'Race' - An okay entertainer

'Race' - An okay entertainer

Thriller Hindi Movie

Starring

Saif Ali Khan .... Ranvir Singh

Akshaye Khanna .... Rajeev Singh

Katrina Kaif .... Sophia

Bipasha Basu .... Sonia

Anil Kapoor .... Robert D’ Costa

Sameera Reddy .... Mini

Director : Abbas-Mastan

Musician : Pritam

By Nikhil Kumar

Subtlety and restraint have never found a place in the movies of director duo Abbas-Mastan . Their latest thriller ‘Race’ is so much crammed with unexpected twists and turns that after a while you naturally begin to expect the unexpected from the film.

And that is the trap that any suspense thriller can fall into. In a bid to shock the viewer, ‘Race’ keeps unraveling one surprise after another. So much so that after a while the surprises lose their shock value and the movie ceases to be a thriller.

Race Hindi Movie Download
Race Hindi Movie Songs
Race Picture Gallery

This is the only major problem with ‘Race’. Apart from this the movie is a fine entertainer with pretty good action sequences and a superb performance from Akshaye Khanna. He is the man you would love to hate in the film.

Set in picturesque cities of Durban and Cape Town, ‘Race’ tells the story of two brothers – Ranvir Singh ( Saif Ali Khan ) and Rajeev Singh ( Akshaye Khanna ).

Ranvir, the eldest of the two, is a shrewd businessman who owns a ranch named Stallions where horses are bred for races. He is a fierce competitor and he doesn’t forgive anyone who double-crosses him.

Rajeev, on the other hand, is more interested in alcohol than family business. He likes to wake up to a glass of beer every morning to recover from the hangover of previous night’s drinks.
Sonia ( Bipasha Basu ), a fashion model, walks into Ranvir’s life and wins over his heart. On the other hand is Sophia ( Katrina Kaif ), Ranvir’s gorgeous secretary who is always vying to get his attention, but without any success.

The ball is set rolling when Rajeev falls for Sonia and promises his brother that he would quit drinking if she agrees to marry him. Ranvir, like any true-blue big brother, sacrifices his love and becomes a matchmaker between the two.

But beneath the surface, evil plans are taking shape in the minds of the protagonists. One of the two brothers will die. And the other will inherit the huge insurance claim of 100 million.
The murder takes place. Enters detective RD or Robert D’Costa ( Anil Kapoor ) and his pretty and dumb secretary Mini ( Sameera Reddy ) who try to crack the case and get to the bottom of the mystery.

‘Race’ has a riveting first half, when the characters are introduced and their murky sides revealed. The plot in this half leaves many open ends, to be connected and explained when the mystery is finally unraveled in the end. The movie reaches its high point when one of the brothers is pushed from the terrace of a high-rise building.

This momentum continues for some more reels in the second half. But then the film’s plot takes a serpentine route and passes through many unexpected bends, some of which are reasonable while some are deliberately contrived to surprise the viewer.

That is when Abbas-Mustan, the men in white, show their true ‘colours’. The director duo doesn’t care to be subtle. They pull out all the stops to squeeze in as many twists in the plot even when there wasn’t any need. As the plot meanders through its many turns, it begins to lose its credibility. And you resign yourself to the fact that anything could happen. Even the dead can resurrect. After all, it’s Easter time.

Akshaye Khanna deserves a special mention for a terrific performance in the film. He is the scene stealer. His pursed lips, his sarcastic smile, his raised brow and his funny demeanor make even the villainy of his character likeable. He plays the guy who has something funny to say even in the face of grave danger.

Saif Ali Khan is glum and uptight for most part of the movie (perhaps the requirement of his role). But you sense that his heart is not in playing his character. And he looks a little overweight in the action scenes when jumps from dizzy heights.

Katrina Kaif is incredibly good looking. But she is equally incredibly bad at acting. Bipasha Basu has more meat in her role (both figuratively and literally). But her role doesn’t put any great histrionic demand on her.

