Hansal Mehta’s first full length feautre film is a loser from the word go. Before this, he’s given us a teaser of his horrendous talent in ‘High on the Highway’( Dus Kahaniyan).You know this film is a washout from the first scene when the Neanderthal son of Anupam and Kiron Kher goes headbanging to the now forgotten Mikka Hit-‘Saawan mein lag gayi aag…’, his square jaws over-emphasized by giant Jallad side burns and a very awkward body vainly trying to groove to the totally irrelevant song. Mimoh Chakroborty(Mithun’s son) you got company!
In the intriguingly named WoodStock Villa, Arbaaz Khan plays the role of a rich man who accidentally stabs his wife but makes sure that he has a sizzling hot duplicate( Neha Uberoi) ready to stand in as her alibi while he finds a swarthy, do no gooder punk ( Bandar Kher) to take the rap. Sounds like crap? It is. Unfortunately for WV, the only intruiging thing in the whole murder-suspence drama is its title. Director Hansal Mehta tries to pull a fast Johnny Gaddar for Bandar Kher but flounders in every department. The story isn’t worth two lines and the very mediocre, convulted and predictable screeenplay would make any corny episode of prime-time C.I.D seem Hitchcockian in comparison. The dialogues don’t work as formulaic, farcical, tongue in cheek or anywhere in between. There are too many MTVesque fast cuts, swirling camera angles, useless split screens on the camera and Nothing on paper in terms of story. And since it’s a Sanjay Dutt/Sanjay Gupta production there’s the usual glut of (the now boring) sepia tone scenes, dark glasses, flying capes and the sneaking suspicion of ‘inspiration’ from more sources than anyone can care to count. What Mr Mehta needs to learn is that style cannot substitute sustance and that all actors have limitations. Just after his National award winning performance for his first film( Mahesh Bhatt’s Saaraansh) a young Anupam Kher had said; ” Didn’t I want to run around trees with heroines? But I knew my limitations and decided to work within them.’ Too bad, his son didn’t.
In the intriguingly named WoodStock Villa, Arbaaz Khan plays the role of a rich man who accidentally stabs his wife but makes sure that he has a sizzling hot duplicate( Neha Uberoi) ready to stand in as her alibi while he finds a swarthy, do no gooder punk ( Bandar Kher) to take the rap. Sounds like crap? It is. Unfortunately for WV, the only intruiging thing in the whole murder-suspence drama is its title. Director Hansal Mehta tries to pull a fast Johnny Gaddar for Bandar Kher but flounders in every department. The story isn’t worth two lines and the very mediocre, convulted and predictable screeenplay would make any corny episode of prime-time C.I.D seem Hitchcockian in comparison. The dialogues don’t work as formulaic, farcical, tongue in cheek or anywhere in between. There are too many MTVesque fast cuts, swirling camera angles, useless split screens on the camera and Nothing on paper in terms of story. And since it’s a Sanjay Dutt/Sanjay Gupta production there’s the usual glut of (the now boring) sepia tone scenes, dark glasses, flying capes and the sneaking suspicion of ‘inspiration’ from more sources than anyone can care to count. What Mr Mehta needs to learn is that style cannot substitute sustance and that all actors have limitations. Just after his National award winning performance for his first film( Mahesh Bhatt’s Saaraansh) a young Anupam Kher had said; ” Didn’t I want to run around trees with heroines? But I knew my limitations and decided to work within them.’ Too bad, his son didn’t.
