Yawny melodrama

TATHASTU

Director: Anubhav Sinha
Cast: Sunjay Dutt, Amisha Patel, Jaya Prada, Gulshan Grover, Master Yash Pathak, Anoop Soni, Lalit Tiwari, Manoj Pahwa
4/10

Anubhav Sinha, who made that glittery music video of a film, Tum Bin..., and an action-packed two-hour promo, Dus, now does the impossible. Tathastu, which looks like a film made by a Sunjay Dutt campwala like Sanjay Gupta or Mahesh Manjrekar, makes for some deadly dull-key melodrama.

Perhaps, the explanation is this: it’s a rip-off from John Q, so it’s got this Hollywood emotional quiet about it. But while trying to fit in Sunjay Dutt’s huge-hearted pop into Denzel Washington’s nattier shoes, they also try to squeeze the semi-autobiographical toes into the smaller-size shoes. So, the improbable Indian cliches and melodrama get a Hollywood rein-in. Which makes for a neither here nor there yawny melodrama.

The usual system-bashing is the basis of the film. Doting dad (not the mom this time) cheers eight-year-old son at school cricket, but also gets hit for a six when he sees the son collapse after hitting the winning run. Turns out he has a hole in his heart, and the poor worker in an automobile company can’t arrange for the operation costing Rs 15 lakh as he has a hole in his pocket. When everything fails, he takes the surgeon and other patients in the hospital hostage, and threatens to pump holes in all of them unless the doc does his duty. Meanwhile, a poor parody of Rang De Basanti climax unfolds, with the only worthwhile feature being the last scene lecture by the Dull Dutt. The rest of the cast is duller than Dutt ? which takes some doing.

Anil Grover

Mixed-up laughs

Tom Dick and Harry

Director: Deepak Tijori
Cast: Dino Morea, Jimmy Shergill, Anuj Sawhney, Celina Jaitly, Kim Sharma, Rakesh Bedi, Kunika, Avtar Gill
4.5/10

Ask Deepak Tijori what he wanted to do with Tom Dick and Harry. Comedy all right, but he got the laugh factor all mixed up. Full-on sex comedy gets messed up with caricatures of Bollywood villains and heroes. A very juvenile script that is unable to establish either the characters ? Dino, Anuj and Jimmy who are deaf, blind and dumb ? or the plot that turns out to be a parody of sorts. The scenes between the deaf, dumb and blind heroes trying to communicate among themselves is funny but it doesn’t hit the laughter chord due to poor sense of timing among the three. Anuj however is a little better than the other two. Kim Sharma and Celina Jaitly are supposed to take care of the exposure bit, but it is Kim alone who carries both the comedy and the oomph, but definitely not on her shoulders. The less said about Celina the better. Rakesh Bedi and Kunika serve the purpose of filling up screen time with their bawdy humour. Himesh Reshammiya’s music is good but has been forced into the storyline. Tanha jiya na jaaye is a complete waste here.

Madhuparna Das