Anil Kapoor is becoming quite predictable playing the desi-guy-inside-foreign-suit kind of roles. Yet he adds some good humour by playing his fruit-munching detective. Sameera Reddy is required to look sexy and sound dumb. She does both convincingly.

Two more driving forces of ‘Race’ are Pritam’s music and Allan Amin’s stunts. The car accident at the very beginning of the flick has been choreographed superbly. However, the freefalls and giant leaps could have been better. You can notice the use of cables in a stunt when Saif jumps to save Bipasha from a killer.

Pritam’s music is loud and rocking and suits the mood of the film.

All in all, ‘Race’ is not a bad watch at all. Yes, it could have been much better if the director duo had incorporated more intelligent twists in the story.

Don’t go expecting anything cerebral and you might end up enjoying ‘Race’.

Rating: **1/2

Black And White

Black And White - Hindi Movie

Starring :
Anil Kapoor.... Professor Rajan Mathur
Anurag Sinha.... Numer Qazi
Aditi Sharma.... Shagufta
Shefali Shah.... Roma Mathur

Black And White Free Hindi Movie Online
Black And White Hindi Movie Songs
Black And White Picture Gallery

Black And White Review : Worth a watch

Subhash Ghai, the proverbial showman and the maker of many memorable masala movies, comes up with a pertinent, hard-hitting, slice-of-life film, appropriately titled ‘Black And White’.
The film is about a sombre and brooding suicide bomber who has a change of heart and mind after witnessing the harmony-in-diversity of the friendly people of Chandni Chowk.

Newcomer Anurag Sinha plays a fidayeen from an Afghan terror camp who comes to Delhi on a deadly mission. His target is Red Fort. And he will execute his mission on August 15.

While in Delhi, the would-be bomber takes shelter in the house of a polite and wise poet (Habib Tanvir) in Chandni Chowk and passes himself off as Numer Qazi, a victim of Gujarat riots. In the same locality live the Urdu professor Rajan Mathur (Anil Kapoor) and his sharp-tongued social activist wife Roma ( Shefali Shah ).

Rajan, who sternly believes in religious tolerance and secularism, takes a liking to the quiet and grim Numer.

In the days leading up to his mission, Numer encounters a number of friendly characters in Chandni Chowk, including a pretty girl Shagufta who falls for him. The sullen and stone-hearted Numer struggles with his emotions. On top of it, professor Rajan, his wife Roma and the genteel octogenarian poet give Numer a different perspective of life.

As days pass, Numer finds himself in an unexpected dilemma. On one hand are his deep-rooted fundamentalist beliefs. On the other hand is a faint spark of love, and values of mutual tolerance and humanity that take root in his heart.

‘Black And White’ could easily have fallen into the trap of being a preachy film. Though the film does have a few such moments, it mostly manages to steer clear of the expected, in-your-face clichés that a Bollywood film with a message of communal harmony could have easily pandered to. And the credit for this should go to its director Subhash Ghai, who shows commendable restraint in handling the sensitive subject.

The only time Ghai seems to lose his grip over the plot is in the last half hour of the film when the screenplay is contrived to the director’s convenience. It is in a few of these portions leading up to the climax that the movie becomes unreal and unconvincing.

The film’s leading man Anurag Sinha exudes a simmering intensity befitting his character of a terrorist. The newcomer has few dialogues in the film, yet he gives a palpable persona to his Numer. A notable debut indeed.

Anil Kapoor keeps himself carefully restrained for most part of his role. Shefali Shah is terrific in a brief role. Aditi Sharma just about manages not to ham. Habib Tanvir towers with his screen presence and imposing voice.

‘Black And White’ deals with a very relevant issue in the times of terrorism and racial profiling. Not only does the movie gives a message of hope that terrorists could be reformed, it also questions the way the state goes about dealing with terrorism.

It is an honest and commendable effort by Ghai. And it deserves to be seen at least once.

