Reviewed by Sanjeev Saxena
sanjeev@shadow.netRating : 
(out of 
)
Oy Gevald !!
Ketan Mehta has made some fine movies in the past. And you'd think that a director of his caliber would atleast try to stem the deplorable decline of the hindi cinema. Remembering the undercurrent of observational nuances and psycological subtleties steeped in sentiments in his earlier flick 'Maya Memsaab' and the presence of refined stalwarts like Shah Rukh Khan, Amrish Puri, Anupam Kher and oh-so nimble Javed Jaffery, you'd go to this movie. And come out repugnant and nauseous.
Khan meets Sahi and they have a pact that he'd entertain her and she would pay him for that. Don (Puri) in his vicious plans to take over the country clones the President of India (Kher) and during a feigned fortuity swaps his clone with the real President. Meanwhile his son Prince (Jaffery) falls for Sahi but she always rejects his advances. In a bid to create chaos, Don, then, instigates riots. Prince leaves to protect Sahi and Don meets an incendiary end when he goes out to save Prince, who by then has captured Sahi and put Khan in the lockup. In the lockup, Khan meets the real President and they escape to eventually triumph, with the help of his friends, over evil.
Khan is as likabale and gratifying as ever. He blends captivating comedy and countryfied charm with seemingly effortless ease. But, alas, the less said about Sahi, the better. Puri is vilely devilish and commands presence in every frame. Kher excels in his double role and Jaffery impresses with his agile dancing.
In some dreamscapes, the surrealistic cinematography ranges from mesmerizing to almost hypnotic and one of the chase sequences is extremely well crafted. But all the cliquish brilliance and isolated directorial excellence is lamentably sparse. What could have been a heartwarming melange, turns into an array of intrinsic individual inflections. The anticipation of a dreamy delight degenerates into a nasty nightmare. How much further do we have to go on the boulevard of mediocre movies before we reach a milestone ?
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