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Cast:
Sikander Kher, Neha Uberoi, Sanjay Dutt, |
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Arbaaz Khan |
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Year:
2008 |
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Music:
Anu Malik, Aryans |
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Lyrics: Aryans, Virag Mishra |
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Story:
Rajiv
Gopalakrishnan, S. Farhan |
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Banner:
White Feather Films |
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Associate Producer:
Dharam Oberoi, Hanif Chunawala |
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Producer:
Shobha Kapoor, Ekta Kapoor, Sanjay Gupta |
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Director:
Hansal Mehta |
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| Two
new faces, Sikander Kher and Neha Uberoi in Hansal Mehta's
Woodstock Villa, is very obviously, a film which is a bit
off the right track for both the debutants. Adversely they
do not play a distinctive part which a hero or heroine play
in regular films, instead both play characters with common
shades of grey. Sikander fares better in the deal, having a
very stronger role with many more niceties to explore, which
he does with a fair amount of competence. His build up is
shown very well in the movie and is quite like that of a
hero of a film, which he is.
Woodstock
Villa is a thriller which comes with the imagined twist in
the tail. The director has quite finely managed to make an
absorbing movie, keeping the audience engaged in this tale
of love and lust with deceit and greed. The first half is
more drawing than the second though. One can find the second
half very predictable. |
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The only
perturbing element in the film is when the makers
forget that this film is supposed to be the launch
pad for Sikander Kher and all of a sudden go
creating all kinds of special effects around him,
just for the sake of footage. One can only recall
Neil Nitin Mukesh's debut in, Johnny Gaddar, where
no special footage is given to Nitin's character,
which is underrated and almost colorless. To tell
not all these effects were really needed as Sikander
has quite a good screen presence. He does not have
the today's typical hero looks, but has got a |
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certain wild
hinge which is quite absorbing. He completely dominated the
frame and is a fairly nice actor too. His dialogue delivery
is not bad, which he does with ease. Neha the other debutant
however, doesn't get into the limelight. She is got an ok
screen presence and surely we will get to see a lot more of
her.
The main character in the film, played by Sikander Kher, is
a lad whose mantra is living and loving dangerously. He is
jobless, owes good sum of money to a don like character
played by Gulshan Grover, beds his ex boss's wife, played by
Anupama Verma, flirts with his landlord's (Shakti Kapoor)
wife, generally having a good time in life. He gets meet
Neha at a nightclub and the two get talking. He captivates
her into dropping him home. Not very soon that his landlord
and the don start questing for his blood as he owes them
money, and has ideas to repay them. |
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Just when he is at the end of his leash, the mystic
girl, who he had met at the nightclub comes to him
with a proposition. She tells him to kidnap her and
ask her husband for ransom, all because she needs to
know if her husband loves her more or his money.
Even though it seems strange at first, he agrees as
she pays him handsomely for it. But things go wrong
when the cops follow the husband (Arbaaz Khan),
forcing Sikander's character to ditch them and get
back to Woodstock |
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Villa, which is where he and the mysterious lady are holed
up. But on getting back, he is greeted instead with her dead
body. He buries the body on the instructions of a voice on
the telephone and makes his way back home, a much disturbed
man. His depression even leads him to take up a job in
Bangalore and move out of Mumbai. However, at the airport he
catches sight of his mysterious lady on television, starring
in a music video. He realizes that there is something amiss
and that he has probably been used. He changes his plans and
decides to get to the bottom of this. Of course, since he is
the protagonist of the film, he has the final laugh.
The second
half of the film, seeks to unravel the mystery. But it is
here that it gets a bit predictable. The first half
moves fairly well, at a decent pace. Mehta manages to keep
the reins in his hands for most of the film and makes a
fairly absorbing thriller. The plot is fairly well
constructed, but it is not without loopholes, as the
director is not able to tie up all the loose ends. Also,
there were quite a few angles that he touched upon, but did
not subsequently explore sufficiently, for instance, the
chemistry between Sikander's character and the mysterious
girl.
The film's
music keeps pace with the events in the plot and has been
well picturised. The cinematography is decent. Sikander
makes his entry with Mika's 'Sawan Main Lag Gayee Aag', and
has been understandably hyped. |
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Despite
a few dark overtones, the film makes for easy
viewing. The performances are quite good. Sikander
leads the brigade and impresses with his ease and
ability to portray a character with so many shades.
Neha is just about ok. The veterans Shakti Kapoor
and Gulshan Grover impress in their small cameos.
Arbaaz Khan, as the husband, is the weak link, as he
is limited as an actor. Sachin Khedekar makes a
brief appearance as a cop, a role which is not even
well defined, which is |
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| a sheer
waste of talent. Actor Sanjay Dutt is seen in the film
briefly, playing himself in a music video. It may well be
his last appearance in a White Feather production.
In short,
Woodstock Villa works as a thriller. More importantly, it
heralds the arrival of another star son, in the form of
Sikander, who shows a lot of potential, which will
definitely flower under a more competent director, and a
more demanding script. |
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