De Taali Review

One of the few things that director E Niwas gets right in his latest caper outing, is surround himself with talent. The director who did a passable caper flick way back when he was still in the Varma camp (Love Ke Liye Kuch Bhi Karega), knew his potential as a revenue earner had dwindled when he hedged his bets on last year's My Name Is Anthony Gonsalves. Leaving nothing to chance, or well his own faculties, he goes all out to make this film about everyone but himself.

Ritesh Deshmukh is back as a likable imp after a runaway performance in Bluffmaster doing the same thing. There is a certain fallibility about his presence that he manages to exploit to its fullest, so much so that his screen presence dwarfs all when he does his thing. Ayesha Takia may not get another A-list film in a long time, but she is as natural and spontaneous as they come, and her casting is spot on.

Although Rimi Sen is still stuck in Priyadarshan mode, Aftab Shivdasani with his vulnerability and a role he has done multiple times before pick up behind her well enough. E Niwas also got the new music royalty - Vishal Shekhar - to do some peppy tracks, and has shot his film through the eyes of Amitabha Singh, who has a keen sense of comic timing and is known to supplement the film's humor through his lens work.

Like I said, Niwas has built all he could around the best talent that his producers could afford. He even went as far as to base his film (or so I'm told) on the Telugu hit, Thotti Gang. What he forgot was to do anything himself.

Thoroughly uninterestingly shot, and using the sorry excuse of a script even more shoddily, the film starts a little peppily, and shows promise every now and then, but never becomes more that the sum of its parts. Even a halfway decent director can hold a film together, silly script not withstanding. I mean, look at The Incredible Hulk. Not Niwas, though. So scared he seems to be in doing anything original, the film's only hinge, the midway plot twist, seems to come cursorily, and despite all the background music, you get the idea the director is simply not interested.

Paglu (Deshmukh), Abhi (Shivdasani) and Amu (Takia) are childhood chums who always hang out together, spending time talking about everything including love, laughter and the things that seem important when you're friendly and happy. Abhi falls in love with every woman he meets, and gets his heart broken with the worst sorts. When Amu falls in love with Abhi, Paglu helps her recognize it, but Abhi has already fallen for the next femme - Kartika (Sen).

The femme turns out to be quite a fatale too. With eyes firmly fixed on the money, she proceeds to hook the guy. But not without the buddies trying their best to intervene. The second half brings more slapstick shenanigans when there is a kidnapping, and the rest of the cast comes bumbling in. Despite best intentions, the silly plot and the sillier execution mars what could have been a decent times at the films.

You can still give it a go, if you're bored. It's not so much that it is bad that it could have been so much more. The fun runs out near the end, but the talented cast and crew at least give the semblance of a technically well-made film. Niwas' strength in harnessing the actors to do their best and getting together a team that has so much palpable fun works its charm, and with the right bunch of friends, who knows? You might be able to have fun yourself.