MLA from the city of Dehradun. In his world, if he feels like doing something, he does it. If someone doesn’t listen to what he has to say he just kills them. Cool na? Just like Anshul Sharma (Rohit Bakhshi) is about to find out.

You see, Anshul is a little nutty about this apparently demure looking girl called Priti (Ragini Nandwani). They have been friends (read fraands) for over 3 years now and Anshul hasn’t mustered the courage to tell her that he loves her. But, it is Valentine’s Day and what better a time. And by a stroke of good fortune, our man finds out that the woman in question is anyways nuts about him.

Needless to say, the next step is getting married. Coincidentally, the only thing Priti wanted to hear (read hare/hair) from Anshul. But is there a twist in the tale? Of course there has to be. In this case, Priti goes with the family name of Thakur (it is supposed to send a shiver down your spine).

Now what? Simple, Vishesh tells Anshul to back of. Anshul, the scared fellow that he is says, “Priti kya kahegi” (What will Priti say). What???? Your girlfriend’s brother has a gun to your head and all you can do is whimper about what your girlfriend will say? Nevertheless, Anshul is done away with quite brutally @ that.

So now the time has come for our actual hero – Anshul’s brother Aakash (Adhyayan Suman) to step in and fight for justice along with his mother (Rati Agnihotri). Somewhere along the way his father passes away, their lawyer backs off, witnesses turn hostile, cops aren’t the most supportive – you know the routine right?

Dehraadun Diary is a very meek attempt to tell a story that hss been told a million times over in India. We know that no matter how hard you try, in this hell hole, if you are a politician’s son / relative, you can get away with murder. Can a movie like this make any impact of a society that is already numb. Of course. It can make you laugh for sure.

Laugh because of the pathetic direction from a certain Milind Ukey who (in his defence) would have banged his head against a brick wall thanks to a pathetic cast which cannot emote. Of course, he will blame lack of budgets that prevented him from ensuring that the basics are adhered to. And that he was forced to take on some actors because of lack of choice – again a familiar drill.

The good news is that Dehraadun Diary is not as badly made as Rajdhani Express. But that doesn’t make it worthwhile watching. It is yet another proof point for the fact that a majority of Indian cinema should not even see the light of day. And also for the fact that no matter what crap you put out there, there are enough people in this world which ensures that someone will watch the movie. Sad but true. 1 on 10.

Trailer on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjq87gI2Sms

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