Pleasant and likeable in parts
By Subhash K Jha FILM: Chennai ExpressCAST: Shah Rukh Khan, Deepika PadukoneDIRECTION: Rohit ShettyNo out-takes! Is this really a Rohit Shetty film? Every film of the Gol Maal director has so far ended with out-takes giving us entertaining glimpses from during the making of the film. Here those trademark Shetty out-takes are replaced by a Honey Singh track which celebrates Rajnikanth and the lungi.The rest of the film resembles those typical sambar-and-sandalwood creations by K Raghvendra Rao, and worse still, Raj Kanwar’s Dhai Akshar Prem Ke where Aishwarya to escape her parental wrath at her elopement, introduces to her family a man she has just met as her soul-mate.Of course, there are the flying cars exploding in the air to make sure we know that all said and drummed, this is a Rohit Shetty presentation.Packaged with pickled precision, peppered with just the right doses of naughty jokes and precocious pranks that go well with Shah Rukh’s 40-year-old brat’s act, Chennai Express is the kind of non-toxic comic entertainer where the most damaging double-entendres you’d get is a Tamil word that sounds like Angelina Jolie’s name.That brings me to another major hurdle in the heap of hilarity that Shetty builds so meticulously in the first-half.The generous outflow of Tamil that seems initially engaging (more so, since Shah Rukh shares our non-comprehension of the rapidfire Tamilian cloudburst that accompanies Deepika’s quicksilver character) begins to come in the way as the narration grows older and runs out of energy.But then there is the sprightly Deepika as the runaway Tamilian girl who piles on to the North Indian mithaiwala stranger to escape marrying the boorish fiancee back home in her village in Tamil Nadu.We’ve seen Kareena Kapoor do the chirpy runaway train traveller in Jab We Met. Deepika brings a special filtered-coffee flavour to her chirpy character. Even that broad hammy accent grows on us.Yes, we like! Here she is the only Rohit Shetty team member (and I use the term “team” since Shetty generously credits the direction to himself and his team) who seems to have a firm grip over her rudderless dithering character.Deepika plays Meena Amma with flavourful flourish. She is specially delightful in three key sequences, two of them comic and the other unexpectedly sombre.In the sequence where her character turns into a sleeping, kicking and convulsive zombie, she’s unbelievably goofy. It’s not just Shah Rukh who gets a kick out of that scene.Would Rohit Shetty please do a full-fledged out-and-out comedy with Deepika? That, Chennai Express is not. It is a half-hearted but laugh-hearted effort that makes the fatal error of taking itself too seriously.Towards the end when the utterly shammed climactic fight ensues, we even have a long speech by Shah Rukh on the social status of the girl child.Not now, please!As we squirm at the attempt to turn comedy into a serious business we look back at the rest of the film with some amount of warmth and affection.Some of the long shots of the train winding through green acres are breathtaking. And Shah Rukh’s first meeting with Deepika’s father over a bridge over a fast-flowing river is shot with amazing brio.Shah Rukh pokes a whole lot of good-natured fun at his now-ageing lover-boy persona. There are tongue-in-cheek references to Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge and several other Shah Rukh Khan films and songs including the introductory South Indian lines from the Jiya jale song in Dil Se.Rohit Shetty is more in command of his canvas here than in his last comedy Bol Bachchan. But the self-deprecatory laughter is still not good enough. Somewhere you feel the one-line plot (okay, if not one then two-line plot) is stretched into an unwelcome second-half where nothing really happens. Even the humour tracks stops short beyond a point.But there is some genuine steam and spark in the early part of the film.Chennai Express is pleasant and likeable in parts. But it does nothing for Shah Rukh Khan’s imdomitable star power except to tell us he can still play a 40-year Rahul without faltering.That we already know. – IANSMission of vengeanceFILM: Ninja II: Shadow of a Tear CAST: Scott Adkins,Vithaya Pansringarm, Mika Hijii, Shun Sugata DIRECTION: Isaac Florentine Fight everyone and trust no one: it’s the code of survival practised by martial arts master Casey Bowman (Scott Adkins) after his life of domestic bliss is shattered by a savage act of violence. With the help of his friend Nakabara (Kane Kosugi), Casey retrains his responses and elevates his battle skills to seek justice for his wife’s murder. He stealthily tracks the man responsible on his mission of vengeance, but just when he has his prey cornered, an unexpected twist forces him to see even those closest to him as enemies. In the ultimate confrontation, Casey must reflect on his teachings to become an invisible warrior worthy of the title Ninja. Adkins isn’t called upon to do much acting, but he broods and glowers effectively.Beyond his impressive physical skills, what he really brings to the film is his commitment to the authenticity of the action. — from the web.In search of the right balanceFILM: Badges of fury CAST: Jet Li, Wen Zhang, Shishi LiuDIRECTION: Wong Tsz Ming When a series of eerie murders erupt across Hong Kong, two trouble making cops are assigned to the case. Young maverick Wang (Zhang Wen) is a reckless risk-taker, and grizzled vet Huang (Jet Li) is fed up with cleaning up his rookie’s messes. After discovering all the victims were former boyfriends of aspiring starlet Liu, the detectives (one of them now posing as her lover) are caught in a deadly game to lure the killer out. Sadly, despite a hefty helping of action, Wong struggles to find the right balance. On the surface, Badges of Fury seems to have all the ingredients of an old school Hong Kong action classic. The cast boasts a number of proven martial arts stars.But instead of being a high-octane cop thriller, Badges of Fury is first and foremost a comedy - an incredibly broad one at that. — from the web.DVDs courtesy: Saqr Entertainment Stores, Doha