 |
Director
: Punkaj Parasher
Starring : Manoj Bajpai,
Isha Koppiker, Nethra Raghuraman, Sharat Saxena |
| Inteqam
Movie Stills : |
Click
here |
| Inteqam
Wallpapers : |
Click
here |
|
 Once
upon a time he was the sleek specialist. But now, Punkaj
Parasher's take on Paul Verhoeven's box-office hit "Basic
Instinct" is so deplorably dull, you wonder why
he ever bothered to get into it.
This is basically an
extinct version of "Basic Instinct". Or, we
could say, this is "Basic Instinct" without
Michael Douglas or Sharon Stone.
Yes, we do get Manoj
Bajpai and Isha Koppiker. Isha even does Stone's infamous
interrogation by the cops sequence. But Isha does not
cross the line.
We get scene after scene
in the first-half vandalised straight from the original,
including that famous shot of Stone's eyes peeping from
behind Douglas' bare back, done on Isha, Manoj and the
bare back.
Alas it isn't only the
back that's bare in this unbearable adaptation. Though
Parasher tries hard to instil a sense of suave empathy
into his adaptation, the difference is palpable...and
glaring. This is a thriller where everything hangs out.
Every component appears to have been devised for effect.
But the constricted budget with a vision to match show
up with infuriating frequency.
In a sequence set in
a bookstore, we see hardly any books on the shelves.
The bankruptcy of vision is in character with the mood
of the film. Nothing seems real, least of all the director's
slapped-on sophistication energized by a train of wet-and-wild
bodies.
The hero is a cop who's
also an encounter specialist. "Kissa khatam paisa
hajam," is his rationale for his trigger-happy
conduct.
Manoj goes from Clint
Eastwood's "Dirty Harry" act to Nana Patekar's
"Ab Tak Chappan"...then to Michael Douglas's
"Basic Instinct". Why, there's even a bit
of Will Smith from "Men In Black" thrown in
when Bajpai and his comic partner Sharat Saxena flip
on their dark glasses with dazzling élan.
The derivative spirit
gives the thriller a queasy spin. Characters such as
the female shrink (Nethra Raghuraman) or heiress Isha
Koppiker's housemaid (Sushmita Mukherjee) are so preposterously
portrayed, you wonder what director Parasher was thinking.
He makes cop Manoj and
shrink Nethra do a mating dance all around an iron-poster
bed pretending to be hot and sexy.
To make up for the utterly
derivative first-half, the second-half gets wildly original.
"Basic Instinct" is sacrificed for more scratch-level
thrills...and I do mean scratch since the climax has
the two leading ladies locked in a fist-to-fist while
Manoj lies down on the floor and pretends to be dead.
He might as well pretend
he never did this film.
The heroine is a best-selling
author whose words prove ominously prophetic. Characters
begin to get bumped off exactly the way they're described
in her novel.
By the time we arrive
at the contrived denouement we know one thing for sure.
Paul Verhoeven won't be able to recognise this film
as "Basic Instinct".
Glamsham.com
|
