It's
a 'glaring' strategy. The film's official hero Jas Pandher
changes his glares in almost every sequence. This, you
soon realise, is an ingenious method of hiding the actor's
ineptness as a performer.
And if the budget for
the goggles came to more than the film's entire production
cost, then who are we to complain?
The nitty-gritty of
producing an in-house film is a matter to be sorted
out between the hero and his producer-dad. Both seem
to have worked really hard at creating a product that
does its utmost to conceal Jas' glaring weaknesses.
Alas there are so many
of them, where do we begin to count ways in which Jas
isn't equipped to be an actor? Let's just say, he tries.
But director Darshan
Bagga isn't even guilty of trying. The script is a sprawling,
unwieldy, incoherent suspense drama with villains popping
out of every nook and cranny,trying to look menacing,
mirthful and monstrously motivated.
Like all the whodunits,
from "Teesri Manzil" and "Gumnam"
to "100 Days" and "Raaz", "Shikaar"
unfolds in a tranquil hill station. Like all of them,
the red herrings are strewn so densely in the plot,
we tend to forget that the narrative is in search of
a killer's identity. Who killed the script - if it was
ever alive - that's the question.
The convoluted goings-on
seem to be aimed at creating a tense confusion. The
writer-director gets halfway there. Bagga clogs the
frames with bodies. The murders get so frequent, fatal
and inventive that the scriptwriters finally settle
for killing off two of the villains (Prem Chopra and
Shakti Kapoor) in a pair, and quickly move to the climactic
combat between arch villain Danny Denzongpa and the
hero.
The fights are undoubtedly
done with a gourmand's gusto.
"Shikaar"
creates a world of decadence. Every character, male
or female, exudes the sweaty scent of lives on the edge.
Cinematographer Naren Gedia fills the saturated frames
with sounds and visuals that compound the climate of
incessant gluttony.
"Shikaar"
is the filmed equivalent of a belch.
The basic idea seems
to be borrowed from Shah Rukh Khan's devil-may-care
act in "Baazigar". The twist in the stale
tale comes with a sibling's wail, as the mayhem-filled
ambience turns into a shrieking homage to the melodrama
of sibling bonding. After murder and mayhem, brother
meets sister.Who knows what mood overtakes the plot
and why? "Shikaar" seems to be conceived with
the intention of not grabbing our attention but diverting
it with one weird intrusion after another, so that the
film is finally an amalgamation of red-herrings leading
nowhere.
Ironically, the cop
on duty - Raj Babbar, trying to look seriously detached
from the maelstrom of mayhem - keeps forgetting the
hero's name. Can't blame him.
Though production values
are not below average, the performances are pure vaudeville.
The most meaty part goes to starlet Saadhika who shares
honours with Shweta Menon and then goes beyond to do
some heavy duty drama.
Lucky woman. At least
she seems to know what she's doing. Wish we could say
the same about the rest of the cast and crew. |