Rating: ***

'Jodhaa Akbar' -Enchanting but exhausting

Starring

Aishwarya Rai .... Jodha Bai

Hrithik Roshan .... Akbar

Kulbhushan Kharbanda .... Raja Bharmal

Sonu Sood .... Sujamal

Ila Arun .... Maham Anga

Director : Ashutosh Gowarikar

Lyricist : Javed Akhtar

Musician : A R Rahman

By Naresh Kumar Deoshi

Ashutosh Gowarikar’s film ‘Jodhaa Akbar’ enchants you and exhausts you at the same time.
The movie has several great sequences ingeniously conceived by the no-nonsense Gowarikar. But as the film crosses two and half hours of its running time, you begin to notice Gowarikar’s over-indulgence in the subject. Once the slowly blooming romance between the titular lovers reaches its consummation point, the movie begins to drag. From then on, your interest begins to wane.

Granted that the film is unparalleled in its opulence and visual splendor. The Mughal art and architecture has been recreated in the film with meticulous precision. On top of it there are superb (to put it modestly) performances by the leading cast – Hrithik Roshan and Aishwarya Rai . But it is hard to overlook the aberrations that blotch the otherwise flawless screenplay.

Jodhaa Akbar Hindi Movie

Jodhaa Akbar Hindi Movie Songs

Jodhaa Akbar Picture Gallery

A couple of such aberrations come right after the film hits its crescendo: the point where the love between Jodhaa and Akbar is consummated in a brilliantly shot song sequence. From then on the plot seems to slip away from the director’s grip.

The sequence I am talking about has Akbar’s own brother-in-law Shariffuddin staging a rebellion against the emperor. Ashutosh Gowarikar shows a shocking lack of subtlety as Jodhaa, along with a retinue of orderlies, rides a long distance on a horse to inform her husband of an underhand plot of the enemy to kill her prodigal brother, Sujamal ( Sonu Sood ). And she arrives at the battlefield just at the time when her fatally wounded brother is about to breath his last. What follows is the same beaten-to-death cliché of a repentant brother dying in the arms of his sister while mouthing lofty dialogues.

Such unsubtle and filmi treatment of a crucial sequence was not expected from a filmmaker whose past works I have greatly admired.

‘Jodhaa Akbar’ has more such sequences that spoil the otherwise beautiful and enchanting film.
Set in 16th century India, the film begins with the kid emperor Jalaluddin Mohammad presiding over the wars fought on his behalf by the bestial commander Bairam Khan who slays the enemies of the Mughal kingdom without as much as a flinch.

The kingdom expands as the emperor grows to be a handsome king Akbar (Hrithik Roshan) with an empathetic heart for his enemies.

Many Rajputana kingdoms feel threatened by the fast expanding empire of Jalaluddin Akbar. One such Rajput, king Bharmal ( Kulbhushan Kharbanda ) of Amer offers his daughter Jodhaa’s hand to Jalaluddin as a marriage of alliance between two kingdoms.

But the defiant Hindu princess (Aishwarya Rai) puts forth her conditions to Akbar before and after marriage. The conditions are that she should be allowed to practice her religion and worship lord Krishna. The post marriage condition is that Akbar won’t touch her until he has won her heart over.

Thereafter begins the beautiful relation between Akbar and his self-respecting wife as they draw closer to each other in tender moments and are driven apart by cunning plots of those who don’t want their love to succeed.

These moments and this gradual flowering of love between Jodhaa and Akbar is the USP of ‘Jodhaa Akbar’. And it is in such sequences Gowarikar shows his incredible skill as an imaginative filmmaker.

However, my most favourite sequence from the film comes at the fag end of the sufi song Khwaja Mere Khwaja when Akbar goes into a trance-like state while listening to the devotional ode to Khwaja Moinuddin Chisti. He rises from his seat, walks into the whirling dervishes, looks to the sky and begins to whirl. I swear I got goose bumps watching this sequence. This, for me, is Gowarikar at his best.

