Film: Sunday

Cast: Ajay Devgan, Irrfan Khan, Arshad Warsi, Ayesha Takia, Ali Asgar, Anjana Sukhani, Murli Sharma, Vrajesh Hirjee

Special appearance: Tusshar Kapoor, Esha Deol

Director: Rohit Shetty

Producer: Kumar Mangat

Presenter: Eros International

Rating: 6/10

Rohit Shetty directed Sunday is packed with laughs galore and is captivating on the suspense front too. Ajay Devgan, Arshad Warsi and Irrfan Khan give super performances.

The intrigue factor is set in at the beginning of the movie with the murder of a girl, whose body was found beside a lake. The movie takes interesting twists and turns and is a hilarious ride from then onwards.

Seher and her friend Ritu (Anjana Sukhani) go clubbing on Saturday night and get onto the wrong side of two wannabes. That in turn leaves Seher feeling oozy with the date rape drug Rohypnol, which also leads to temporary memory loss. A day in her life – Sunday – goes missing and she has no clue of what transpired after she left the club.

Seher then keeps bumping into a bunch of unknown people who seem to know her. The first being a taxi driver Ballu (Arshad Warsi), then his friend Kumar Mangat (Irrfan Khan) and a bunch of hooligans who are after her life. While Ballu keeps asking her for his taxi fare, Kumar cries ‘bhoot, bhoot’ as soon as he sees her. Seher, on the other hand has no clue as to who these people might be.

What’s more, another man has been murdered the same night Sehar loses her memory. As her beau-to-be ACP Rajveer Randhava (Ajay Devgan) tries to reconstruct the events of the ‘missing Sunday’, the mystery deepens. While Rajveer is convinced that Seher is innocent, he is also equally sure that she is linked to everything.

The movie’s greatest strength lies in its comic timing. The camaraderie between Warsi and Khan coupled with sprinkles of humor from Devgan keeps the momentum going.

In the first thirty minutes, various pieces of a jigsaw puzzle are haphazardly presented to you, which make little sense. The remaining pieces are slowly but surely introduced in the story. If there is a weakling in the movie, it is the climax. While unexpected, the climax lacks impact. It fails miserably to bring out the “Oh My God” reaction that you expect from a murder mystery.

The action sequences were well crafted. Special mention must be made of the action sequence between Ballu, Kumar and the thugs in an abandoned warehouse. However, one wishes the climax had been sans the long car chase, crashes and kicks that were shown from three different angles, which gave a déjà vu feel of dramatic action replays straight out of a saas-bahu serial.

Dialogues by Sajid and Farhad are punchy and crisp, whereas the editing keeps you gripped. While the songs and picturization was good, most of them were haphazardly forced into the storyline. Moreover, ‘Loot Liya’ picturized on Khan, Warsi and Takia stuck out like a sore thumb.

The cinematography (Aseem Bajaj) was great in places. The wide shots of Delhi‘s landmarks and the road sequences were done well. In other places, it looks like the interest waned at some point.

As far as performances are concerned, Ajay Devgan as the slightly corrupt yet likeable ACP does a good job. He does well to add to the comic timing of Warsi and Khan’s characters without overshadowing the duo. His dialogue delivery and body language point to the trappings of a fabulous actor.

However, Takia – same smile pasted on her lips most of the times – could have done better. While she’s great in a few scenes, the rest of the ride is nothing to talk home about. She ends up looking camera-conscious more often than not. The make-up and costumes didn’t do much justice either. The frock (or whatever it was) that she wore to the disco made her look like a nun.

Vrajesh Hirjee makes a mark as Takia’s karate champ friend. His character gives humour relief when things start to get a little monotonous. Anjana Sukhani has no role to talk about. Her’s seems more like a slap-on role that adds nothing whatsoever to the story.

All said and done, the movie is a cocktail with ½ cup suspense, two teaspoonfuls of drama, one tablespoon romance and a cup full of comedy. Sunday might as well be a good watch for a lazy Sunday afternoon.