Oct 16, 2006 09:05 PM
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The Killer – Different, good, fast and fun
Lately we have developed this ability (“we” meaning I and my girlfriend), to glean from the trailors how good or bad a movie is. And 95% of the time we are right. The movies we go to see, we like, the movies we don’t go to see, we hear from the groans of others, we were right!
The Killer, unfortunately, was one of the movies that we wanted to see but couldn’t. It didn’t stay on the cinemas too long. Which is a pity as it’s a good movie. Yes, the reason I mentioned our ability is that it’s exactly the kind of movie as it seems from the trailors.
The plot is simple yet unusual. A professional killer, Irfan Khan, comes to Dubai, on a contract to kill some witnesses for a don. He hires this guy, taxi drive Imran Hashmi, to drive him around to his “meetings” all night. The secret is soon revealed on Imran that his passenger is not a businessman but a killer.
The only thing left out of the trailors is the police that’s chasing the killer around the city, just one step behind. That has been kept sensible and effective, different from the stereotype that has been set by Indian cinema for the police.
Other than the police angle, everything that you see in the trailors is there in the movie. Nisha Kothari, looks glamorous with her pretty face. In some scenes the makeup and the camera angle is not very good but it’s not her fault.
Irfan Khan is this contract killer who, I am sure very realistically, is neither a gum-chewing gangster nor teeth-clenching, menacing-eyed threatening villain. I am a fan of Irfan Khan, to tell you the truth, but I don’t think anybody can deny the fact that he is a great actor. He can perform the most boring of roles and bring it alive on screen. This was a different role, a challenging role. A killer who is a “cool dude”, he speaks like a common man, he jokes like an interesting guy you’d want to befriend and yet, when the time comes he shoots his victim right in the center of the forehead with just as much coolness as I have when I am typing a line of code on my computer.
His dialogues like, “Jaise tum driver ho main killer hoon, tum gaadi chalate ho main maarta hoon.” are delivered with his characteristic charismatic cool style and make an impression. Also when he repeats, “Job is job.” He almost has us believing that he is not to be blamed for what he does!
On the other side of the coin, just as I love this actor Irfan Khan, by about the same amount I despise Imran Hashmi. He is the hero, so to speak, as he is the “good guy” or the “pawn” of the killer. The character has been written very well, the subtle changes that come in his character by virtue of the association with the killer, or on the demand of the situation, are really worth watching! Imran has done this role, well, with mediocrity if you ask me. He has just got by. If there’s anything to impress, it’s in his character, not in his acting.
Nisha’s job, mainly is to look good and provide a motive for these two to fight and she has done it well. There was not much challenge in her role.
Dialogues are well-written. Ifran tells Imran to relax and take deep breaths. Imran comes back at him with, “Tum kya baba Ramdev ho jo main tumhari baatein sunke yoga karma shuru kar doonga?” This kind of down-to-earth, not overly-dramatic, in-touch-with-current-events dialogues always appeal to me. And I think they appeal to the general masses too.
Songs are okay as per the current music standards, I don’t think any of them will be remembered past 1 month. Of course, Nisha looks gorgeous in all of them. Once the high-tension, killing and drama starts there are no songs. Well, there are they are fitted well into the story and as the story keeps moving during the songs also, so it doesn’t hurt the movie.
Direction is tight, the pace of the movie is kept at a constant, fast-moving speed so the viewers don’t get bored nor lose track of what’s going on. The scene in the don’s house could have been much better if there was a real actor playing it instead of Imran. I am not a techy guy, (in movie technology) but I do know the significance of editing in a movie. And as such this is a well-edited movie. Movie’s speed bears witness to that.
In conclusion, I’d say it’s worth the time to watch it, even if on DVD now that it’s no longer playing on cinemas.
I’ll wait for your feedback on my review.
