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Darwaza Band Rakho Review
Darwaza Band
Rakho
Review :
'Darwaza Band Rakho': a raucous comedy
By Subhash K. Jha, Indo-Asian News Service
Rating: *1/2
Film: "Darwaza Band Rakho"; Cast: Aftab Shivdasani, Chunky
Pandey, Manisha Koirala, Isha Sharvani, Snehal Dabhi, Divya
Dutta, Ishrat Ali and Smita Jayakar; Director: Chekravarthy;
With a cast that reads like the who's hoot of Bollywood, this
has got to be the noisiest and most ambitious comedy of the
season, if not of all seasons.
The chaos of errors starts with four desperados - Aftab
Shivdasani, Zakir Husain, Snehal Dabhi and Chunky Pandey -
barging into a house colonised by a Gujarati family which seems
to exist on the precipice.
From there, the claustrophobic mood builds up with rapid-fire
momentum, leaving no room for the characters and their
relationships to grow. The narrative suffocates the characters
and their motives, narrows them down to a burlesque of
bankruptcy. Nonetheless, for about half of the film director
Chekravarthy keeps the goings-on moderately interesting.
After a while the house chosen for the anarchic comedy of
anxieties, creaks and groans under the weight of characters who
know why they are there, but are clueless about why they need to
be put in the bizarre situation they have inherited from a
scriptwriter who probably likes crowds much more than the
average member if the audience.
This has got to be the most crowded canvas since the screen
adaptation of Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace. Everyone seems to
treat grim issues of crime, kidnapping, extortion and perjury as
a kind of extended gag.
Indeed "Darwaza Bandh Rakho" is like a soap opera devoted to a
malfunctional family where fiscal matters rule the conscience
and speed is a substitute for sensitivity.
Writer-director Chekravarthy comes up with some funny moments in
the first half. Sadly despite the stretched-out cast he's unable
to sustain the narration beyond the first forty-five minutes.
The second leg of the black comedy limps sags and finally heaves
to a halt, leaving the proceedings as bereft as a balloon
without helium.
What exceeds the rather ludicrous limits set by the chaotic
canvas of this heist-hilarity are some of the performances.
Though over-the-top, Ishrat Ali as the Gujarati householder
grappling with an unexpected houseful situation in his house,
comes up with an arresting performance.
Others who get it right in a film that makes a strong pitch for
the wrong, are Zakir Husain, Divya Dutta (cute and exceedingly
hyper as the house-maid) and to an extent Chunky Pandey. Isha
Sharvani so graceful in Subhash Ghai's Kisna, is embarrassing
here. And what's Manisha Koirala doing in the extended ensemble
cast looking as lost as Alice in no-wonderland.
The rest of the vast cast is strictly functional. An interesting
blues-and-jazz lined background score by Amar Mohile and a
marked tendency to trivialise serious issues that should never
be allowed to be held for satire in a society that's infested
with grave maladies, go hand-in-hand in this raucous comedy.
Yes, it's different from the other comedies. But do we really
need a comedy that derives its humour from an indeterminate
blank account?.
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