It is all about the loss of the
cross. Your moment of indiscretion in ticketing to the cause will leave you
cross. Predictably sanity is at a loss with Priyadarshan as the boss. There is
simply nothing worth the while in this outing of the filmmaker – not even the
presence of Paresh Raswal. Gross and crass the screenplay is an affront on your
sensitivities. Just leave it alone and give it the thumps down it yearns for.
The motley crowd that populates the claustrophobic world of Priyadarshan are
all around walking in and out of a script that has place without space for
them. The exasperating exaggerations do not suggest humour, they reflect total
lack of cinematic sensitivity and comes with a high dosage of stock characters,
scenarios, situations. This film is not a comedy. It is not funny any which way.
It is dreary . No kamaal, no dhamaal and surely as the film maker will soon
realise no road to Malamaal.
Two friends Peter (Paresh Rawal) and David (Om Puri) part ways. David walks
away with the former’s girlfriend too. Years later they sire a family of many
children of whom Sam has left the script, and Johnny (Shreyas) is the fit for
nothing no gooder. Like the film’s script he is without a back bone. He is
whipped and kicked by about everyone in the village. He is truly at the
receiving end of the set of goons who are the sons of Peter – and not without
cause. To their disapproval their sis Maria (Madhurima Banerjee) is seeing
Johnny popularly known as Bakri for lack of guts. The controversy in the
village is about the loss of a 24 carat cross in the local church. The Father
in charge of the church is Asrani another regular from the Priyan stable, who
is trying to restore the cross with local assistance. He believes that the loss
of the cross is an ill omen to the village – actually it is doing wonderfully
for a rendezvous of the seemingly insane – an instance of which is Neeraj Vohra
who is busy searching for corpses as he makes coffins.
Life begins to change with the arrival of a guy who is gluttonous and silent.
He however adds prosperity and credibility to the David household till the past
catches up with him. With John not willing to accept him, there is a semblance
of conflict in the film. By now the film has been completely robbed of any
pretensions of being a comedy. The audience (a euphemism for those who shared
the indiscretion of having a dekho at the film). Then there is a controversy
relatable to the misunderstanding between the celibacy committed Father and the
lady guard of Maria (Maria Kazmi). Director Priyan decides to wrap up things
and even as the audience gets into thank you mode, you have some stunts and a
finale in keeping with the rest of the tale.
This is a stay away film that pleads to be a stranger with anything
incidentally sane and acceptable.
L. Ravichander.