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An action-packed long play
ith all the hype surrounding Fahim Burney’s debut directorial venture Pyar hi pyar mein, one was expecting a blockbuster that would breathe new life into an industry that has recently seen a ray of hope in the shape of Yeh dil aap ka hua. Alas, that was not to be. With all its pluses, the movie still failed to click at the box office, perhaps because it packed far more than people were willing to swallow in one go.
But before one dwells on the film itself, a bit of advice for the contemplation of the government: Could they please do away with the archaic law of playing the national anthem at the beginning of every show? Nowhere in the world is this practice still in vogue, and for good reason. It is highly disrespectful to the flag as a considerable percentage of the audience refuses to budge from their seats, while a good many who show up late continue to speak and move about locating their seats with complete disregard for the anthem.
Coming back to the movie, as credits rolled on the screen, one couldn’t help noticing that no attention had been paid to proof reading. With spellings like ‘dubing’ and ‘nagitives,’ it didn’t exactly create a great impression on the audience.
The plot, though interesting and certainly a change from the norm which tends to be either slapdash comedy or highly predictable stuff, is perhaps too radical for the digestion of our still largely conservative public. And to boot, largely unknown faces, a couple of which often wear deadpan expressions, expounded the problem.
The opening scene is impressive enough with a well-executed dance-tableau performance of The story of life by students of an art academy. Sara (Anchal) and Ashal (Ashal) are partners in the academy and in love with each other. Ashal has dreams of striking it rich before settling down to marital bliss and fate brings him face-to-face with the one person that is determined to make his dreams become a reality — Nisha (Nisha).
Nisha, enamoured by Ashal, sweeps him off to Dubai to establish a branch of the academy there. Ashal gets involved with her, although he still loves Sara, and Nisha manages to create enough hurdles between them to make Sara marry a loving business tycoon, Akhter. Meera makes a guest appearance as a dancer. Ashal spots her dancing at a nightclub and begins to pursue her. And all this before the interval!
After a couple of dance sequences, Ashal discovers that the woman he has been pursuing is not Sara, but her twin sister Anchal. Before he can think of starting with her where he had left off with Sara, he discovers she has a fiance, Sameer. He brings her to Pakistan, fiance in tow, to reunite with her mother and sister and discovers that Sara has become a widow. She gives birth to a son and her step mother-in-law gets her kidnapped to coerce her to marry her younger son, so as to keep the wealth in the family.
To find out what ensues, one must watch the film. Suffice to say, enough happens in the movie to seem like a long television play or a short serial. Some of the developments that take place are totally unnecessary and one is left wondering why they were incorporated to begin with, except perhaps to give the required footage to the film. For instance, the sole reason for Anchal’s presence seems to be an excuse to choreograph two glamorous songs on the twin sister, since they couldn’t possibly be depicted on her as a widow. The presence of a villain, Grenwich, also appears to be superfluous, for he arrives and disappears without making any difference to the plot.
Other than the fact that there is simply too much happening, the one aspect that detracts from the film is that some of the concepts introduced are largely unacceptable. Nisha could well have played the role of ‘the other woman’ without having to resort to drinking, smoking and sleeping with the hero, or for that matter, kidnapping him, brief as it may have lasted. And similarly, there were no justifiable reasons for Ashal to be drinking and sleeping around — other than the fact that he didn’t have to strive hard for either.
While it is heartening to see new and attractive faces finally gracing the silver screen, and Nisha and Sameer definitely have talent, both Ashal and Anchal need to be groomed further. Anchal has a tendency to speak with her eyes shut and both of them have frequently delivered their lines sans expression. Anchal’s make-up, especially as Sara, is horrendous, while she looks considerably better in her role as the twin sister.
The costumes are pleasing to the eye and the only grouse one has is Anchal’s insistence on wearing heavy walking shoes under most of her slinky, sexy outfits. The songs are well choreographed and have catchy lyrics, especially Dharak dharak keh kehta hai dil and the cinematography is slick. One does wonder why there was such hype about leading film stars for a guest role, as Faheem Burney stated. A dance sequence in the film that eventually went to Meera, though it was an enjoyable number, didn’t strike one as anything particularly spectacular.
On the whole, one feels that the basic fault with Fahim Burney’s direction lies in his treatment of the film as a bold television play. Otherwise, the film is packaged well and other than the one time when Ashal and Nisha are shown as speaking on stage without mikes, he has been quite meticulous about details and logical sequencing of events. Maybe he’ll be wiser the next time round.
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