May 05, 2004 05:43 PM
1894 Views
(Updated May 05, 2004 05:43 PM)
If you are in a mood to watch SRK as an invincible Superman (a shorter version minus the cape and the muscles) non-stop in every frame, 'Main Hoon Na' will satiate you amply.
The movie is inspired by so many hit flicks stretching back into the 70s that one loses count by the time the intermission comes in. At over 3 hours the movie stretches long and failed to invoke any emotion other than stoic acceptance that SRK can get away with anything.
With themes/ideas lifted straight with little or no change from Matrix, K3G, Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, Masoom, Sholay, Hum Kissi Se Kum Nahin... just to name a few, the film shows an absolute lack of fresh ideas which is disappointing considering that a new Director is at the helm and with SRK as the producer the audience would have welcomed anything ‘offbeat’.
Stereotyping and caricatures of college faculty and a very unrealistic portrayal of student life and a foolish ‘Mission Milap’ limited to an exchange of a paltry 50 prisoners with Pakistan is the mainstay of this movie.
Lady professors sashaying in revealing attire and competing for ogling rights with students who are perpetually displaying most of their midriff is the film producer’s idea of college life. With a gangly frame and bird’s nest for hair, Zayed Khan struggles through a role that would have been a cake-walk for actors who unfortunately do not have the family name to guarantee such roles. Sushmita Sen does not have to even try to act as the role demands none.
Suniel Shetty as a Patriotic Terrorist badly in need of a hair-cut is more expressive than a piece of dead wood. Kiron Kher does a combo of Shabana Azmi in Masoom and Jaya Bachan in K3G with practised ease. Satish Shah brings some comic relief with a spitting act that most of us can identify with from our own school experiences. Boman Irani & Bindu do justice to their brief roles.
As for Shahrukh Khan, no demands are made on him in this movie except perhaps in the fight scenes and so breezes through the role with ease. He continues to struggle in the few emotional scenes and one gets the feeling that he is trying to stifle a laugh when he is crying. His dream of emulating Superman comes true in his home production as we watch him flying through the air, dodging bullets, overtaking a jeep in a cycle-rickshaw, lifting a much heavier and taller Zayed with one hand and surviving gun-wounds and grenade attacks that would have crippled lesser mortals.
If this confusing movie becomes a hit it will be only for the super-star status of SRK and not because of any intrinsic values in the movie itself. I look forward to Farhan Akthar’s Lakhshya to provide the soothing balm after this inane stuff.
