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A mindless affair

Sukanya Verma

A quick riddle... What are the two ingredients Bollywood just cannot do without?

Sex and violence, obviously.

If you don't believe me, take a gander at Suneel Darshan's Jaanwar, starring Akshay Kumar and Karisma Kapoor. Or, run your eye through this brief description of the film's storyline (of course, we are not going to tell you how it all ends; so what it is a bad film!!!).

Darshan's hero, the orphaned Badshah (Akshay Kumar), is handreared to criminal adulthood by an underworld character called Sultan (Shakti Kapoor). Badshah spends the first quarter of the film gallivanting all over the screen with Sultan's nephew, Abdul (Ashutosh Rana), and indulging in all sorts of illegal activities.

Inspector Pradhan (Ashish Vidyarthi) undertakes the task breaking up this reckless duo. Unfortunately, all his efforts are in vain. Instead of quietly getting arrested, our hero decides it's time for some romance and falls in love with street-dancer Sapna (Karisma Kapoor).

There are, of course, hurdles in the way of true love. Badshah, a wanted man, cannot marry Sapna despite singing and dancing with her. Adding to the complication is a new person tugging at his tender heart. Darshan, at this point, has decided to ease matters a little, for the new entrant is a young boy, the son of a rich couple (Mohnish Bahl and Shilpa Shetty) who lost him after a train accident.

Despite Darshan's best efforts, though, the child manages to cause more complications between Sapna and Badshah. So Darshan resorts to a... fast forward. Eight years on, to be specific! Enter Yanni... a look-alike, we mean, who goes by the name of Bapu Lohar but is, actually, a new, clean, improved Badshah. Who actually works for a living as an ironsmith and takes good care of Raju, whom he loves like his son.

Just when life seems to be getting on the track towards normal, re-enter Mamta (Shilpa Shetty), as the caretaker of the school Raju studies in. Her strong maternal instinct leads her to develop a soft corner for the young boy. Abdul, meanwhile, is released from jail and rejoins Sultan who is still hunting for Badshah.

Our good hero refuses to enter the crime world again, leaving the villainous twosome to... Well... this is where we have to stop and honour our earlier promise of not giving away the end. But we will say this much. Suneel Darshan, who had earlier directed Ajay, the Sunny Deol-Karisma Kapoor starrer, seems totally confused about whether the film should be an action flick or a family drama. Even the obvious influence of A Perfect World is no saving grace.

Akshay Kumar, especially as the mustachioed and long-haired version in the second half, is nowhere in sync with his character. His dialogue delivery is amazingly irritating and there are no signs of the spark he showed in Yeh Dillagi. Karisma is totally wasted, limited as she is to song-and-dance sequences. Shilpa, though, is appealing as the grieved mother.

Composers Anand-Milind are terribly uninspiring, though action director Tinnu Verma has tried to lift the film with his sequences. But it is a wasted effort, since there are just too many obvious discrepancies in the film.

Take, for example, Karisma. She lives in a slum and sports designer jewellery and outfits. Or Akshay, an ironsmith staying in a basti, who shows off a well-fed German Shepherd for a pet.

We don't mean to be rude here, but film-making is not everybody's cup of tea. Those who don't have the knack for it should not waste their time, energy and money in a mindless affair with the screen.

Nor should a film's failure be blamed on video piracy. If it fails, it is the film that is at fault. A bad film is a bad film and no audience is going to accept it, not even on cable. The sooner film-makers realise this fact, the better it will be.