Manjari Fadnis and Yash Pandit in Rok Sako To Rok Lo

One genre of Hindi cinema that has gathered manufacturing, if not marketing, momentum is the young ensemble piece featuring a cluster of unknown or virtually unknown faces getting together to whip up energy and zest.

The zest-is-the-best movement started five years ago when admaker Raj Kaushal turned feature director with a ?young? film called, Pyar Mein Kabhi Kabhi, which featured a string of new faces including Dino Morea, Rinke Khanna and Sanjay Suri.

That was the first and last trendy ensemble piece to do ? well ? well. Since then romantic comedies with newcomers have become a lowbrow form of transient entertainment, best meant to be an impromptu audition for wannabes who might or might not be seen again in any other films.

In 2003, ensemble comedies ? sometimes falling into the category of multiplex films ? like Nayee Padosan and Fun2shhh pitchforked a gallery of new faces, none of whom made any real impact. . Chandra?s Style, featuring Saahil Khan and Sharman Joshi as two brain-dead dudes made a marginal impact, triggering off a chain of such films with unknown young faces in the lead, not to speak of a sequel! Not one of them has proven successful.

Shilpi Mudgal, Saahil Khan and Riya Sen in Style

Explains director Hansal Mehta, ?The idea of casting a bunch of newcomers instead of a couple of marquee names is to beat the star system. It?s also meant to make sure they don?t give a filmmaker a hard time. But, finally, when one or two of the newcomers make an impact they became as insufferable as the stars that they were supposed to override.?

Earlier this year, we had some more eager-beavers clamouring for attention in films like Popcorn Khao?Mast Ho Jao and Dil Bechara Pyaar Ka Maara. Many star aspirants like Vatsal Sheth (who made his debut in Abbas-Mustan?s Taarzan The Wonder Car) and Sammir Dattani (who also debuted in Rajshri?s Uuf Kya Jaadoo Mohabbat Hai..!) shy away from the ensemble young-having-fun films.

Says Sammir, ?It?s okay for Aamir Khan, Saif Ali Khan and Akshaye Khanna to do such a film together. Their Dil Chahta Hai is my all-time favourite film. And I?d give anything to work with Farhan Akhtar. But for a newcomer it becomes a one-in-a-crowd thing to feature with other actors.? After his debut, Sammir has declined to do innumerable such films where he has to whoop it up on screen with other newcomers. ?I?d rather go it alone, and make sure that the space provided for me is used properly,? he says.

Ayesha Takia and Vatsal Sheth in Taarzan The Wonder Car

Another ensemble piece with a clutch of wannashines who have been relegated to the position of also-rans got a release in a couple of territories last week (which means, it?s already a gonner). Ajai Sinha who comes to film straight from television serials, put together a group of eager-eyed hopefuls in Stop. The cast comprises some endearing aspirants. Tejaswani Kolhapure is the sister of well-known actress Padmini Kolhapure. She?d have made her big-screen debut two years ago if Anurag Kashyap?s Paanch had been released. It didn?t. Gauri Karnik, who also stars in Stop, was widely acclaimed for her performance in Tanuja Chandra?s Sur. She was last seen in the miserable failure, Prarambh, as a beggar woman.

Ishita Arun made her debut in a forgotten 2003 film, Kahan Ho Tum, and Kiran Janjani faded away after playing a stripper in Oops!. Along with first-timer Rocky Bhatia these wannabes hope to create a ?youth market? for their film. But will Stop get a position even at the fringes? Is the audience interested in watching films about young trendy urban dudes and dolls going from banter to babble?or, has the bubble burst already?

Dino Morea and Rinke Khanna in Pyar Mein Kabhi Kabhi

These are the questions that the newcomers Yash Pandit, Manjari Fadnis, Abbas, Shreya and Aparna Kumar and others would be asking when their film, Rok Sako To Rok Lo, releases in the beginning of December. The school-fresh ?fun film?, directed by management marvel Arindam Chaudhuri, with an entirely untried cast and a totally new approach to the ?youth flick? is all set to shoot a dose of adrenaline into the listless genre.

Unknown youngsters with dreams in their eyes are capable of creating a quaint collaborative chemistry on screen. Too bad most of the films about the young are callow and jejune when they need to go beyond mere mobikes, Nike shoes, Armani bags and deep orange basketballs. Rok Sako To Rok Lo promises to set straight the record about the hip and young dreamers. Stop? Try and roko them...