Kranti

Director: Naresh Malhotra

Cast: Bobby Deol, Ameesha Patel, Mukesh Rishi and others






Director Naresh Malhotra preaches in his film Kranti that the best way for a lawmaker to preserve it is by breaking it. The word anarchy comes to mind. Unfortunately, Malhotra chooses to take this preposterous idea to a heading of a revolution. Somewhere, in the film, however, the message becomes blurred beyond recognition.

You have ACP Abhay Pratap Singh (Bobby Deol), a decent man and a sincere police officer who seems to belong to the 'encounter specialist force' of the Mumbai Police, taking arms rather than other conventional means to fight crime. The Commissioner of Police played by Vinod Khanna named Awdesh Pratap Singh follows a more non-violent path of life. In fact, he seems to disapprove of his son's method of tackling the societal scum. Well, yes, Abhay Pratap Singh, is Awdesh's son. And just to make this family photographable, there's a mother thrown in for good measure, played by Rati Agnihotri. Now, there's just one thing missing. So, most predictably, Abhay runs into (very literally) Sanjana (Ameesha Patel) who is a very serious student doing a thesis on a very laughable idea of 'The Honesty of the Mumbai Police'. For this she must take on the guise of a small time con artiste, meanwhile endearing herself to Mr. Barbaric. Love blossoms when the small-time-con-part-time-lover-rarely-studying Sanjana is nearly killed in a incident in which our truth seeker chases a terrorist. At this point, the plot defies logic and reality and continues to do so, through the rest of the movie as well.

Now, comes the so-called twist-in-the-tale. We meet a Kargil veteran, Colonel Krishnakant who is the object of hate for a certain Osama-sort of character. Mahendra Rana (Kabir Bedi) funds militants and his pet project when we intrude is to kill the Colonel.

Abhay now encounters Rana's work thanks to his swift techniques of justice, and realizes that the bullet on his lady love, was fired from a weapon in Rana's possession. This makes Abhay really mad. And well, he saves the trouble of going ballistic till the end, so we wait.

Unfortunately, since Awdesh and Abhay don't see the same side of things, our commissioner does not think it fit to arrest Rana. Well, now, Abhay does go ballistic. He takes matters into his own hands, which he has been doing anyway through the film. One thing leads to another and our hero goes on to kill two of Rana's men. Somehow, this is catastrophic, since Abhay now, is charged with murder. So, of course, logic demands that he clear his name (logic seems to be as effervescent as the script).

At the end, as a case of poetic justice, (no U-turns in the story, no let ups (since it's all a let up), and definitely no punch), father and son both get rid of Rana, which means that everyone lives happily ever after and that Abhay continues to believe in his motto, "No FIR, No Inquiry, Faisla on the spot" So much for our love for bureaucracy.

In terms of acting, Ameesha Patel would best forget this performance of hers, if she does want to continue acting. Bobby Deol doesn't seem to be knowing what he's doing on camera. It has to be by even his standards, one of the most disengaging performances he's ever given. Vinod Khanna, probably is the only reason why there can be a claim to have an acting team on the film cast. Rati Agnihotri also seems very ill fitting in her role and isn't quite sure what her need to be on camera is. Kabir Bedi's character like almost all the characters is wasted. It just goes to show that a good cast, is not really any good if the director cannot deliver. And, what also bombs are the dialogues, which are at best cheesy and really empty, more like a desperate attempt to pass on a philosophy. Technically speaking, the whole film rates on an extremely average scale. There is no saving grace, even the music, which lilts at times but mostly collapses. Overall, the verdict: Disappointing, not that we expected much anyway.