Wednesday, February 22, 2006

Zinda - Movie Review

 I am a huge fan of the Sanjay Gupta-Mahesh Manjrekar-Sanjay Dutt team. Their movies may not make sense, usually they end up being stupid movies. Their movies start superbly, are shot stylishly, and their technical team is one of the best. Their movies action scenes are superb, cinematography is comparable to the best of hollywood , but their only and major problem is that they start shooting with an incomplete script. So their climaxes always end up being rushed and dont fit in with the rest of the movie. It was this way with Musafir and it's the same with Zinda.

The movie is all about the kidnapping of Sanjay Dutt (a successful guy called 'Bala'jeet), his 14 years with his captors, and his revenge.The movie is entirely located in Bangkok.Bala has a wife (Celina Jaitley) who is also pregnant,so everybody's really happy, suddenly Bala disappears. He's put in a cell for 14 years, no torture and all, in fact he isn't even allowed to die. After 14 years Bala is released and he's given cool clothes, and some cash. Bala meets up with a cabbie called Jenny(the 'sexy' Lara Dutta),and she drives him around to all the eateries in and around Bangkok.I forgot to mention that Bala was served Breaded Pork for the 14 years in his cell, so he's trying to find out who cooked those breaded pork for him for those last 14 years. These scenes are shot very well and till here the script is very tight and promising, so is the music ('Strings' with their 'Yeh hai meri Kahaani..'). The 14 years spent in captivation is also shown well, the passage of time marked by the television set in the room ( yeah, Bala was living in luxury).The movie is terribly violent, close-ups of stitching of skin, drilling people, plucking teeth with hammers and all.

Then suddenly John Abraham (Rohit Chopra), comes forward, he's the guy who's responsible for kidnapping and holding Bala captive. He tells Bala to find out why. But Bala is too busy taking the clothes off Jenny. Movie's really well taken till here. But then comes the suspense, why Rohit held Bala for so long .... long back, really long back,when Bala was still in his School shorts, and when Rohit was sucking his thumb, Bala lied to his friends that he had sex with Rohit's 14-year old elder sis.Rohit's sis becomes the butt of all jokes at school and finally she commits suicide. Rohit grows up, becomes a big business tycoon, kidnaps Bala , Takes care of Bala's kid (a daughter) and kills Nisha, Bala's wife. He waits till Bala's daughter becomes 14-years old , the same age when his elder sis died. Then he releases Bala , and puts his daughter on sale at the famous Bangkok Flesh market. Bala doesn't have any friends anymore and can't do anything, so he kills Rohit, comes back to his old house, and starts sobbing there, and surprise of surprises .... Bala's daughter is there , all fine and happy. It's the worst possible ending anyone could give to a movie so well taken till the first half. sad, thats all i can say. anyways worth a watch

RATING : **1/2