But the filmmaker disappoints in the second half. In this half there are moments when the film’s plot begins to crumble under its own weight.

Now to the performances.

Hats off to Hrithik Roshan for playing the Mughal emperor with great finesse and restraint. The way he sits on his throne, with his palms resting gracefully on his thighs, the way he wield the sword and the way he walks and talks reeks of everything that’s royal. Hrithik superbly brings a transformation in his character from an indecisive, kind-hearted king to a self-assured emperor who learns to take his own decisions.

Aishwarya Rai is brilliant when it comes to expressing emotions. But she definitely could have done better with the sword.

Sonu Sood as Jodhaa’s muhbola bhai is just about okay.

A R Rahman ’s music grows on you gradually through the course of the film with the instrumental versions of Jashn-e-Bahara and Khwaja Mere Khwaja. The cinematography is topnotch. Be it the panoramic battlefield scenes or the lingering close ups of Hrithik’s sweaty biceps, the camera work in ‘Jodhaa Akbar’ is of superb quality. Praise should also be reserved for Nitin Desai for excellent and authentic recreation of Mughal ambience.

At its core, ‘Jodhaa Akbar’ is a romantic love story. The politics in Akbar’s court and household is more or less an adjoining prop in the plot.

Save for a few shoddy and wishy-washy sequences in the film, ‘Jodhaa Akbar’ is an engaging watch. If only Gowarikar had rid the film of these aberrations, ‘Jodhaa Akbar’ would have been a cinematic masterpiece. In any case it would have been less exhausting.

Rating: ***

'Mithya' 2008 - Refreshingly different

'Mithya 2008' - Refreshingly different

By Nikhil Kumar

Life is what happens while you are busy making other plans. The protagonist of Rajat Kapoor’s film ‘Mithya’ finds this out in a somewhat bittersweet and tragic way.

The film, starring Ranvir Shorey as an ordinary guy stuck in an ever-swirling twister of extraordinary situations, is unpredictable and refreshingly different to its core.

Indiscernibly and cleverly laced with moments of light humour, the plot of ‘Mithya’ straddles across different genres (comedy to thriller to mysterious farce) with incredible aplomb. And a lion’s share of credit for this goes to the director Rajat Kapoor and the film’s leading man and its main driving force – Ranvir Shorey.

Mithya Free Hindi Movie

Mithya Hindi Movie Songs

Mitha Picture Gallery

VK (Ranvir Shorey) is a perpetually struggling actor doing small and forgettable roles in films. His humdrum life is turned turtle after he is abducted by a bunch of gangsters, headed by Gawde ( Naseeruddin Shah ). Gawde and his men want to supplant VK in the position of a rival don whom VK resembles.

After enduring torture by the ganglord’s men and coaxing by his attractive moll ( Neha Dhupia ), VK gives in to the plan. He agrees to impersonate as the don.

But the business of being a don (even if an imposter) has its own perks and pains. By the time VK realizes this, he finds himself in the line of fire.

‘Mithya’ begins on a very casual note but soon takes a winding path strewn with surprises and moments of mirth as the troubled and puzzled protagonist tries to come to grips with unwanted twists in his life.

As soon as he begins to resign to his fate, the movie gets serious but continues to throw surprises just when a viewer begins to settle in his/her seat. And its climax, unexpected and tragic, hits you like a bolt from the blue.

In yet another formidable display of his talent, Ranvir Shorey enacts a complex role with remarkable command and straightforwardness. From gay to dejection, optimism to persecution – emotions flit across Ranvir’s face like quicksilver.

Don’t expect much of Vinay Pathak in this film, for he is relegated against a no-less-impressive ensemble of actors including Brijendra Kala, Naseeuddin Shah, Sourabh Shukla and Harsh Chhaya. Neha Dhupia has a marginal role but she does leave an impression.

Last but not the least, Rajat Kapoor, the film’s director, should be commended for making a unique, somewhat bizarre and goofy film that leaves you puzzling over its plot.

