Hadh Review

It isn't great when a star discovers extra gray hair sprouting from nowhere and knows that his time is more or less up. But how can this dude, used to so much adulation, reconcile himself to the situation? So he decides to fight it off. At such a time, it doesn't help if age-old discards of his start showing up like bastard children of his.

Grahan a couple of weeks ago, and this movie now, are bound to set Jackie Shroff back by a lot, even as his two-bit roles in movies like Mission Kashmir barely get noticed. In short, some three years down the line, Shroff may end up where Mithunda is right now. May be not that far, but well on the way.

Another orphan, another godfather, another criminal family and another gang war: all this makes for another exercise in predictability of the unbearable kind. Vishwa (Shroff) inherits the crime syndicate from Haji Baba and that irks Haji's son (Kiran Kumar) - and they go at each other. Shiva (Sharad Kapoor) plays the brother to Vishwa and the girls just dance and sing and weep. That's the long and short of it.

All this comes with Bollywood's insistence on its characters' idiosyncrasies. So Kiran Kumar's character has a penchant for vegetables - in his expletives as well as blandishments. Jackie Shroff is just happy to stare blankly, while Sharad Kapoor must be thoroughly embarrassed post-Josh. Suman Ranganathan (I'm trying hard to recall the name of her first film, her only hit) may as well be one of the extras from many of the jarring dance sequences, while Ayesha Jhulka's presence vouches for the 'age' of the movie.

Avoid this one, for you may soon have to learn to avoid Jackie Shroff himself. Hope the likes of Subhash Ghai and Vidhu Chopra have mercy on him.