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Gupshup Forums :: Hindi Movies :: This Shootout is off-target
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et tu, Ganpat?
As ACP Shamsher Khan (Sanjay Dutt) suggests in the Shootout:
'Tum log ke bheje mein yeh baat nahin ghusti hai, isliye bullet ghusana padtahai' (What we say won't enter your head, so we send the bullets instead)
So, really, why can't Apoorva Lakhia just understand? To have missed out on a captivating plot after signing up folks from the crème-de-la-crème of Bollywood is criminal in itself, and this movie deserves a bunk or two.
The narrated-to-death event of 16-Nov-1991 is no stranger to us, and while this makes it predictable, Lakhia's rendition is below-par. It gets too filmi too soon, and loses steam in the second half quite steeply. Set in the early 90s, with the Mumbai underworld at its first pinnacle, based on 'rumours' -- Shootout at Lokhandwala kicks off with reporter Mita (Dia Mirza) describing the Shootout, clubbed with footage from the real incident, and signing off with speculation, if the force's ATS (Anti Terrorist Squad) unit were justified in storming a residential complex and gunning down militants.
Meanwhile, prosecutor Dhingra (a disarmingly sarcastic Amitabh Bachchan) interrogates the cream of ATS -- Khan, Senior Inspector Patil (Suneil Shetty) and lead constable Javed Sheikh (Arbaaz Khan) on the shootout. While Khan puts forth his case, Dhingra snubs them as unimportant. The latter isn't exactly overimpresed either, with Patil and Sheikh, and interrupts their explanations with constant rebukes.
To establish the need and raison d'etre of ATS, Khan taps back in time to Operation Blue Star, and the Sikh-terrorism-wave that led terrorists to murder his colleague and star inspector Abhishek Mhtatre (Abhishek Bachchan in a hit-and-miss role). Khan hits back with a vengeance, taking no prisoners, as ATS attempts to strikes terror in the hearts of criminals, taking the fight to its cradle.
Well, all except one. Enter Maya (Vivek Oberoi) -- a whacky, absurd, desi-punk with an obvious yet unmentioned reference to Mahindra Dolas. Maya easily eliminates competition, while hiring Buva (Tusshar Kapoor), then Mumbai's most sought-after shooter. The all-for-one one-for-all syndicate includes RC (Shabbir Ahluwalia), Fattu (Rohit Roy) and a couple of other madmaxes that have either given up on life, or have just realized it’s 'offering'. And the hierarchy? Maya reports to a Bhai himself, mafia-king -- another very obvious and unmentioned reference, this time to Dawood Ibrahim.
Interesting, eh? The plot promises to thicken, as the hunt for Maya and co. is on -- but it fails to getting gripping, and we're finally thrown in a few obvious and overly predictable events that neither do justice to the real fear that Maya evoked, nor the bravery of the ATS.
Shootout's music occasionally helps, but I fail to wonder why Aakhri Alvida was not included in the actual movie, leaving it to a mere album-listen. I mean, the director found space for two absolutely useless dance-tracks to be rendered, with an of-late rarely-visible (and that's a good thing) Aarti Chhabria as Tarannum -- Buva's love interest. Honestly, the Strings track should've been right in there. Ae Ganpat is a common show of uninspiring intercourse where rap meets cutting-chai-joints. Sigh.
The cast performance roller-coasters from highs to horrible lows. The women hardly deserve a mention, although Amrita Singh played her Maharastrian gangster's mom to the T. This is an out-and-out male dominated movie -- and only one name stands out -- the awesome Sanjay Dutt.
Because, when Big B was onto the screen, only half the audience whistled. When AB Jr. came on, the other half did. When they saw Dutt, it sounded like an enduring battle-victory call, and I missed the first few dialogues. Dutt's mere presence is worth the star, and he makes every scene believable. Big B in a very sarcastic sugar free (Cheeni Kum?) role injects humor to those who understood it. AB Jr. hopped in, skipped around and jumped out of the movie almost immediately. Vivek Oberoi, surprisingly, comes out with a fine, fine act -- he, whom I had given up on after Saathiya and Masti. To act as a gangster in a movie which has Sanjay Dutt in it, where people would draw obvious comparisons, is no mean task -- and he lives up to it. Best performance since Company, for anyone who's reading, and the difference between the two tells the director's class.
The tele-cast duo of Rohit and Shabbir chunk out decent performances, but Tusshar Kapoor's tapori accent makes you wince, and you go ouch every time he says 'ae, tere ko tapka daalonga, kya?'. He threatens -- the audience laughs, need I say more? He should stick to the Golmaals if he wants to continue featuring in non-Balaji films, or more importantly, non-always-there-for-you-sis-Ekta-Kapoor movies.
So bad, that if the blood, guns and violence don't make you puke, his mumbaiyya accent does. Rather, the lack of it. Statutory warning and everything, already.
And hey, wait -- there are more flaws.
For starters, we're made to believe that Khan is the pardon-nobody law-enforcing freak, and although I always want to blindly believe what Sanjay Dutt says -- even the 'mere hote hue kisi ko goli nahin lagega', some of his actions are quite larger-than-life, a certain old-wine Bollywood flavor lingering. Why, pray tell me, does the oh-so-ruthless ACP involve in mere chit-chat with Maya? The hard-hitting one-to-one talk, but some very filmi dialogues, give little substance around it to suggest any serious action. Did the director find the sudden need to cater to the whistles from behind? He got catcalls in response, that’s what he did.
And then, the family angle. While I'd have love to sit back appreciate how Lakhia's displayed that officers have their own set of personal stuff to deal with, Neha Dhupia can't act, she really can't, and when the divorce papers came crashing into Khan's life, I could only punch the air in delight. Patil's wife, well -- we only get to hear her, because the Senior Inspector simply rings up, listens to a few hellos and hangs up. Happens throughout. I mean, really?
Oh, the criminals too. Lakhia felt the need to suggest what provoked a young lad into the world crime, translating himself into the frightful Maya Dolas. And hey, how very stereotype -- abusive father who hurts his mother, so the son, Maya, murders the male parent. Not just the idea, but the rendition itself.
I managed to sit through Mumbai se aaya mera dost, and while Shootout at Lokhandwala isn't as bad, it could've been a lot better. Maybe we should just sit back and leave the chor-pulees movie making to those who know it. Sanjay Gupta, for instance, did a decent job in Kaante, and could've made this a lot more gripping. Before I get busted for missing out another name that sets the bar in movies on crime -- RGV, there you go.
Incidentally -- there are factual errors too. For the record, the Mahindra Dolas' father survived Maya, and died in 1997. There goes the loyalty to the actual storyline. Based on rumours -- indeed.
In the final moments, when the thrill builds up, Dutt decides to personally enter the building and flush out Maya. Some sensible being out there hands him a bulletproof jacket, and -- you guessed right -- he snubs it. Hero, after all. Forget Spidey, *this* is what a city needs -- *this* is what superheroes are made of.
Go figure. Even Sanju with all his brilliance can't make it convincing enough for me.
Like Dhingra puts it in the movie, 'tell me -- where do they find these guys?'
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| On: Jun 17, 2007 01:19 pm |
Score: 0 |
Reads: 1095
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