Spanning less than two hours, ‘Mithya’ is concise, yet exhaustive. It’s intriguing, perplexing, shocking, entertaining, and thought provoking. Definitely a film not to be missed.

Rating: ***1/2

Halla Bol 2008~Exclusive Movie Latest Hindi Movie Online

Halla Bol 2008-TOP of the LINE~Exclusive Movie Latest Hindi Movie Online

Starring
Ajay Devgan .... Ashfaque
Vidya Balan .... Sneha
Pankaj Kapur .... Siddhu
Darshan Jariwala .... Gaekwad
Director : Rajkumar Santoshi

'Halla Bol' -A forgettable film made with good intention
By Naresh Kumar Deoshi Film critic

No matter how well intentioned Halla Bol is, the film, at the end of the day, fails to stir you up. Rajkumar Santoshi is back with another film that raises pertinent questions and tries to prick your conscience through a story that has a Santoshi stamp all over it.

At the centre of the story is a protagonist who dares to raise his voice against injustice and, in doing so, makes himself the target of powerful people (a corrupt politician and a liquor baron) whose sons are the perpetrators of the crime.

Halla Bol Movie Download
Halla Bol Music Download
Halla Bol Movie Gallery

What mars ‘Halla Bol’ is Santoshi’s unsubtle and stale treatment of the subject. Even though the director raises a new issue in this film, he gives it the same garb as we have seen in his films like ‘Damini’ and ‘Ghayal’. Among the villains we have a corrupt politician who twists the system to his convenience in full connivance with the police force. And then there are those seen-a-hundred-times sequences of the protagonist’s family being threatened, his car being run-over by a truck at night, his house being attacked by hooligans and many such obvious clichés of Santoshi’s past films.

In a nutshell, ‘Halla Bol’ offers nothing fresh, even though it deals with an entirely new and much relevant subject. You will see what I mean when you get an overview of the story. Sameer Khan ( Ajay Devgan ) is a film star corrupted by stardom. He feels no pangs of conscience in sleeping with girls willing to be couched for a Bollywood break.

A disloyal husband and a selfish actor, Sameer gets his rude awakening when he witnesses the murder of a girl at a party. Even as the killers walk out of the party with their heads held high, Sameer, like other celebrities, prefers to turn a blind eye to the murder. But there is something good in Sameer that provokes him to do soul searching. That good comes from his past. Superstar Sameer Khan once used to be a small town theatre artist called Ashfaque. Along with his guruji Siddhu ( Pankaj Kapur ) he used to perform street plays dealing with social issues.

Ashfaque was a simple but ambitious man whose passion for acting just about surpassed his love for Sneha ( Vidya Balan ), whom he eventually marries. However, with his first big Bollywood break, Ashfaque becomes Sameer Khan. Fame changes not just his name, his character too. Stardom goes to his head. And his selfish ambition alienates him from his wife, his guru and his parents. Sameer lives his lonely, depraved and debauched life until his conscience wakens after witnessing the murder at party.

He decides not to be a mute spectator to injustice. He decides to testify as a witness and bring the culprits, however powerful they be, to justice. What follows reminds you Santoshi’s past films. A sweet-talking corrupt politician (whose son is one of the accused) threatens Sameer with dire consequences if he does not retract from his statement. When cajoling and coercion fail, the politician has his goons terrorize Sameer’s family.

Sameer is ditched by his peers in the film industry. His effigies are burnt by public. And just when it seems to be becoming one man’s fight against the whole system, enters Siddhu, Sameer’s guru and a reformed dacoit. Gradually, Sameer’s fight becomes the fight of avam. The public’s conscience is awakened and the good emerges triumphant over the evil in the end. More than the impact of the story, you carry home with you superb performances by Pankaj Kapur, Darshan Jariwala and Ajay Devgan.

