Cast- Farhan Akhtar, Diana Penty, Ronit Roy, Gippy Grewal, Deepak Dobriyal, Rajesh Sharma, manav Vij, Inaamulhaq, Ravi Kissen, Brijendra Kala, Virendra Saxena, Alok Pandey
Director- Ranjit Tiwari
Writers- Ranjit Tiwari, Aseem Arora
Is the story of a small town man Kishan (Farhan)who dreams of becoming a singer and forming a band but finds himself in prison instead, wrongly accused of a murder.
There, overcoming the prison politics, he forms a band solely for the purpose of planning a prison break. But in due course, he forges relationships, fulfils his dream of a band, finds admiration ,reforms fellow inmates and finds justice himself.
The story directed by Ranjit Tiwari and written by himself and Aseem Arora is good attempt but with a feeble script.
The main drawbacks of script being, a very predictable plot, flat storytelling and lot many glitches and loopholes. A major example being, the hero mysteriously & illogically decides to feign as a mute inmate even though he had precise plans to form a band even before he was transferred there.
Farhan ‘s character initially fails to draw any sympathies in spite of being wrongfully implicated. And his toned bulk didn’t seem to conform to a famished beaten up prisoner.
For a film which revolved around a band and a music competition, there was hardly any practice or visible attempts despite the prisoners being under sharp vigilance. The prison break was as loose and flimsy as burglaries in Simran. Why are our writers falling short of detailing or precision specially in sequences which demand them ?
The film manages to stay afloat impressing in bits and pieces. Post intermission, when the story focuses on life inside prison and its inmates, it picks up pace and our interest too. Though the twists and turns were sometimes predictable and sometimes downright silly ,the performances and sequences held us .
The director ‘s biggest coup is certainly the impressive support cast that he has on board.
Rajesh Sharma, Deepak Dobrial , Inaamulhaq, Gippy Grewal and Ronit Roy , together make this film worth its salt.
Farhan doesn’t seem to have been in top form ,managing to impress only in flashes (after a very lacklustre cameo in Daddy last week). Diana didn’t seem to have much to do . And somehow she manages to embellish all her characters with sulk like expressions most of the time.
Ravi Kishan wins heart with his small role that adds a touch of humour.
The music was good but not enough to label the film as a musical drama or a band film. Rangdaari was impressive and reprised version of Kaava Kaava (Mansoon Wedding) had great beats and was very foot tapping. Other numbers were good if not great.
The movie ends with a positive message of reformation .
Overall, it can be a good one time watch provided we keep the expectations mediocre.
Score 6 on 10