Intelligently handled cliches

Jaan-e-mann

Director: Shirish Kunder Cast: Salman Khan, Akshay Kumar, Preity Zinta, Anupam Kher, Aman Verma, Soni Razdan

6/10

A title redolent of a period drama, a script as trite as the most overdone of Greek tragedies, two ageing actors in the lead roles and the challenge of competing with a high-on-hype Don. So how does debutant director Shirish Kunder cope with the odds stacked against him? Surprisingly, very well.

Kunder tells a cliche-ridden Bollywood story the Broadway way and, for the most part, does it intelligently. Jaan-e-Mann adheres to every Hindi film stereotype there is and yet appears imaginative, especially in the use of music and imagery as tools of storytelling rather than props. It’s actually amazing that Bollywood has been a slave to the song-and-dance routine for so long but never tried doing what Kunder has.

While a generation of Indian filmmakers has been borrowing plots, scenes, props, costumes and even camera angles from Hollywood, Kunder seems to have found inspiration in another format. The narrative of Jaan-E-Mann, songs and flashbacks included, is seamless in the manner of a stage musical with one scene melting into another even as the backdrop, lights, costumes and characters change. But the visual opulence (brilliant cinematography by Sudeep Chatterjee) does not quite hide the flaws — and there are many — that crop up along the way. For one, Anu Malik’s music could have been better considering songs play such an important role in the film. It also does not help the director’s cause that the script has barely anything in it to sustain the interest of viewers through two-and-a-half hours.

After the novelty of Kunder’s presentation technique wears off, it is left to the cast to lift this formulaic story about two men loving the same woman and one having to make a sacrifice. Salman Khan plays himself — bulging biceps, superstar arrogance and cool-dude accent on the outside and emotionally flawed inside — but brings to the character a certain assuredness that was missing in his recent films. Akshay Kumar, another actor close to his sell-by date as a romantic hero, is loveable as the geeky astronaut who can’t seem to get over his duh factor, including a laugh that looks set to become a craze. Preity looks pretty, as usual, and efficiently plays a role that does not demand much of her.

As far as Kunder is concerned, Jaan-e-Mann is more of a teaser than complete proof of his directorial skills. Maybe he will give the audience more to admire and, hopefully, choose a more contemporary title next time.

Ritu Parna Dutta

Enough fun, but not enough zing

Open Season

Director: Jill Culton and Roger Alters Cast: (Voices) Martin Lawrence, Ashton Kutcher, Debra Messing

5/10

Born wild and free doesn’t mean that’s the way Boog the grizzly bear would like to live, too. Certainly not after his cushy life at the garage of Beth (Debra Messing), the farm ranger who adores him, and whom Boog adores, and who are able to part for the night only after a lot of cuddling and huddling and singing of lullabies. After which Boog has his own cute, little teddy to hug himself to sleep.

Till Elliot the deer, comes crashing into his life, and turns it upside down. A series of misadventures together, meant to be perhaps hilarious, but just so, they find themselves out in the rough wilds, though the teddy is still very much buckled on Boog’s back and the fishcrackers safely stuffed in it as well.

While Elliot and Boog bicker over their fate and future, they realise the bullets are not far away, as it’s the open season and cruel hunters are out to get their skins.

The message is good, the story is heartwarming, with enough fun moments to keep one glued, but doesn’t quite measure up to the zing of some other such releases this season.

Deepali Singh

Where’s the entertainment?

ant bully

Director: John A. Davis Cast: (Voices) Meryl Streep, Julia Roberts, Nicolas Cage, Paul Giamatti

4/10

It’s not really difficult to fathom why the animation comedy, Ant Bully, despite the heavyweight voiceovers and a producer like Tom Hanks, was a miserable flop worldwide.

Technically, you can’t fault Hollywood. But with precedents like Finding Nemo and Lion King, making a technically sound animation film is no big deal. Ant Bully isn’t either.

But where it falters badly is its storyline and total lack of entertainment value. In fact, the moralising is downright annoying. Granted that children do need lessons in friendship, collective strength and kindness, but to learn these qualities from ant allegory is a bit too much. No wonder that the kids (the few that were there in the hall) had to be given a steady supply of cola and popcorn to keep them in their seats.

Pallabi Biswas

Khilona photocopy

AgniPariksha

Director: Ravi Kinagi Cast: Prosenjit, Priyanka Trivedi, Razzak, Premjit, Anuradha Roy, Dulal Lahiri, Kaushik Banerjee, Kamalika Banerjee, Paran Bandopadhyay, Pauli Dam

5.5/10

I these days of remakes (aka acknowledged ripoffs), it’s a wonder why Agnipariksha hasn’t got the kind of hype Don has got. This one has something more than just Khilona: they have a title which is also a photocopy, but of another Hindi film! Maybe, that was a tribute to Priyanka Trivedi (who has been touted as making a comeback after marriage and two kids or something like that).

The solid story with high-strung emotions and meaningful melodrama assures the film of an appreciative audience, with uniformly good performances and reasonably good music, too. But did it need a director or remote control? And seriously, why did they not just call it Khelna?!

Anil Grover