Kapur’s portrayal of Sidhu is so powerful that you cringe in your seat when he stares fixatedly at the camera. Darshan Jariwala plays the sweet-talking corrupt politician with such conviction that you love to hate his character. Ajay Devgan brings a natural seriousness to his role. It is one of those roles that suit Devgan’s natural flair. Vidya Balan is mostly reduced to the margins, but she does get a few meaty scenes. Rajkumar Santoshi’s intentions are noble indeed. But he keeps falling back on his old style of filmmaking in which a corrupt system goes to dangerous extents to muffle a rare call for truth and justice.

‘Halla Bol’ also exposes the hypocrisy of the elite and takes indirect potshots at Bollywood stars who know little else than to dance at marriages and endorse brands. The film required a hard-hitting end, but the writers contrived the screenplay to suit their convenience. As a result, what should have been a riveting, evocative and enlightening end turns out to be a hurried and unconvincing conclusion to the story.

Rating: **

Sunday 2008-Exclusive Comedy Hindi Movie Online

Sunday 2008-Exclusive Comedy Hindi Movie Online

Starring

Ajay Devgan .... ACP Rajvir Randhava

Ayesha Takia .... Seher

Arshad Warsi .... Ballu

Irrfan Khan .... Kumar

Music Album : Sunday

'Sunday' -Fun To Watch

By Naresh Kumar Deoshi Film critic

No choo chaa. No beating about the bush. Let me come straight to the point. Rohit Shetty’s movie ‘Sunday’ is no laugh riot. But it is indeed a good fun to watch once. Thankfully, ‘Sunday’ is not a senseless comedy like Welcome .

It doesn’t string one gag after another without any direction to the story. ‘Sunday’ does have an engaging tale, a murder mystery, at its heart. Around it revolves the humour – a healthy cocktail of situational comedy and plain slapstick. Add to it some stunts, action and romance. And voila, you have the recipe for a true-blue masala entertainer. That is what ‘Sunday’ is. The movie begins with a murder.

SUNDAY Movie Download

SUNDAY Music Download

SUNDAY Movie Gallery

The killer, his/her face unrevealed, dumps the girl’s dead body in a park. Sehar ( Ayesha Takia ) has a gift for mimicking different voices – a talent that she puts to use by working as a dubbing artist for animation films. But she has a habit of forgetting things. On a Saturday night, Sehar, along with her friend Ritu ( Anjana Sukhani ), goes to a discotheque, where two guys try to get fresh with them. Sehar teaches them a lesson in her own way.

The next day when Sehar wakes up, she finds something amiss. Odd things begin to happen to her. A cabbie named Ballu ( Arshad Warsi ), whom she runs into more than once, keeps asking her for his unpaid taxi fare, an exact amount of Rs. 420. A struggling actor named Kumar ( Irrfan Khan ), screams bhoot every time he sees Sehar. And there are also a bunch of goons who are out to kill Sehar.

The poor girl doesn’t know who all these guys are and why they are after her. And there is also an ice-cream-gorging Inspector Rajveer ( Ajay Devgan ) and his Haryanawi colleague Anwar (Mukesh Tiwari), who are open to bribes, and have their own unique way of functioning.

Rajveer falls for Sehar. But as he goes about investigating the murder case, all the clues point to Sehar. And after some brainstorming, he discovers that Sehar cannot remember anything about a particular Sunday in her life, the one right after the night she went to discotheque. The rest of the film is about finding the missing Sunday and linking the pieces of the puzzle together to get to the real killer.

First things first. ‘Sunday’ is not so much of a murder mystery as it is a comedy. And the main drivers on this front are Irrfan Khan and Arshad Warsi. Irrfan is terrific playing a struggling actor who is always dressed in different guises – a lawyer, a ravana, or a don. Irrfan’s style of comedy is unique. He doesn’t do anything goofy or make funny faces, yet with his facial expressions and dialogue delivery, he brings his comic timing to bear. Arshad Warsi shows his flair for comedy yet again, playing a clever cabbie who crams his taxi with passengers or pulls a fast one on a corrupt cop to earn an extra buck.

