You know it's gonna be one heck of a party when you see people whip out jars of fluid and begin to embalm each other after unraveling loads of bandage. This is exactly what you get to see at this flick. Manasutho is one of those ghastly films whose primary aim in life is to serve as a warning to all and sundry.
The film starts off Kanishk (Akash) playing a happy-happy-jally-jally teenaazee boy singing colleaazee songs, with overfed ladies hovering dangerously in the background like spaceships looking for parking space. A confirmed bachelor for life, he doesn't buy into the love-shove scam.
But Lord Venkateshwara has plans in store for him. On a fateful trip to Tirupati with his squabbling family, he encounters model-turned-Egyptian-mummy Sapna (Arzoo Govitrikar). During one of the pit stops, she gets off the train to hear a cuckoo go "koo-koo" in the background. She decides to add her two bits of the melody, and continues with her full-throated rendition of the cooing.
Amidst all this bird-female orchestra, the train gets going, leaving poor Sapna with her feathered friend. This is when the hero, abandoning his white steed for a train, pulls the chain, hence enabling the damsel in distress to get in to re-park herself in his compartment, hence paving the way for their love story.
A clean desk is a sure sign of a cluttered desk drawer, and thus we are pulled into a subplot. Now there is this guy who desperately wants to be in the same train as his ladylove. Just remember this point as a footnote for further reference.
Anyway, on the other end of the horizon, we see Sapna go ga-ga over Kanishk, and manages to get engaged to this guy who's about as interested in a steady relationship as a meandering tom cat.
Enter Balu, the lovelorn guy who wanted to get into the train. Now this guy has been madly in love with none other than Sapna for the past coupla years. Not having the guts to tell her, he pines away silently. So basically he's the sort who would die in his own arms. Kanishk gets to meet Balu later and finds out about the latter's unprofessed love. What he does with that extra bit of info is the driving technology behind this flick.
Too late, pals, we're already semi-dead 15 minutes into the flick. Kanishk and his motley crue of comedians try their best to throw the sinking movie a coupla life jackets. Naaah, no luck on that either!
It's the usual blaaat kinda movie with more raunchy numbers than Midnight Masala. The script is as old as the hills, and seems to be written by someone who got mental blocks for Christmas. The actress leaves a lot to be desired, as her gamut of emotions spans all the way from A to B.
The movie, though, is strewn with one-liners in order to distract you from a meandering script.
Another afternoon, another trip to the gas chamber. What can I say! The human spirit is very hard to kill, even with a chainsaw such as Manasutho.