Producer: Kamal Kumar Barjatya, Rajkumar Barjatya, Ajit Kumar Barjatya. Director: S. Manasvi. Cast: Tusshar Kapoo, Amrita Rao, Ram Kapoor, Madhoo, Prem Chopra, Jai Kalra, Kiran Kumar, Kunal Kumar.

MUMBAI: Love U… Mr Kalakaar follows Rajshri tradition; only neat and clean fare. Usually, their films are old wine in new bottle (often even the supporting cast remains constant). But this time, however, the makers have gone a few rungs down the ladder with this film. It is not even wine; more like cough syrup in an old wine bottle.

There is this girl, Amrita Rao, daughter of a self-made millionaire, Ram Kapoor. She is being looked after by her widowed paternal aunt since she lost her mother in childhood (another Rajshri quirk!).

While working as a management trainee at her father‘s office, she comes across Tushaar Kapoor, a qualified architect whose ambition is to have a comic strip on page 2 of a leading newspaper some day. It doesn‘t matter that neither broadsheets nor tabloids publish comic strips on page 2; after all, the whole story lives somewhere in fantasy past.

Love blossoms between the two which, obviously, is not acceptable to the self-made millionaire father of the girl. He wants a business brain to take over his company after him and an artist would ruin his daughter‘s life as had happened in the case of his sister. Why he doesn‘t think of his management student daughter succeeding him is perhaps not considered since this is an old fashioned film!

Since Ram Kapoor thinks that the only way a boy will make his daughter happy is by being able to run a corporate house successfully, he appoints Tusshar as the managing director of his company. The condition is that he has three months to prove himself in this position to qualify to marry his daughter. Tusshar sets out to prove himself. This corporate company is less like an office and more like a joint family where everybody is bickering or planning and plotting behind Tusshar‘s back as if he was a new bahu in the house; his status is undermined by all and sundry. Not surprisingly, the start of Tusshar‘s test is disastrous. But, when Amrita Rao joins forces with him with help from her college tomes, they create a turnaround; that earlier Amrita could not get even a simple projection report right does not hinder in any way.

Rich vs. poor is a tried and tested love story formula but it depends entirely on how it is scripted. Love U… Mr Kalakaar lacks drama, twists and turns, tautness and genuine emotions; it abounds in inconsistencies. Direction is lacklustre with the approach to the subject being totally from film watching experience rather than imagination. The idea of comedy in this film is some side character pouting as he speaks. Musically, only one song holds any appeal, ‘Tera intezaar…‘ though the tune sounds familiar. Dialogue is routine. Performance wise, Tusshar Kapoor is fair while Amrita Rao is okay. Ram Kapoor, Madhoo and Prem Chopra act with restrain. Rest are caricatures in most cases just sprung on the viewer.

Love U… Mr Kalakaar is too poor in content and execution to make any mark at the box office.

 
 
Shagird: Another cop gone corrupt flick

Producers:Hussain Sheikh. Director: Tigmanshu Dhulia.. Cast: Nana Patekar, Mohit Alawat, Anurag Kashyap, Zakir Hussain, Rimi Sen.

Shagird  is sort of an Ab Tak 56 cop gone corrupt. The police-underworld-politician threesomes have been ideal settings for some time now, though rarely with positive results. The obvious choice of locale being anywhere in Hindi belt lends it credence. Being Delhi, as is the case with Shagird, makes it visually tolerable too.

A young new cop, Mohit Alawat, joins the elite crime branch core headed by Nana Patekar. Nana Patekar takes him under his wings to train him (hence Shagird) but has a curious way of going about it; the young lad has to sing some songs and do some drill on a restaurant table!

Otherwise, too, Nana Patekar has his own style of eliminating crime; he metes out on the spot justice with bullets and doesn‘t believe in taking prisoners or going through court. But Nana Patekar‘s strings are being pulled by a politician, Zakir Hussain, who is a minister of some standing. More often than not, Nana Patekar is eliminating Zakir Hussian‘s enemies and opponents than criminals. However, he is half a Robin Hood in that he robs criminals‘ and politicians‘ money but keeps it for himself and sharing it with his subordinate cops. The new recruit neither wants to share this loot nor shoot criminals in cold blood.

All very thrilling and exciting initially as the shootings happen and bad men are shot down by cops. But that is not what this film is all about as the layer after layers are unpeeled and finally you lose count as well as interest in the equations as to whose loyalty lies with whom! As the equations go, everybody has his own sinister plan and they all use each other to attain their personal goals. Nana Patekar plans to gather enough loot and migrate to New Zealand. Mohit Alawat is not the honest simpleton he makes himself out to be and would seem to be the minister‘s plant in the Nana Patekar group, his reward being the post of youngest commissioner of Delhi. The minister Zakir Hussain wants to be the foreign minister next and finally kill all these who did his dirty jobs.

While these three characters are busy outwitting each other, there are too many cross connections till a 1000 bullets are fired, all three lose out and a total outsider walks away with booty; for crime to pay you don‘t have to commit a series of them, one final upper cut is enough.

Tingmashu Dhulia‘s direction is praiseworthy. Dialogue is very well penned. Background score is effective. Photography is good.

Shagird does not offer anything that has not been seen before and such films work as a change once in a long while. But this is not that time. Just shooting and killing is not one‘s idea of entertainment on regular basis.

Ragini MMS: Explicit scenes may alienate family audience

Producers:Shobha Kapoor, Ekta kapoor. Director:Pawan Kriplani. Cast: Raj Kumar Yadav, Kainaz Motivala.

Horror  genre is not among the regular fare in cinema enjoyed by Hindi viewers. But with certain genres lost to television there is little choice left. With known stars coming at uneconomical premiums, small budget films of various kinds have become a parallel industry. Horror needs some added attraction and Haunted did so with 3-D and Stereophonic sound and succeeded beyond expectations.

Ragini MMS takes a contemporary theme much happening on campuses, that of shooting personal sex scenes on the sly and spreading them out. Somehow, a girl agreeing to sex is not enough and boys also need to show off their exploits. Its inspiration for style and execution coming from Paranormal Activity, Ragini MMS uses explicit sex scenes to blend with its horror theme to attract audience. However, new generation and mobile clippings aside, this is still India and films so depicting sex serves more to keep a certain section of the audience at bay rather than attract it. Also, this is high speed net era and one needs not to go to a cinema to find titillation which is available at the click of a mouse on your computer.

Kainaz Motivala and Raj Kumar Yadav are not averse to expressing their desire for sex and towards this common urge, both head out to a farmhouse away from city to feed their need. Since loyalty to today‘s generation is limited only to self, the boy has planned to shoot the event to further his career in acting. Things don‘t go as planned as the house has another occupant besides these two, a woman‘s ghost. If there is ample intimate footage, scary scenes also have their fair share.

Tautly made, the film has effective photography and background score to complement its direction. Raj Kumar Yadav and Kainaz Motivala shed all inhibitions to make the proceedings lifelike.

Besides alienating family audience, Ragini MMS may also have lost some advantage to last week‘s horror release, Haunted- 3D, coming as it does in its immediate wake.