FUN WITH A COOL TWIST
REVIEW: Mehboob Bawa
A GENTLEMAN. Directed by Krishna DK and Raj Nidimoru.With Siddharth Malhotra, Jacqueline Fernandez, Suneil Shetty, Darshan Kumar, Hussain Dalal, Amit Mistr y. At Nu Metro, Canal Walk. KNOWN for their offbeat sense of humour, director duo Krishna D K and Raj Nidimoru infuse much of the same, in their latest venture. The hit and miss script tells the story of a straight-laced guy with perhaps more than what meets the eye.
Gaurav is the guy moms would love as their son-in-law. He’s perfect marriage material; owns his own home, is a great cook, has a steady job.
But Kavya, the girl he has his eye on, thinks he’s a tad boring. Enter Rishi, a dead ringer for Gaurav, who is part of a national intelligence squad run by a crooked officer.
He wants out, but his superior sets the squad after him as he has proof of their illegal operation.
What’s the connection between Gaurav and Rishi and how will this impact on Kavya and others in their life? The sting in the tale is quite clever and should take most audiences by surprise.
The film is set in Miami, Bangkok, Mumbai and Goa. The scenic locations are stunning and the cinematography by Roman Jakobi is mostly good. But some of the cameras used in the action scenes don’t match up to others and this results in a sub standard look.
Both directors have contributed to the screenplay which is written by Sita Menon with Sumit Batheja adding the dialogues.
Perhaps it’s a case of too many cooks spoiling the broth as the film is lightweight in the story department. The film runs for two hours and 12 minutes but could easily have been a 90-minute affair.
The first half trudges along too leisurely as we get to watch Gaurav and Kavya’s relationship. Once Rishi enters the fray, the thrills pick up and so does the pace.
The second half is pretty good as a result of some hilariously funny scenes courtesy of the supporting cast, especially Amit Mistry as a goon in Miami who is still typically Indian and Hussain Dalal as Gaurav’s friend, initially drawn into a situation against his will.
Rajit Kapoor and Supriya Pilgaonker are a hoot as Kavya’s parents and the scene of them in Gaurav’s house, with some strange happenings taking place, is hilarious.
So while the supporting cast provide much of the humour, it’s left to the two leads to lend the sparkle and carry the weight of the film.
Sadly, they’re not up to the task. Sidharth tries his best and certainly looks the part. He carries off the boy next door look well and is suitably ripped with six-pack abs as the secret agent. But his characterisation is poor.
All Jacqueline Fernandez has to do as Kavya is look sexy and well, that’s really it. So she fits the part, but her acting capabilities leave much to be desired.
Suneil Shetty, making a return to the big screen after a lengthy absence, is also poor. He too suffers as a result of weak character development.
The music is good, but out of sync with the film. The songs are dropped in without much thought.
Overall, the film is just on the right side of average. The humour is good, it has a cool twist, the action is thrilling and the lead pair are good to look at.