Thursday, January 27, 2011

Dil Toh Loser Hai Jee! (2/5)

What are the possibilities when you club 2 capable actors and 1 dependable kisser with an award-winning director...Did you say immense? Let's dissect the frog and see whether it has enough meat to meet your expectations...


Story-Characters
The story, as evident from the banner below is of 3 losers running after their respective set of girl(s):
First, an about-to-get divorced banker - Naren (Ajay Devgn...Btw, Bejan Daruwala, why did you screw up the spelling of his surname?...The blogspot spellcheck is getting confused!)
Second, Milind Kelkar (Omi Vaidya), a bumbling Marathi Manoos who works as a matchmaker in 'Jhatpat Shaadi' during day & moonlights as a Hinglish poet at 'Satisfied Indian' club ! 
And 3rd ofcourse Emraan Smoochme (yes, the one who has a vacuum cleaner for a mouth) doing his usual pyrotechnics with girls of all ages and has the envious LinkedIn profile of being a toyboy for the rich old hags.




The 1st half is full of clichéd gags with desperate attempts to make me laugh (But Thakur doesn't even twitch his mustache)...It seemed as if my own Tweeter handle had come alive on screen - it was SO bad....But then the movie picks up some steam when the 3 losers start staying together...Smoochme romps with a stepmother-daughter duo (Tisca Chopra-Shruti Hassan), Devgn falls for a young bimbette (the poor man's Katrina Kaif - Shazahn Padamsee) and Omi keeps running after a Radio Jockey who uses & abuses him...To be fair, there are some enjoyable moments on both sides of the interval through the interactions of these myriad characters. But overall, the movie keeps meandering, and the Ravindra Jadeja/Seema Parihar-type music kills the pace further...

Don't want to reveal whether they get the girls in the end - does it matter anyways, this is not Alfred Hitchcock you're watching!?!?... Btw, a desperate Omi at some point towards the end asks for a sort of tri-party marriage agreement within the 3 Homo Sapiens itself. 


Performances
Acting wise, Ajay as usual delivers well (though his attempt to sing again after Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam is unbearable - he still sounds like Himesh Reshammiya meets Bryan Admans meets K L Saigal!).
Surprisingly Smoochme too puts up a decent performance...(That too without a single kissing scene - remind me to tweet this as an #unlikelyevent #Limca_record_of_Bollywood), but for me the disappointment was Omi - who unfortunately is given all the tepid zunka-bhaakar lines...All his speeches had a very Balatkaari feel to it - a la 3 idiots....Though must add that his accent does induce a chuckle or two, and he gets a kiss too before being given the boot by his RJ chick. 


In the supporting cast, the only impressive figures were the Marathi speaking flower-seller and inspector who in their 2-3 minutes showed why Madhur should stick to being the Arthur Hailey of Hindi movies and keep making reality-based movies on some profession ! (I suggest a remake of the Hollywood hit Watchmen with an all-Nepali starcast)


The girls are too unidimensional - Shruti Hassan has got none of the acting genes from her dad and Shazahn only smiles throughout the movie - am sure the realistic Bhandarkar just shot her when she was hanging out with her real-life friends.
Tisca Chopra and the RJ chick are average...But the worst of the lot is Tisca's husband in the movie who is a walking-talking cardboard...Zilch expression and the same monotone - reminded me of Jadoo from Koi Mil Gaya...


Jay, Veeru & Basanti of Movie
Ajay & Smoochme manage to hold together some parts of the movie - But otherwise no real WOWs.


Gabbar & Babban of Movie
For me the Gabbar & Babban of this movie are the Dialogue-Writer & Music Director(s) - a big letdown!


Now that I have beaten around the bush and the stinking Mahim khadi, in summary - go with zero expectations and a tub of butter popcorn if you have to. Who knows you might come out with a few smiles, a bloated tummy & a couple of LOL moments...


I give 2 Ishtars out of 5 !

About Thakur!

I'm back with a vengeance & with the latest version of the Jaipur foot installed on my right arm! Gabbar better watch out, and so should Veeru 'cos I've fallen in love with Basanti...

Professionally, I'm looking forward to model sleeveless suits for Armani (Am tired of this 30-year old Manish Malhotra shawl)...Till the time I land up with that job, will watch movies and give Ishtar walla ratings out of 5!