My Elaan? Watch better movies.. Review on Elaan

For once, just ONCE, give me a Hindi movie that doesn?t border on preposterous. Sad to say, though I had amazingly high hopes for ?Elaan? judging from the way the movie started off, it simply falls flat on its face post interval to the movie.

?Elaan? had it all ? the group of astoundingly good looking stars, the veteran actor making a comeback, the renowned director, the timely story, the picturesque screen shots; but why does it all come served like a dish of overdone soggy bread pudding?

The story opens with the title song; Meri Zindagi Mein (Elaan) sung by Gayatri Iyer where you have the introduction to the world?s most feared terrorist, Baba Sikander, played by veteran actor and former disco king, Mithun Chakraborthy. The man who played by the law of violence and fear had a new mission and that was to extort money from businessman Kantilal Shah. At the advise of his beloved adopted son, Karan Shah; marvellously played by understated actor Rahul Khanna, Kantilal decided not to pay the money, causing him to be assassinated by Baba?s henchman.

Enraged and distraught by the murder, Karan vows that he would drag Baba back to India to face justice and pay for the crimes he has done. This was when he started to put his team together, roping in the help of ex ? cop, Arjun (Arjun Rampal) to be the mastermind for his mission. Arjun then proceeds to bring in Abhimanyu (John Abraham) who was currently in prison and used to be Baba?s right hand man. The other two to join the team was Priya (Amisha Patel) who wanted breaking news for her channel and Sonia (Lara Dutta), Abhimanyu?s girlfriend, whose only mission in life is to stay by Abhimanyu?s side.

Acting wise, the movie belonged to Rahul Khanna all the way. This man shows the making of an extremely talented actor right from the very start. Okay, never mind the fact that he looked disturbingly similar to Nicholas Cage throughout the movie; Rahul is an actor who lets his eyes do the talking. It?s amazing to see how much emotion he could pack into a scene without even saying a word. The scene where Priya burst into his office right after the murder of Kantilal and found him grieving for his father was choked with pain. Rahul pulled the role of mournful son turned enraged vengeance seeker to perfection. If such performance doesn?t give him the recognition he deserves, I don?t know what else will.

Arjun Rampal and John Abraham are there as eye candy for the ladies just as Amisha Patel and Lara Dutta are there as eye candies for the guys. Arjun as the steadfast no nonsense cop was decent. The best bit of his role was as the loving father that I thought he did very well. John, sad to say, can?t play the gutter crime boy very well. His face just does not suit the street slang he talks in at all. Amisha certainly looks good in this film but her character lacked both depth and explanation as to why she suddenly decided to join Karan on his mission. Lara, well, is Lara. Lacking, lacking, lacking from her acting ability to her clothes. Her acting during the action sequence ? for the lack of a better word, was pathetic. Amisha was heads and shoulders better than her.

Another aspect of the movie that I liked was that the girls were given just as much screen time in the action as the guys were. Amisha and Lara were both given guns and took part in both the car and motorcycle chase through the mountains as well as the boat chase through the cannels of Venice. A big improvement to last year?s action film ?Dhoom? where all the girls did was show a lot of skin and shake their booty when the guys decided to burst into song.

My final conclusion as to why the movie was half-baked is not due to the acting or the cinematography. Both of these save for Lara, were top notched. Rather it was the storyline that left far too many gaping holes. Of course, where else but a Hindi movie can the hero still stand and drive though he had been shot three times in the chest.

?Elaan? failed to deliver in that sense. It was entertaining at its best, especially the earlier part but coming into the latter part of the movie, I was just disappointed because the filmmaker could have done so much better but didn?t.