FILM
REVIEW: MUSAFIR (2004)
Director:
Sanjay Gupta
Producer: Sanjay Dutt
Cast: Sanjay Dutt, Anil Kapoor, Sameera Reddy, Koena Mitra, Mahesh Manjrekar and
Aditya Panscholi
Radio
Sargam Rating: 5/10
Background:
Sanjay Gupta is known as DVD Gupta in Bollywood circles, because he
used to look at DVDs on the sets and remake films shot by shot! Musafir
is his next film after Kaante, which was again a DVD copy of Reservoir
Dogs. We watched Musafir during its premiere in Goa as part of the 35th
International Film Festival of India.
Synopsis:
Lucky (Anil Kapoor) is not actually lucky when it comes to women and
money. He is a conman decides to commit one last crime before he settles
down in life with girlfriend Tara (Koena Mitra) who is bar dancer. The
final job involves conning a man belonging to Billa’s (Sanjay Dutt)
gang. Unfortunetely Lucky himself loses the stolen money after Tara
ditches him and escapes with the loot!
Billa is
a ruthless killer who deals in narcotics. Now Billa wants revenge and
he kills four other people from Lucky’s team. Then Billa gets hold
of Lucky and wants to kill him. This is when Lucky tells him that he
could be of some assistance and the latter lets him go on an assignment
to deliver drugs in Goa and get the money. But unfortunately for Lucky
he goofs up yet again while in relentless pursuit of the sensuous Sam
(Sameera Reddy) who is married to Looka (Mahesh Manjrekar) and is seeking
conjugal bliss outside marriage.
Looka was
married to Sam’s sister, but had an eye on Sam as well. So when
given a chance, he kills Sam’s sister and takes her over. Lucky
falls for Sam’s charms and body and indulges in two sensual kissing
scenes with her as well. Somehow yet again… Lucky loses the money
he was to bring back from Goa and Billa is after his life.
Billa reaches
Goa. In the meantime, Looka hires Lucky to kill his wife and Sam also
gives Lucky an offer to take away Looka’s money and run away and
in return give Sam her freedom.
Confused?
So is Lucky! When he reaches Looka’s house, Looka is dead as Sam
has killed him. They take the money and run but in the meantime Looka’s
brother who is a cop (Aditya Panscholi) is after the two! Now Billa
is after Lucky and Looka’s brother is after Lucky and Sam. Now
to see who gets lucky or who gets Lucky in the end...
Critique:
The film is almost similar to the storylines of the flop Danger and
the still unreleased Paanch. The only difference is that in the earlier
two films all the characters were negative. Here you see some positivity
in Anil Kapoor and Sameera Reddy’s characters. Sanjay Dutt has
a couple of positive scenes in the film including the climax.
But the film has been loaded with sex and suggestive scenes. There is
a lot of skin on view and is used as a window display to sell the film
- bodies in bikinis everywhere, loads of kissing and bedroom lines etc.
But this obviously does not encourage healthy family viewing.
Thew dialogues
are sometimes really good. The funny lines help the film move and Mahesh
Manjrekar’s character has the best lines in the film. Manjrekar
has a few good scenes in the film as well and he enacts them with ease.
Koena Mitra as Anil’s bar dancer girlfriend Tara gets better showcase
for her body than she got in Ramgopal Varma’s Road where she had
just one item number. She has three songs here and a few scenes
as well in which to show her body.
Anil Kapoor
does well. He has all the women in the film. And he does a good job
with them and his look as well. He shows that he is still a fine actor
and though touching fifty, is still a force to reckon with. Sanjay Dutt
is just a couple of years younger than Anil, but shows that he is very
good at playing the bad guy. The concept of anti-hero propagated by
Amitabh Bachchan in his anti-establishment films is well carried off
by Dutt in this film as well. Even Aditya Panscholi delivers a powerhouse
performance. He is good in a nameless character of a bad cop. Sameera's
sensuous and shows a vast improvement in performance... even though
her performance is restricted more to towards her physical exposure
rather than histronic calibre.
Sanjay
Gupta has shot and edited his film well. The cinematography is thrilling,
the fights too are sensational… but what… is that all…
performances are terrific. And that is what holds up the film along
with the dialogues.
Conclusion:
One just hoped that Gupta had a better story to tell. The film is slick,
no doubt, but style isn’t everything boss. It just makes you a
musafir (traveller) in Bollywood. You won’t be able to stay here
for long.
Reviewed
by: Tony
.gif){kind=small}