Film: Go

Director: Manish Srivastav

Producer: Ram Gopal Varma

Cast: Nisha Kothari, Rajpal Yadav, Kay Kay Menon, Ravi Kale, Gautam Gupta, Govind Namdeo, Shereveer Vakil

Rating: 1.5/5

Yes, you must have expected the rating. Given the consistency of  Factory’s inconsistency in producing sub-average fare, ‘Go’ is strictly worthy of reviewing only with respect to RGV’s earlier (terrible) flops rather than as an independent entity itself. Obviously, it does not have merit on either ground.

Go is Daud rehashed. Even Jungle rehashed. And not in a pleasant way. The film has the intertwining of a love-story and some chor-police capers as the premise. A young couple who are forever meeting and mating on the beach run away to Goa to marry (because it has a beach, of course) but get entangled with a corrupt CM’s search for evidence of his crimes, ultimately colliding with the police in search of both of the above. Calling the ensuing melee interesting would be extremely generous. 

The film is at best patchy with a flow so jerky it would give auto rides a run for their money. Surprisingly the story and screenplay aren’t all that bad. Cliched yes, but they did have a potential of satisfying its audience if well-handled. Alas, that is not the case. Direction, narrative flow, editing, the whole approach about the film is amateurish. The immaturity reflects in characterisations, in creating complex situations, in dialogues. Until, one decides to stop counting how many times over the story was killed.

The film has a choice three moments when it lifts itself off the jaded path it assiduously digs for itself. One is the jail scene with Rajpal Yadav when he is getting beaten up. The second is the end of the chase scene post-interval and the third is the pre-climax which is a louder and hammier version of the climax of Andaz Apna Apna but side-splitting in its goofiness. The 1.5 rating is solely earned by the hilarity of these few scenes and nothing else.

On the performances, the less said the better. Kay Kay as the quirky policeman surprises in a non-role. Surprises because one usually expects only the best from him. His portrayal is as confusing (and bad) as his role. Completely indeterminate of his loyalties his character leaves us confounded till the end whose side is he on, the law or the lawless? Neither does one know whether he is supposed to evoke laughter, warmth or suspicion. Not a deliberate measure to evoke suspense. Just a classic case of inadequate and lazy characterisation.

Similarly, it is also indeterminate if the CM’s character is etched as nerveless and inefficient or that Ravi Kale’s portrayal makes him look like the ultimate wimp. The CM of Maharashtra ends up looking like a meagre MLA from an even more meagre constituency. Acting, writing, direction, everything fails here.

New-comer Gautam does a few things right here and there but at the end of it, all you remember is his great rippling muscles. Sans screen presence, voice, dialogue delivery, looks and acting skills he seems like the perfect addition to RGVs finds who never do a second movie. 

And coming to RGV’s latest ‘belle’ Nisha Kothari. One wonders what her brief was for it to have gone so drastically wrong. The ‘actress’ moans, groans, shouts, screams, whines, simpers and goes through all the motions that make her look like a retard rather than a nubile teen. The daftness of her character makes one feel that the director got the casting right though.

Rajpal Yadav, is his usual self, with the same stock of screaming humour and Sherveer Vakil has one or two expressions that suffice for his ‘acting’. Thankfully his face is hidden behind those luscious locks most of the time.

While we extol the virtues of this brilliant film, a special mention needs to be made of the choreography and lyrics. Not music, cinematography or editing because they are consistent with the rest of the film in their worthless-ness. But if there is something worse than the film it is its songs and dances. They hit an all-time low with over-worked imagination in the former and under-worked in the latter. While choreography tries to get away with presenting freaky as unconventional the lyricist tries to get away with posing sounds as proper words. ‘Ooooh’, ‘Tana dhin’ etc are his excuse for lyrics.