…Think about the time when you ridiculed a Bollywood film and said ‘even a senseless Hollywood flick would make more sense’.
…Or when you remarked ‘it’s a long way before we reach those (Hollywood) heights’?
Folks, Willard Carrol’s Marigold proves that if Indian cine-makers go overboard at times (okay many times!), Hollywood too is capable of talking absurdity, absurdity without pause.
Marigold Lexton is a class-B, or perhaps C, American actress. She is rude, short-tempered and full-of-herself.
She comes to India to star in a low-budget film, only to realise that the financers have vanished and producers were in the lockup.
And that’s not it. She’s dumped by her American company and that too over the phone, has lost her luggage and has just a one-way ticket! A chance encounter with Rani, a film production assistant, helps her to get a small role of a dancer in another Hindi film.
But as luck would have it, Marigold is nothing short of being choreographically challenged!
But Prem, the choreographer of the film, helps her loosen her self and do the boogie woogie! The Indian way, of course.
As time passes, the dancing duo fall in love.
But like every other love story, this too has problems. Prem is engaged to be married to Jhanvi, a fact which he never revealed to Marigold (?).
Marigold too has a boyfriend named Berry, but she’s dreaming to become the Indian Princess instead.
It’s climax time. Facts unfold. Prem bows before his stubborn father and family traditions and agrees to marry Jhanvi. Berry arrives from nowhere, in search of his ladylove.
And then happens what had to happen.
Marigold fails miserably on all fronts.
The film is directionless. Carrol seems more interested in roping in all the elements and styles, which he perhaps picked up from the 150 different Bollywood films he saw, rather than placing things in the right position.
The narrative style is very poor. The story seems to be spilling all over the place. Don’t even bother to wonder as to why certain things happen.
The songs have been just forced into the already weak script. And in case you feel your foot tapping, you can be sure that it’s sheer restlessness and not the music!
The dances too are nothing to look forward to.
The close-to-2-hour-film seems unending. There is nothing called ‘editing’.
Cinematography too, is terrifying.
The dialogues are so pathetic that it takes away even the little flavour that various performers could have added.
Ali Larter. She looked nothing extraordinary and her work is nothing to really talk about. In the dance scenes (and mind you, there are many), she seems very stiff. It looks more like aerobics than dance with moves.
Salman Khan. The actor once said that he does films to entertain. Now he’s not doing anything like that here. So why Marigold? …Maybe he wanted to entertain himself with a Hollywood tag!
Whatever it is, this is perhaps, till date, the worse show put in by the man.
The character has no strength. His dialogue delivery is extremely flat. And every time he gives that nice-guy smile or looks down in the shy-guy manner you’ll pull your hair.
Vikas Bhalla is awful. Nandana Sen can’t act to save her face. Vijayendra Ghatge and Kiran Juneja are very expressionless. And yes, I wonder why Gulshan Grover agreed to play the role of a royal guard, who had nothing to do but stand and stare.
Suchitra Pillai and Rakesh Bedi do a good job. But unfortunately, their role is very limited.
To sum it up, director Willard Carrol’s effort to portray Bollywood has done a great damage. He gets nothing close to it.
So even if you have all the time in the world, or you get those tickets for free, or you’re paid to go ‘n watch the film, remember Marigold is a fool-time folly.
And in case you’re a Salman fan, and you wish to remain one forever, just walk past the theatre and ignore those promos! For you won’t be able to digest this drama.
And those who are going for Ali Larter, well the actress is a no-show.
Aprajita Anil