David Dhawan at his WORST!. Review on Rascals

Once upon a time, a 50+ but dashing actor decides to jump into film production, just like his other counterparts. He wants to launch his banner with a grand film but due to some reason, he doesn’t come across a right script. Hence, he calls his old friend, a hit comedy director. “I acted in your first directorial venture…now it’s time for you to direct my first production venture”, said the actor-turned-producer to the happy-go-lucky director who couldn’t refuse the offer. The director and team fails to come up with a fitting script but the producer still gives the go ahead. But who’ll act in a film which has such a shoddy screenplay? But the actor-producer manages it! He calls his actor-friend and uses the same modus operandi. “I acted in your production 2 Diwalis back…now your turn!”, he told him and got him on board. An actress who’s struggling to break off her ‘psycho’ image jumps at the opportunity of acting in a comedy film, now studded with ‘established names’. A foreigner model who’s offered an item number-special appearance combo too joins the bandwagon. The story-script is laden with extreme stupidity and buffoonery but no one says a word. All carry on their work, hoping that the film miraculously will succeed. But alas! Rascals fails terribly! Easily one of the worst films to come out of 2011! A-V-O-I-D!

The story of the movie: On a single day, Anthony (Arjun Rampal), a gangster, gets conned by 2 conman – Chetan (Sanjay Dutt) and Bhagat (Ajay Devgn). The conmen didn’t know each other then but the battle of one-upmanship emerges as soon as they clash. Both come across the millionaire Khushi (Kangna Ranaut) and fall for her. But since both are conmen, their methods of wooing her are twisted. While Chetan pretends to be a social worker and the pioneer of ‘Art Of Giving’, Bhagat pretends to be a blind ex-navy officer, looking for love. While doing so, both also try to bring the other down.

Rascals begins on a good note actually. The animated titles were damn creative and Arjun-Ajay-Sanju’s entry does raise laughs. However, come Shake It Saiyaan and the film goes downhill and how! Barring one or two scenes here and there, the entire film from this point is shockingly silly and bland. Worse, it’s not even remotely funny. 2 conmen trying to outdo each other and win a hottie’s love could have turned into a terrific script. But unfortunately, established names like David Dhawan, Yunus Sajawal (screenplay) and Sanjay Chhel (dialogues) who have entertained us since years terribly fail this time in coming up with even decent jokes. The situations are totally unappealing and even the songs are mediocre. One does expect fireworks to happen during the twist in the church scene and another twist in the finale. Yet, it hardly makes any difference as again it wasn’t really shocking or unpredictable.

However, when it comes to performances, thankfully there aren’t any complaints. Both Sanjay Dutt and Ajay Devgn have a terrific comic timing and share a great chemistry. That both are great friends off-screen also must have been an icing on the cake. However, more than Sanju, it’s Ajay who impresses the most (watch out for him in the final ‘few months later’ sequence). Great work and I hope this is the last time I see these 2 fantastic actors in a worst film like Rascals!

Both Kangna Ranaut and Lisa Haydon look super-hot and ooze lots of oomph! Kangna gets over the top at places though. Wish we can see the old Kangna back! As for Lisa, she didn’t have much to do but is sure to score in her career thanks to her sizzling avatar in the film! Arjun Rampal was damn good! In fact, the film came to life everytime he appeared on screen!

Hiten Paintal (Nano) was at his best but the sudden intro of his character was bewildering. Chunkey Pandey (as BBC) was hilarious. Satish Kaushik and Mushtaq Khan put their best foot forward.

Vishal-Shekhar’s music was strictly okay. Only one song that’s happening is undoubtedly Shake It Saiyaan. Sunidhi Chauhan sets the song on fire. So does the lovely sets and Lisa’s hotness quotient. Sadly, the lip-sync goof up in the song spoils the mood to an extent. I noticed it in the promos on TV but expected the editor to correct it in the final print. Shockingly, no one cared to do so!

I often feel that one can come up with a good film even with a weak plot. However, the writers completely messed up. Yunis Sajawal, who was at his best in his last film Singham does an extremely shoddy job. Dialogues (Sanjay Chhel) to an extent were witty but hardly managed to raise laughs.

David Dhawan has been one of my favourite filmmakers as his films possessed the typical humour and can be easily seen over and over again. However, he faltered in Shaadi No.1, then in Do Knot Disturb and now in Rascals. It shocking how come he okayed such an apology of a script! Worse, the midas ‘David Dhawan touch' was missing in the film. The only 2 scenes where David Dhawan truly shine is Sanju coming out of prison admist applause and of course the bank robbery sequence! Mr Dhawan, hope to see you back on track with Chashme Baddoor remake!

On the whole, Rascals is a super-sized disappointment! The promos never seemed exciting but yet expectations did arise because of Sanjay Dutt, Ajay Devgn and most importantly, David Dhawan. However, the film hardly has any funny moment (and the ones which were there were shown on TV!). I still can’t believe such a film was made and then backed by big names! The film has the advantage of 4-day weekend but in the long run, it’s surely gonna suffer losses!

My rating-* ½