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By Taran Adarsh, January 28, 2005 - 17:21 IST
VAASTAV and ASTITVA are two thought-provoking films made by Mahesh Manjrekar. Even the other films that he attempted, TERA MERA SAATH RAHEN, EHSAAS, HATHYAR and RAKHT, had something to say, irrespective of their box-office outcome. That's when you genuinely feel sad when an immensely talented director messes up things completely and dishes out a sub-standard product like PADMASHREE LALOO PRASAD YADAV.
To state that PADMASHREE LALOO PRASAD YADAV is Manjrekar's weakest attempt so far, would be putting it mildly. The only question that you'd want to ask Manjrekar after you've watched PADMASHREE LALOO PRASAD YADAV is, What kind of cinema is this?
Laloo [Suniel Shetty] goes out of control when he sees a good-looking girl. Laloo is a playboy - he can't keep his pants up.
Padma [Masumeh], his girl-friend, is fed up of his philandering ways. After one such incident, she takes a flight to Cape Town to recover some jewels, which are rightfully hers, since her father's partner wrongfully stole them.
Padma lands in Cape Town to discover Laloo already there to receive her. After apologizing profusely, Laloo is finally pardoned for the nth time. Laloo tries to help out Padma in her mission but ends up messing things miserably.
To get out of the mess, Laloo takes help of a local thug in Cape Town called Johnny [Gulshan Grover] and his sidekick called Yadav [Johny Lever], who help them to rob the bank where the jewels are kept.
The four rob the bank and recover the stolen jewels. While escaping from the bank, Yadav nearly runs over an old lady [Shashikala] with three dogs, who becomes a witness to the robbery. And the game of double cross starts!
Padma calls the cops and informs them of Johnny having robbed the bank. The cops pick up Johnny. Padma now switches her charms on Prasad [Mahesh Manjrekar], the lawyer who is defending Johnny. She plays love games with Prasad so as to extract information out of him as to where the jewels have been hidden by Johnny.
Laloo gets jealous of Prasad and wants to teach him a lesson. So the game of one-upmanship keeps happening…
PADMASHREE LALOO PRASAD YADAV is meant to be a comedy, but what comes to the fore is sheer tragedy. The story is fragile and the screenplay [Yash-Vinay] one of those experiences that you'd never want to experience again.
Although Manjrekar tries hard to come up with a rib-tickling thriller, neither does PADMASHREE LALOO PRASAD YADAV bring a smile on your face, nor does it thrill you even once in those two hours.
Writers Yash-Vinay seem to have taken the viewers for granted and Manjrekar's execution only compounds the problem. In fact, the screenplay is so bizarre and the sequences so inane and juvenile that you doubt if a film like this would've worked even in the 1970s.
Every character in PADMASHREE LALOO PRASAD YADAV is meant to look like a buffoon. Whether it's the casanova [Suniel] or his boss [Sharat Saxena] or the thug [Gulshan], his sidekick Yadav [Johny] or the lawyer [Manjrekar] - the antics fall flat from scene A to Z.
One genuinely misses Manjrekar of yore after you've encountered something like this. Sad! The music is another drawback. Barring 'Deewana Hoon Main Hoon Deewana', no song works. Dialogues [Sanjay Pawar] are witty at places. Cinematography [Vijay Arora] is of standard.
The only performance worth remembering is that of Masumeh. Despite a shoddy script, the actress carries off the role with complete conviction. Here's an actress who can really deliver!
Suniel Shetty tries to do his best and elevate every ordinary sequence. Gulshan Grover is alright. Johny Lever is relegated to the backseat. Mahesh Manjrekar hams to the hilt. Kim Sharma and Anupama Verma are okay. Sharat Saxena goes over the top. Kunika and Shashikala are wasted.
On the whole, PADMASHREE LALOO PRASAD YADAV is an absolute letdown. Below average.
 
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