The first thing
that cheeses you off with Samrat and Co. is that the lead character is referred
to as STD. Apparently that expands into
Samrat Tilak Dhari (Rajeev Khandelwal). That
it would send us back in time to the days of expensive phone calls or remind us
of some unwanted diseases really didn’t cross the mind of anyone in the entire
team. Maybe it was intentional.
It is even worse
when Samrat’s partner in crime (or should I say solving crimes) CD aka
Chakradhar (Gopal Datt) says that STD also stands for Sharp Teekhi Drishti – a meek
and futile attempt to make up for the disastrous start. I almost forgot to mention that the start was
a direct lift off from Guy Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes – and therefore the entire
character and the nuances are ripped from the best detective known to man.
The story then
trundles to establish Samrat’s nuances of not taking the silly cases of lost
cats and dogs – he needs something that challenges him. Does it strike a chord somewhere from the
Television series? The challenge comes in the form of Dimpy Singh (Madalasa
Sharma) who believes in wearing a variety of short dresses – so what if she
stays in Simla and it is freezing most of the year.
Strange things
are happening at Dimpy’s house. The plants
in the garden are withering away for no apparent reason – just the kind of case
a detective needs. Apologies but that’s not
the case. The epidemic has apparently
spread to her father Mahendra Pratap Singh (Girish Karnad) who has been acting
quite strange over the past few days and is probably a target for murder – now we
are talking detective stuff.
I will not say
any more, lest you guys figure out the solution to this absolutely predictable attempt
at combining Sherlock Holmes and Patrick Jane (Mentalist). To be fair, the movie begins reasonably well
and those unfamiliar with Holmes would actually find it to be interesting – the
powers of observation, putting 2 and 2 together etc. But about 30 odd minutes
into the movie, it becomes a hotch potch instead of a serious mystery.
Rajeev
Khandelwal was a good bet to play the mystery man. But the rest of the cast , was just really not
upto the mark. The dialogues were
extremely cheesy. Some vignettes as
under
- Smart criminal who hota hai jo sabooth chhodta hai gumrah karne
ke liye (A smart criminal leaves clues to mislead you)
- Booth dhoondhne ke liye nikla thha, Sabooth leke wapas aaya
hoon
- Heart is fragile. Handle with care – totally random and without
context
- Easy challenges are like broken pencils. There is no point.
If despite all
of this, you would still like to see Samrat and Co., I wish you the very
best. An avid follower of my reviews
asked me a question yesterday, “Can you recommend a good Bollywood mystery
movie”? I was stumped. Of course there
are some I could recommend after thought but movies like Samrat are the reason
we have to think about the answer. 4 on
10 and did I forget to mention the horrible sets and art decoration?
Watch the trailer
on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oW6ojSD3dBE
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