There’s an effort among young directors in Tollywood to offer something new. But in their desperation to be different they run the risk of getting carried away. That’s what happens to the 28-year-old Arin Paul in 10:10.

The director packs too much into his 95-minute debut film, making it cluttered, confusing and even boring in parts. The problem with 10:10 is that it has too many characters and subplots that often make the main plot an afterthought.

At the heart of it 10:10 is a comedy and Arin doesn’t go wrong there. He knows just how to tickle the funny bone of the Bangali audience. The film has some precious lines and memorable rib-tickling moments.

If filmmaking was just about some perky dialogues, Arin would have scored a 10/10 but his marks drop dramatically when it comes to story-telling and an organised script.

10:10 revolves around a black jacket-and-denim clad ageing don Durgaprasad (Soumitra Chatterjee). This is clearly a first for the septuagenarian, with his neatly side-parted silver wig and jeans, pistol in hand. But sadly, he seems to sleepwalk through this one. His chela Montu Singh (Kanchan Mullick) plays with a toy gun and gives one to Durgaprasad every time the duo are out for an encounter. Durgaprasad’s only mission in life is to be like Godfather! And Montu Singh is always on the scent of a woman! Together they leave the audience in splits mouthing lines like ‘Maarbo ekhane lash porbe bagane’! Ranjita (Aparijita) is the only daughter of Durgaprasad and she is in love with a struggling actor Apratim (Subrat Dutta).

Montu Singh pays Durgaprasad’s Rs 50,000 mobile phone bill in Apratim’s number by mistake and sets off a chain reaction. With Durgaprasad’s phone out of order, rival don Mukta Dhara (Paddanava) hatches plans to bump him off. And there’s the German hotbod Claudia Ciesla and Chirosree as the two journalists on the trail of a cover story on the two dons. They befriend Ranjita without knowing who her dad is, adding to the confusion. Don’t miss Claudia singing the title track and doing an item number with Parambrata Chatterjee in a guest appearance. She is lively and spunky in her bit role.

Amidst all this Arin even packs in a raunchy item number in the rival don’s den where Durgaprasad too shakes a leg!

Arin deserves a pat on the back for his attempt to make a hatke film and not fall prey to a melodramatic potboiler. But if only he would have kept things simple, stuck to the basics and given us more than just a few moments.

The Aparajita-Subrat subplot works largely because of Aparajita’s innocent girl act, hopelessly in love with a man who takes her out for phuchka dates. Music director Drono Acharya’s compositions are a mix of rock and soft romantic tracks and he makes quite an impression on his debut.

Watch 10:10 for a few laughs and nothing more.

Claudia Ciesla lived up to her hotbod image at the premiere of 10:10. She sizzled in a shimmering (and tantalising) gold net sari, a matching golden clutch bag and minimal make-up. The first ‘star’ to arrive at Priya, the German girl said: “This is a big day for me. I am very happy. I wanted to look Indian on this occasion so I hurriedly went to a shopping mall and bought this sari. Matching the blouse was a problem but I managed. Hope I’m not looking too sexy!” she smiled. Given the reaction of the men at the party she sure was!

The men in white met over a drink after the screening. Subrat Dutta, who plays a struggling actor in the film, hung around with Jisshu Sengupta who sat through 10:10. “This is my third release in a month. I hope people like me in all three,” smiled Subrat.

Pictures by Aranya Sen

The lady in black is the reigning Sananda Tilottama, Chirosree. She was all smiles after watching her portrayal of a journalist in her debut film 10:10.