Since the past four months, television sets all across the country kept showing the images of Nihal Singh from Chandigarh, a guy, who can see future. Alas, if Nihal Singh could see the future of Jackky Bhagnani. From the promos itself, it was clear enough that Jackky was not the kind of guy who could carry off just any other project by his sheer charishma(or by an extra "K" in his name), but viewers hoped that may be an experienced producer like Vashu Bhagnani would manage a complete and polished entertainer for his only son's debut vehicle. Sadly, the outcome is not only ordinary and cliched, but actually seems like a movie made after reading some guide book like, "100 masala ingredients to make a movie". Well more on that later.
Nihal Singh from Chandigarh has a doting punjabi mother (Archana Puran Singh)(thank god, it wasn't Kirron Kher again) who doesn't want his puttar to go to the big city, but the puttar is a science fanatic, who in his own words hamesha ek kadam aage ki sochta hai. Well somehow convincing his innocent and loud Bebe, this son lands up in a college where students dress as if they have come to participate in fashion week and everyone seems to have more concerned about parties and proms rather than study(but then, this is in sync with the tradition of bollywood colleges, so no complains). As expected our hero flexes muscles with seniors, dances with the infamous bimbette(Vaishali Desai, the leading lady), asks stupid questions to his professor, prepares complex electronic circuits and finds time to break into a song afer every 15 minutes. He comes in contact with a doting professor Verma (Rishi Kapoor) who was thrown out of Reasearch center because he too in his own words, ek kaadam aage ki sochta tha,BOOM!! our hero immediatly renders Professor his guru withour realizing that his is an evil mind keen on using Nihal for his own interests.Well, as the movie prgresses a tug of war ensues between the guru and unaware chela, with the bombardment of songs and fights at regular intervals and as expected finally our hero finishes off all villains and reunites with his love and his bebe too.
The problem with Jackky Bhagnani is that he tried too hard in his first film. He could have passed off a cute lover boy but instead he bit more than he could chew. The guy sure looks good, but he should have built more muscles given the fact that papa dear wanted to see his son, bashing up half a dozen goons double his size. He did everything from playing guitar to performing bike stunts, from jumping off a multistoreyed building and crashing at a steamer in the nearby sea to wearing beautiful designer ties even when wearing vests, (a fact I couldn't help noticing). He sure has screen presence but its going to take time for him to be the complete Bollywood hero , the one he tried here.
Vaishali Desai is no doubt hot. She sure would look awesome in a Deodorant or Soap add(or even better in a condom add), but I doubt the girl is capable of preserving herself in a two hour long movie. In fact she reminded me of 80's actresses. She is Sangeeta Bijlani or Anita Raj(or Shilpa Shirodkar, Sonum ,Kimi Katkar... the list is endless) reborn. She roamed here and there in skimpy clothes, tried to show attitude in the beginning only to me mellowed down later ,danced around the luscious locales all around the world. Well, the daughter of Manmohan Desai could have arrived in a much better way.
Rishi Kapoor made a fool of himself when he thought he can play a cunning fox (a la Prem Chopra), he neither looked cunning nor menacing. Rishi sir, do us a favor, stick to the regular papa kind of roles like Namastey London.In fact most of the characters in the film are caricatures, like the heroine’s father played by Satish Shah who couldn't even decide how to react when her drunken and inebriated daughter shows up in the arms of an unknown guy in the morning.The only good thing about the movie is Reteish Deshmukh, Though the sequences written for him were amateurish to the core and the proceedings could have been irritating with any other actor, but Reteish is delight to watch playing this farce of a character, the guy is as natural as Sunny Deol scaring off entire Pakistani Army by roaring with his fists clenched.
The director of the movie Vivek Sharma is the main culprit. It seems like he studied movies like Balwaan and Phool and Kaante to understand how to make a debut vehicle for a newcomer. He literally took the viewers for a ride, thinking that people actually won't notice as of how seniors and juniors study in the same class or even on the same bench(as in case with the heroine).In fact every frame of this movie reminds viewers that they are watching a 90's clichéd movie with the technology and gloss of today.
What else to say! Like every other movie,Cinematography is excellent, given the exotic foreign locales were provided as a backdrop, Choreography too was impressive with Jaccky looking at ease while shaking those legs. Background score was ................blah,blah,blah(Am I righting a technical article or what!!!)
Best Moment: A girl secretly in love with our hero asks the future knowing Babaji, "kya mujhe mera chahne wala milega", to which another actress playing a lady professor replies: "beta, sacche tan se chahogi to zaroor milega". Love me or loath me, but I just couldn't control laughing.
One last question: Where the hell was Shahrukh khan in the movie