Ajay Devgan is pretty likeable in a performance that wouldn’t have registered without ample support from his sidekick Mukesh Tiwari, who gets to deliver some of the best lines. Ayesha Takia looks cute in a role that doesn’t put great demands on her acting skills. The music of ‘Sunday’ is average but the film could have done better without the song ‘Loot Liya’. The cinematography is superb.

There is a good stunt sequence on top of the houses of congested Chandni Chowk at the very beginning of the film. The car chase sequence in the second half is pretty ordinary. ‘Sunday’ should be seen mainly for its comedy and suspense. As the missing links fall in place and the dots are connected, the mystery becomes more and more engrossing. But director Rohit Shetty commits hara-kiri in the end.

He doesn’t care to explain to the viewer how the cop (Ajay Devgan) unraveled the mystery and figured out who the killer was. Shetty simply reveals the killer without any logical explanation. Anyway, I didn’t go expecting much logic or methodical approach from ‘Sunday’. Because if you do so, my friend, then the joke is on you.

Rating: ***

'Bombay To Bangkok' -Not a Joyride

Bombay To Bangk 2008-Exclusive Movie Release Online
Starring
Shreyas Talpade .... Shankar
Director : Nagesh Kukunoor

'Bombay To Bangkok' -Not a Joyride

By Nikhil Kumar Film critic, Bollywoodmovies4u.Com

In the season of brainless comedies, Nagesh Kukunoor’s rom-com ‘Bombay To Bangkok’ strives to be different. And it is indeed different to the extent that you will scowl at the “funny” scenes, and laugh at those meant to be serious. Kukunoor’s sense of humour is not the kind an average Bollywood joe is used to. The sight of fried insects and similar gastronomic wonders of Thailand, so often highlighted in the film, is neither funny nor pleasing to the eye.

At best, it makes the popcorn you just munched want to come out. Nor is hilarious the sequence of a quack prescribing Viagra to people and himself getting weak-kneed in front of a sexy massage girl.

Bombay to Bangkok Movie Download
Bombay to Bangkok Music Download
Bombay to BangkokMovie Gallery

Something is definitely amiss in this supposedly light-hearted entertainer. And it is Nagesh Kukunoor ’s attempt to be different. His straying away from what he is best at (sensible and inspiring films like Iqbal and Dor ) and his steering back into the masala genre he previously tried in the mis-adventurous ‘Bollywood Calling’. Enough of brickbats for now. Here is the story. Shankar ( Shreyas Talpade ), a small-time cook in desperate need of money, steals from none other than a dreaded don ( Naseeruddin Shah ), who unleashes his goons and a bling-savvy son to catch the thief. With the don’s men on his trail, Shankar masquerades as a doctor and leaves for Bangkok with a team of real docs on a charitable mission.

There, the quack falls for a beautiful Thai girl Jasmine (Lena Christensen), a medical volunteer who works as a sex worker in a massage parlour at night. As romantic sparks fly between Shankar and Jasmine, she gets willy-nilly drawn into Shankar’s troubles. In all honesty, ‘Bombay To Bangkok’ does have a few hilarious moments. The track between the don’s son, JamK (Vijay Maurya) – an aspiring but tortuous rapper – and a wacky, romantic shrink (Jeneva Talwar) leave you in splits.

And there are other scenes that evoke sporadic spurts of laughter. But mostly the humour remains slapstick and utterly juvenile. Like in the sequence in which the two lovers (Shankar and Jasmine) make fun of words from each other’s language. Shreyas Talpade puts in a sincere performance but is not supported by a solid script. Lena Christensen is eye-candy. Her role doesn’t put much demand on her in terms of acting. Vijay Maurya is good. Manmeet Singh (playing Rachinder, Talpade’s buddy and translator) chips in some good humour.

Naseeruddin Shah is hardly there. ‘Bombay To Bangkok’ also suffers from forgettable music, mediocre cinematography and poor production values. If you are looking for an entertaining weekend, this film is not the answer.

Rating: **