Pune 52

I finally caught up with the much hyped Pune 52 last afternoon.  Needed that break desperately from the work involved in shifting houses.  And what better a way than to pick a movie that the world has been really talking about.  But what I didn’t bargain for was a detective story that was so slow that it could challenge quite a few snails. 

And as much as I have been thinking about it since yesterday, I cannot think of any reason why Nikhil Mahajan decided to make the movie SO SLOW. Maybe he is trying to stamp his entry into cinema with a style that can be trademarked as his very own.  Maybe he thought it would add an element of mystery or intensify the suspense. But I guess he went a little overboard in his attempt.

Amar Apte (Girish Pandurang Kulkarni) has grown up with a dream.  A dream that one day he will be a private detective. The one that helps cops or beats them at solving their cases.  The one that comic book heroes are made up of.  All he wishes to do is be a hero in the eyes of the world.

Well – his dream does come true.  But whaddya know.  He realizes that being a private dick involves exactly that – being a dick.  To most people around him that is.  Especially his wife – Prachi (Sonali Kulkarni) – who cannot stop bickering about how much of a mistake she made in getting married to him. 

Our hero, however, has a small change in fortune when he gets an assignment.  Not something that he wants to do.  But if it “pays the bills” it would be more than welcome.  All he has to do is follow a reputed builder – Sathe – and find out if the client’s wife is sleeping with him. 

He does that and goes one step further.  Goes all the way upto the car window to get a close up.  But Sathe gets a good look at him and before you know the cops are at his place and take away the 20K he made with the assignment.  But also walking in is Neha Sathe (Sai Tamhankar) who wants our hero to take up the same assignment again.

There is a lot of meat to the story so I give full credit to Mahajan on that count.  It builds up in the right direction and moves on to keep you wanting to get the next scene.  Just that the scene or twist takes ages to come up.  The dialogues are written by Girish Kulkarni and I thought they were well thought of. 

However, in line with the pace of the movie, is the cinematography that’s quite sombre – for lack of a better word.  And in line with the colour is the the music – by Korean composer Hyun-Jung Shim of Old Boy fame – equally dark.  But at the end of the day, you are reasonably happy with the 120 minutes that you spend on your chair.  So I give it a 6 on 10.  Watch it if you can.

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