Stylishly Pointless . Review on Musafir -2004 Bollywood

Being a couple of bored college students , me and my buddies like nothing better than watching a movie with lots of guns , explosions , item numbers and ?manly ? language ( abuses , menacing one-liners, et al ) . So it isn?t a big surprise when we ended up at the ticket counter for the 2nd show of this movie .

Well , we went in expecting something along the lines of ?kaante? and we were not disappointed . If you are looking for a nice family movie with an interesting storyline, Swiss scenery and an instant chorus for every song ?.then go see something else . However if you want a pointless movie with tons of oomph , stylish camerawork , lots of skin , Trarintino/Oliver Stone/John Woo inspired characters, ?tapori? language and mean & oh-so-manly one-liners ( would give James Bond a run for his money ) then this is one movie you have got to see .

The plot is ahem, ?inspired? by Oliver Stone?s ?U-turn? .But it does have some twists towards the end . Lucky ( Anil Kapoor) is our semi-anti-hero . Orphaned at a young age he grows up to become a street-smart and successful criminal . Alas due to the stressful nature of his chosen profession he decides to call it quits and lead a normal life. Unfortunately on his last job he gets dumped by his girlfriend(Koena Mitra) who runs off with lots of money belonging to ?Billa? ( Sanjay Dutt) a cigar smoking , knife-wielding ,bollywood-obsessed don . So Billa gives him an offer he cant refuse: Do my dirty work and I wont kill you . So he sets off to Goa for his assignment and meets some pretty strange characters on the way : Wacko Jacko ?a hippie tattoo artist ( Shakti Kapoor) , Luka-psycho husband ( Mahesh Manjrekar) , his wife ( Sameera Reddy ) and a mean corrupt police officer ( Aditya Pancholi)

Well even though the film isn?t exactly Oscar material , it?s fun to watch . The camerawork is extremely stylish (although for what purpose , I don?t know?) . This is one of the plus points of the movie. Shot mainly in an orange and bluish tint. The narrative doesn?t move along form start to finish . Its filled with flashbacks and double-crossings . It's full of sex , violence and bad language ( by Hindi film standards ) which seems to fit in the movie and it's characters without becoming too repetitive or cheap . Perhaps a notch above usual mainstream cinema but way below what you see in art-house movies .

The characters are well thought out they even dress accordingly . Anil Kapoor is seen mainly in black trousers and a black leather jacket to match. Mahesh Manjrekar ,being from Goa , has all these loud Hawaiian shirts . Sanjay Dutt is always seen with some weird knife ( the same kind John Travolta uses in Face/Off ) , gold teeth , and a menacing overcoat and he sports funky beard and hairdo .

Each one has a personality , the likes of which are rarely encountered in Hindi movies . No one is absolutely good or bad . Each has his/her own dark side .

Anil Kapoor has done a great job .This might just be his comeback movie . Not much overacting and he handles the sparse emotional scenes competently. Even though Sanjay Dutt has only a few scenes in this movie he absolutely lights it up whenever he comes on (complete with his own theme song !) .His character is supposed to be mean and a little bit of a psycho and he pulls it off flawlessly (art imitating life ?? ).Whenever he comes on screen it usually means he death of some poor bloke along with a one-liner .In one scene he is calmly talking to Luck from the comfort of hi limo?while chasing an unfortunate bloke to his death . He should have gotten some more scenes in this movie . Sameera Reddy also does a good job ( Yes , she has more of a role in the movie than just the songs ) . Mahesh Manjrekar also does a pretty good job as the grumpy husband with loose morals .

The songs are also pretty good although at least 2 could have been removed without affecting the movie much . Background music by Sandeep Chowta is really good and fits the mood of the film perfectly ?mostly electonica , techno and rock . Action scenes are pretty okay , though nothing extraordinary.

The film is filled to the brim with ?tapori? and double-meaning dialogues (ala Kaante) . Though this might putt off some people , it does add fit in perfectly with the characters and mood of the film, ( Hindustani ka favourite time pass? ;-)

Now for the down points . Although the movie moves at a fairly fast pace you sometimes get the feeling that there isn?t much of a continuity between some of the scenes . The movie starts to drag in the middle , especially during the infamous rape description which though creatively shot , lasts a good ten minutes and doesn?t add much to the story . The biggest drawback is surprisingly the background music . Even though its very good , its just TOO LOUD . More often than not , it drowns out the dialogue and gets very very irritating . Also some of the things the characters do is simply pointless? it?s as if the director just wanted to show how good he is at imitating Tarintino/stone/woo. The ending although well shot , left me disappointed as it goes completely against Billa?s personality . .

Overall, this is a likable movie ( for the proper demographic age group of course . Just remember, don?t see this movie for the story-line or acting , just watch it for it's schok-value and with the intention of getting entertained without having to think too much .