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Director
: Anupam Sinha
Music : Himesh Reshammiya
Lyrics : Sameer
Starring : Anupam Kher, Aftab
Shivdasani, Shriya Saran, Rati Agnihotri |
| Shukriya
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 Straight
away, let's give debutant director Anupam Sinha his
due. He has tried to dodge the formula in some areas
of his film, never mind the artistic liberties whereby
some European resort is passed off as London.
Never mind the wholesale
relocation of the Hollywood film "Meet Joe Black",
with Anupam Kher and Aftab Shivdasani slipping into
the roles originally played by Anthony Hopkins and Brad
Pitt.
From Pitt to the pits?
Not quite!
Shivdasani plays the
role of the angel of death who descends to carry back
well-settled business magnate Anupam Kher with a casual
grace.
In the Indian context,
Shivdasani plays Lord Yama, the god of death. The heavenly
connection isn't new to Indian cinema. Many years ago
there was a spoof on heavenly links called "Swarg
Narak". In "Chamatkar", Naseeruddin Shah
was Shah Rukh Khan's guardian angel.
What complicates the other-worldly resonance in "Shukriya"
is the plot's Hollywood antecedents. Spirituality and
existential debates are an essential part of our culture.
They're relatively new to the West.
When "Meet Joe
Black" cast Brad Pitt as a yankee Yama, he seemed
to be a seductive alien.
Shivdasani's interaction
with Kher seems to be a mockery of the Hindu philosophy
of karma. The designer existentialism appears as phoney
as khadi spun in Luxembourg, or ghagras spinning on
the banks of the Thames.
It just doesn't add
up.
Nonetheless this film
means well. The director has a developed aesthetic sense.
The sets are tastefully done to indicate a posh though
discreet household. The picture-postcard locales (shot
with timorous affection by Rajiv Shrivastava) seem to
sing out the songs of life much better than the feeble
music by a plethora of uninspired composers.
So meet "Joe Shivdasani",
the angel who assumes human form and infiltrates Anupam
Kher's life and home. Some of Shivdasani's scenes with
Kher's wife Rati Agnihotri are affectionately conceived
and executed.
The trouble is, Sinha's
vision bends backward to pay homage to Yash Chopra's
school of romanticism.
What gets your attention
is the quietness of mood that Sinha instils in his plot.
He isn't in a hurry to tell his story.
The pace is deliberately
leisurely. The mellow movement gives the characters
a chance to grow out of the plot instead of being thrust
on the audience.
Casting Anupam Kher
in the central role is a boon for the film. In his other
film this week ("Bride and Prejudice") Kher
is just a shadowy figure in the riotous ladies' picture.
"Shukriya"
gives him a lot more meat that he bites into with a
force that reminds us of the actor's beginnings in Mahesh
Bhatt's "Saraansh". One particular monologue
on stage has Kher pulling out all stops to deliver a
rousing statement on the transience of life and the
permanence of death.
Alas, the weightiness
of the plot's underbelly never rendered itself lucidly
in "Meet Joe Black". It fails to register
with any semblance of sharpness in "Shukriya".
Apart from Kher and
Shivdasani (who's admirably restrained whenever he isn't
busy flashing his unnaturally white teeth), the rest
of the cast is pretty low on credibility.
A yum-yum take on Lord
Yama? Not quite. This is "Meet Joe Black"
without much meat.
Glamsham.com
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