Maya Bloody Valentine
Apoorva Lakhia’s Shootout at Lokhandwala isn’t shot at the Lokhandwala High Rise in Andheri (West), Mumbai where half the Hindi film industry lives. Or is it? Half the film industry certainly features in the film. Frustrated cops Sunjay Dutt,Suniel Shetty and Arbaaz Khan from the ATS(Anti Terrorist Squad) take on Backstreet Bhais Vivek Oberoi, Jumping Jack Jeetu’s na-kaara ladka(Tushar Kapoor) and a bunch of other godforsaken losers in the climax that runs for half the length of the film. The cops spend the first half of the film gritting their teeth and offering excuses for their inadequacies in Amitabh Bachchan’s chambers while the baddies run amok. That’s the premise for the bloody eventuality where Dutt turns up with gelled hair, dark glasses a spotless white shirt and an army of tholas to mow down every mafia-man; but not before each one of them makes one touching telephone call (land line only -it’s the early 90’s) to their close ones.
The film starts with a scene from the aftermath. The camera lingers lovingly over blood stained floors, bullet ridden doors, smashed furniture and a Bai (not Bhai) mopping up the staircase landing with her kapda, twisting and rinsing it while bloody water dripping into a bucket as the titles run by. How poetic. Valentine Day’s here. SAL comes across as a perverted love story between its Director and morbid mayhem with no redemption and no survivors. Crime (no longer smuggling in the 70’s or Thakur style rural oppression in the 80’s) is easy-Just Push Play. So what if it does not pay? It clearly is worth its indulgence for its grisly exploitation factor. SAL doesn’t have an iota of a story, a moment of revelation or ingenuity about gangsters, their modus operandi, psyche, or understandable ‘conflict’ with the police. For all that please re-visit RGV’s Satya.
Like all Sanjay Gupta films(Kaante,Musafir)-SAL has state of the art camerawork, editing, and sepia tinted shots from start to end. It has lots of encounters that jump through years like a criminal’s arresting biography, standard Bhai ‘thakela-phatela’ dialogues but alas- zero substance, intrigue and suspense. Just guns that don’t stop firing. There’s no plot but everyone knows how the film will end. Every character and every situation rings hollow but what is genuinely disconcerting is the subvertive glam-factor attributed to guns, gangsters and the extreme crime of cold blooded Supari killings. Imported pistols are cocked, stroked, spoken to and about; all portrayed as adoring extensions of male machismo before they spray bullets across tables, rooms and narrow alleys like divine benediction. Le Mar !
Maybe what Gupta and Lakhia need to stir up their imagination are a few rasping extortion phone calls from Dubai. And then a some of those shingling 9mm rounds in their butts after a tense month of nervous nannying and non-payment. That would help bring a little more reality into characters like Vivek Oberoi’s Maya.
Apoorva Lakhia’s Shootout at Lokhandwala isn’t shot at the Lokhandwala High Rise in Andheri (West), Mumbai where half the Hindi film industry lives. Or is it? Half the film industry certainly features in the film. Frustrated cops Sunjay Dutt,Suniel Shetty and Arbaaz Khan from the ATS(Anti Terrorist Squad) take on Backstreet Bhais Vivek Oberoi, Jumping Jack Jeetu’s na-kaara ladka(Tushar Kapoor) and a bunch of other godforsaken losers in the climax that runs for half the length of the film. The cops spend the first half of the film gritting their teeth and offering excuses for their inadequacies in Amitabh Bachchan’s chambers while the baddies run amok. That’s the premise for the bloody eventuality where Dutt turns up with gelled hair, dark glasses a spotless white shirt and an army of tholas to mow down every mafia-man; but not before each one of them makes one touching telephone call (land line only -it’s the early 90’s) to their close ones.
The film starts with a scene from the aftermath. The camera lingers lovingly over blood stained floors, bullet ridden doors, smashed furniture and a Bai (not Bhai) mopping up the staircase landing with her kapda, twisting and rinsing it while bloody water dripping into a bucket as the titles run by. How poetic. Valentine Day’s here. SAL comes across as a perverted love story between its Director and morbid mayhem with no redemption and no survivors. Crime (no longer smuggling in the 70’s or Thakur style rural oppression in the 80’s) is easy-Just Push Play. So what if it does not pay? It clearly is worth its indulgence for its grisly exploitation factor. SAL doesn’t have an iota of a story, a moment of revelation or ingenuity about gangsters, their modus operandi, psyche, or understandable ‘conflict’ with the police. For all that please re-visit RGV’s Satya.
Like all Sanjay Gupta films(Kaante,Musafir)-SAL has state of the art camerawork, editing, and sepia tinted shots from start to end. It has lots of encounters that jump through years like a criminal’s arresting biography, standard Bhai ‘thakela-phatela’ dialogues but alas- zero substance, intrigue and suspense. Just guns that don’t stop firing. There’s no plot but everyone knows how the film will end. Every character and every situation rings hollow but what is genuinely disconcerting is the subvertive glam-factor attributed to guns, gangsters and the extreme crime of cold blooded Supari killings. Imported pistols are cocked, stroked, spoken to and about; all portrayed as adoring extensions of male machismo before they spray bullets across tables, rooms and narrow alleys like divine benediction. Le Mar !
Maybe what Gupta and Lakhia need to stir up their imagination are a few rasping extortion phone calls from Dubai. And then a some of those shingling 9mm rounds in their butts after a tense month of nervous nannying and non-payment. That would help bring a little more reality into characters like Vivek Oberoi’s Maya.
1 comment:
The choice of the gangsters in the form of Tushaar/Tushar [however he spells his numerologically "st(r)uck" name] and others; except Vivek Oberoi was also a let down. Guess there were so many actors in the film that who is to do what got all jumbled up.
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