Lacklustre crop of films
By Rama Gaind
Here are three Bollywood films that are best seen on DVD:
MAIN AUR MRS KHANNA: The trials and tribulations of Raina (Kareena Kapoor), Samir (Salman Khan) and Akash (Sohail Khan) are played out for all at an airport.
Raina is the estranged wife of Samir … their marriage begins to hit the rocks after he loses his job. Mr Khanna wrestles with the idea of starting afresh in Singapore, but Mrs Khanna decides to stay on in Melbourne. She can’t settle on whether to join him or explore her new relationship with Akash.
She has a low-pay job in an airport shop, so how does she manage to wear stylishly expensive jackets? Nevertheless, that was the best part of the film.
Debutante writer-director Prem Soni has made an amateurish effort which fails to engage. Even his characters are poorly etched. Best not to get stuck in transit.
LONDON DREAMS: What a mindless story about artistic fervour, friendship and the resulting insecurities.
Arjun (Ajay Devgan) is consumed by a desire to sing at Wembley and realise his grandfather’s unfulfilled dream who is attracted to Priya (Asin).
Mannu (Salman Khan) is bold, noisy and energetic and enjoys the good things in life.
Music not only solidified their friendship, but tested it with disasterous results.
The script by Suresh Nair lacks depth and how could producer-director Vipul Shah think that the audience was so gullible with such premises as Mannu’s downfall and why was Priya doing classical dance at home and wearing mini-skirts outside?
While there’s an occasional moment of charm from Salman, a couple of pleasant songs can’t stop it from floundering.
ALL THE BEST: The director-producer-star duo of Rohit Shetty and Ajay Devgan combine to offer some senseless comic moments.
After getting his best friend Prem (Ajay) to falsify documents, Veer (Fardeen Khan) gets deeper into financial turmoil. What happens when step-brother Dharam (Sanjay Dutt) and the local lender bring pressure to bear has to be seen to be believed.
The actors, including Bipasha Basu and Mugda Godse, appear to be having a good time, but what a waste of resources.
