Film: Hastey Hastey
Banner: Go Cam Films P. Ltd
Cast: Jimmy Shergill, Rajpal Yadav, Nisha Rawal, Monishka, Shakti Kapoor
Director: Toony, Ramanjit Juneja
Producer: Ashutosh Bajpay, Shivaram Kumar
Rating: 1.5/5
A medley of moods without direction or definition. This suffices to describe this week’s misadventure called Hastey Hastey.
With Jimmy Sheirgill, Nisha Rawal and Monishka Gupta in the leads, the movie is about a young man Neel who is a brilliant student with aspirations of turning this brilliance into commercial success. He meets and falls in love with Maya, an upper-class Catholic who is charmed by Neel’s simplicity and brilliance.
The movies ambles along when we are introduced to the third but important keg of this love-story, Tanvi, Neel’s business associate who helps him set-up the call centre project. Tanvi lusts after Neel and is determined to have him. When her charms don’t have the desired effect, she turns in her machinations which lands Neel in quite a soup. She successfully manages to disrupt his flowering love life too. The sorting of this mess, is, you guessed it, the climax of the film.
In an attempt to entertain with a message the movie makes a potpourri of our famous masala films throwing in suspense, romance, comedy and what-not in full measure. The screenplay staggers on resplendent with extended pieces of comedy, Rajpal Yadav’s exploits with women far beyond his league which makes us wonder if that is the central theme. Then there are times it meanders into a sunny love-story where nothing happens but the couple meeting, smiling, dancing and proclaiming their love the way couples do. This track even ends with a perfect Serendipity-type climax lifted ceremoniously from that charming film.
Of the cast Sheirgill looks too tired of everything going on around him and ends up overdoing the staid, simple college-guy bit. Control becomes half-hearted and he almost looks like he wandered onto the sets wondering what’s up while the camera rolled. Not something we are used to seeing of in Sheirgill. The two female debutantes present a pretty picture but that’s that. While Rawal looks too anorexic and smiles too much Gupta tries hard to sizzle but does not quite measure up. While not too bad at performing, Rawal definitely needs to work on her diction which is as appalling as her voice. Yadav as usual is at his hammiest best with not one but three roles. He is entertaining if you like his brand of humour and his style of buffoonery.
The film serves up some excellent panoramic views of New York and Manhattan, with its sky scrapers, Brooklyn Bridge and blue waters. Music is average and so are the dances. Nothing imaginative or interesting here. Pretty much the same as the rest of the film.
Although it could have turned into a nice youthful film, sadly it did not. You’d do well to stay away from this one.
