Pathetic, preposterous, piteous...every week I run out of another adjective to describe
Shakila's latest release. But this one totally takes the cake, and with, as our
very own Navjot Singh Sidhu would put it, the cherry on top.
The story, you said? Bravo. Manju (Shakila) is a high-class prostitute (a lot of worse words are running through my head right now) who is frequented by the local big man, Jagannath Varma. Varma's son Ravi is in love with Priya, and even after serious threats from his father, refuses to leave her. Varma even goes and threatens Priya's brother Raghu.
Now, Manju suddenly falls for Raghu, and wants to marry and settle down leaving her past behind. Ravi and Priya are seen together again, and, carrying out his threat, Varma has Priya and Raghu killed. But the blame falls on Ravi.
After this point, the director expects you to just shut up and bear the remaining 1-1/2 hours without asking 'what?!'s, whys and 'how come?!'s. Ravi is packed off for abroad till things cool down. There he thinks he sees Priya, but on approaching her, she rejects him saying she's Sofia. This drags on for a while till it's flashback time, and then the story leaves the world of partial sanity and enters the realm of total stupidity. Mr. Joy outdoes himself.
In brief, Priya is rescued and adopted by foreigners (how she has reached a foreign land when she was thrown into the local pond, you just have to rely on a very creative imagination to understand), and Sofia accepts that she is Priya and accepts Ravi as her lover. Don't bother about how the movie ends - it is so bizarre, you might have sleepless nights thinking about the future of our film industry.
For all you Shakila fans (please, seek help), she disappears completely halfway through. If there were any scenes for the voyeurs, they are all carefully hidden away somewhere. The one thing that kept me in the theater was that the heroine was good looking for a change. Still, this is an absolute no-no.