May 24, 2003 03:07 PM
5565 Views
(Updated May 24, 2003 03:15 PM)
This one's for you Sita .... as requested in Member Requests. I would not want to call it a movie ''review'' as such, coz' a lot of our fellow MS members have already taken the pains to write about this flick in detail. Rather, I would call it a plain and direct opinion from my side about this movie .... Direct Dil Se !!
Like myself, if you're ever holed up in a theatre that plays cantankerous cacophony such as this, first make sure you carry ear muffs to shield against the yelling on the screen. Take the seat closest to the exit. And make sure you're not in the company of anyone you even vaguely know. Else, you'll spend a good while looking away from the screen, or you might get caught faintly giggling to misplaced sexual innuendos, laboriously inserted expletives (and beeps), tired toilet humour or a feminist frau dropping her pallu for a pedestrian who fancies her cleavage.
Propelled by a promising title, I entered expecting the latest status report on the earthy Mumbai chawl of Sai Paranjpye, Saeed Mirza or TV series Hum Panchi Ek Dal Ke. What we get is a hundred or so characters, each forgotten about by the time they make their second entry, each more bumbling than the previous one that ''scholar'' (Aman Verma) bumps into while apparently doing ''research'' on this anything-but-a-chawl (sack the art director). Add to the shindig : a cooked up Sati ''performance,'' a sex worker residing in one of the rooms, a builder who wants to build an ''imarat,'' da da da ....
Okay, I give up. There is actually (and intentionally) no plot here. No actors either, only hamsters -- a head-throbbing cocktail of luscious leading ladies mating Mahesh Manjrekar's Vaastav alumni association.
After flogging references to every Hindi film (a la MTV's Filmi Funda), pointless parodies to call a soundtrack, sudden transformations into loud regressive public service messages, you wonder if this is a spoof that takes itself too seriously or a spoof that ends up spoofing itself.
A C-grade Ram Leela play by a bunch of chawl buddies should beat this perverted juvenility hollow, as one wonders why producers' associations had a problem allowing this sick flick to release in theatres because of a supposed ban on new films. The pot of Hindi films overflows with duds that make you scream, ''Whaaaat ?'' a zillion times while the movie is on. But if you haven't seen ''Praan Jaye Par Shaan Na Jaye,'' seriously, you ain't seen nothin' yet.
P. S. Of course, as usual, different minds, different opinions. All fellow MS members, kindly post your comments as well as reviews and ideas on this movie, since I think it is really so, so ''out-of-the-blue.'' Thanks `n` take care ....
