Friday, August 15, 2014

Anjaan (Tamil) - A boring gangster bromance, sheer snorefest.


What a snorefest?! I mean they've actors like Suriya & Manoj Bajpai in the film who are unanimously deemed as one of the best actors of Indian cinema & director Lingusamy makes a mess of them. Yes, Vidyut Jamwal can't act especially when his voice is getting dubbed, he struggles a lot to fit the south Indian gang. But the dubbing made even Manoj Bajpai look tedious along with that ghastly hairdo.


Samantha Ruth Prabhu has been given a role which is mastered by Tamannaah Bhatia. Samantha is desperate to be accepted in Tamil films & it shows on screen. While Tamannaah is yet to say yes for a bikini avatar, Samantha goes ahead to show her bikini avatar for a few seconds which was totally needless as well as pointless. The moment second half starts she's completely missing. The director thought he has an unique way of storytelling keeping her character hidden but that came out totally lame.

They said Rajpal Yadav was in the film, I kept searching for him throughout. Notable Bollywood actor Dalip Tahil was there in the film too. Infact all the posters have highlighted him as one of the main villains. He hardly comes for a scene or two of maximum 5-6 mins in the first half & he vanishes. There are few other Bollywood actors but why are they even there is totally left unanswered. Those roles could've been played by anybody, the UTV factor made them to cast the Bollywood actors.


Maryam Zakaria makes a very very short appearance. Before people could recognize her she vanishes. I mean what was the point? Chitrangada Singh in an item number. I mean it's villain's birthday & item number is still the way to celebrate it. Bad guy has a receptionist, she must wear shorts so short that it looks like she isn't wearing one & it's mandatory for her to show her cleavage more than necessary. If you are not able to catch her then not to worry, there's a table infront of her so that she can deliberately bend right into the camera.
Like I had predicted the film had a threadbare storyline. The moment the interval twist is revealed, it's like what's the point of watching the second half? Oh yeah, Brahmi darling aka Brahmanandam has a short role which tries to be funny & is funny for a very shortperiod of time. I mean it's more like a cameo for Brahmi & sadly, the comedy is also treated like a cameo.


Good points, they showed Suriya & Samantha go to the theater to watch Chennai Express, the train anthakshari scene & the audience did receive it well. Infact in the second half just for the sake of killing time, a medley is inserted where Suriya remembers in the flashback where he, Samantha & Vidyut dance for fusion of hit songs - ek do teen (Tezaab - Samantha fails totally to match Madhuri or even to give a tribute to her), Kajra re (Bunty Aur Babli - Suriya & Samantha seems to be having fun), Ringa Ringa (Arya 2 - wonder why they were doing Dhinka Chika's steps. Guess when Anjaan gets dubbed in Hindi, the Hindi audience will get to hear Dhinka Chika song) & Lungi Dance (Chennai Express - Everybody including Vidyut dances for it. The song is still a rage among the audience, it got the loudest of cheer, something even the original version didn't get).

The songs are bad too. The production values are better. Some of the action though routine is still good since there isn't much ropework to ruin the action scenes. The dialogues heavily inspired, I mean they fizzle out way too quickly. The punch dialogue "(translated) I will decide when I have to die, I will only decide when you are going to die", doesn't work.


This is Samantha's desperate attempt to get accepted in Tamil industry, an actress of her calibre, brought down to just a glamdoll to show off her cleavage, waist & thighs... not acceptable.
And it's unpardonable to waste the talents of Suriya & Manoj Bajpai combined. I mean with talent like this, a director could do wonders. Lingusamy just decides not to.

Vidyut Jamwal now has starred along with Ajith Kumar (Billa 2), Vijay (Thuppakki) & now Suriya (Anjaan). While he played the villain to eventually get beaten up by Ajith & Vijay, he gets to have a bromance with Suriya where he gets to mouth, he's his life & even goes on to ask "Will you give your life for me?".

My Rating - 1.5/5 (1 for Suriya & the rest for Samantha's honest efforts in exposing.)