Review of Ishqiya

On the whole, Ishqiya is an average entertainer which will do well in pockets. Business in multiplexes will be better. Al­though made on a med­ium budget, it will have to struggle to recover its cost and there are chances, it may not succeed.
Shemaroo Entertainment and Vishal Bhardwaj Pic­tures’ Ishqiya (A) is the story of two petty criminals, Iftekhar Khalujaan (Naseerud­din Shah) and his nephew, Babban (Arshad Warsi). The two run away with the money belonging to Ifte­khar’s brother-in-law, Mushtaq (Sal­man Shahid), and come to Gorakh­pur to take refuge in their friend, Verma’s (Adil) house. But they learn that their friend is dead. They strike a friendship with his widow, Krishna Verma (Vidya Balan), who readily lets them stay in her house for a few days.

In no time, a young boy in the locality, Nandu (Alok Kumar), runs away with the money which Khalu­jaan and Babban had brought with them. With Mushtaq breathing down their necks for his money, the two are at their wits’ end. Krishna then hatches a plot alongwith the duo to kidnap a couple of rich businessmen of Gorakh­pur and extort ransom money, part of which could be used to pay off Mushtaq and the balance could be shared by the three. Meanwhile, both, Khalu- jaan and Babban, fall in love with Krishna who leads them on and plays along.

Things go terribly wrong when businessman Kakkar (Rajesh Sharma) is kidnapped by the trio. What happens in the end is reveal­ed in the climax.

Abhishek Chaubey’s story is quite fresh and has interesting twists and turns, mainly for the class audience. But the last part seems to be hurried and also contrived.

Although the film is very earthy, it would appeal more to the class audience than the masses. In fact, a good chunk of the masses may not approve of the character of Krishna, who has soft spots for both the men and even kisses and sleeps with one of them (Babban) in spite of believing that her husband may be alive. Frankly, the masses would object to her actions in either case – they would consider her ‘bad’ if she was sure that her husband was not dead and, in spite of this belief, carried on her affair with the two men; they would also disapprove of her kissing and sleeping with Babban as she is supposed to be a widow in case she isn’t sure whether her husband is alive or not.

Although the angle of Verma’s death is revisited in the end and what is revealed comes as a shock to the viewer, it doesn’t have the desired impact. The track of Krishna sailing in the boats of Khalujaan and Babban is interesting. The sub-plot of businessman Kakkar two-timing his wife is yet an­other entertaining one, but loses its impact to an extent because of the  absence of known faces. What gives the story some much-needed support is the fairly engrossing screenplay by Abhishek Chau­bey, Sabrina Dhawan and Vishal Bhardwaj. But probably the best part of the script are Vishal Bhardwaj’s raw and bold dialogues. There is liberal use of foul language which will go down well with the menfolk but many among the ladies audien­ce would feel repulsed by it.

Another interesting factor is that the humour element in the drama is continuous, at least in the first half and a part of the second half. The film, therefore, keeps the audience smiling and occasionally also bursting into laughter. The last few reels, however, are a bit hotch-potch. In other words, the pre-climax and climax have not been as efficiently written as the rest of the film and they also seem to be a rush job.

Naseeruddin Shah is as natural as natural can be. He lives the role of Iftekhar Khalujaan. Arshad Warsi is excellent. He provides a lot of light moments and endears himself to the audience right from the word ‘go’. Vidya Balan shines in a very different role. She exudes a lot of raw sex appeal. Her acting is superb. Sal­man Shahid is extraordinary as Naseerud­din Shah’s brother-in-law. Adil acts naturally. Alok Kumar is too good! Rajesh Sharma performs ably. Anupama Kumar (as Kakkar’s wife) and Gauri Malla (as Kakkar’s mistress) lend able support.

Abhishek Chaubey’s direction is good but of the kind which would find favour with the classes. In fact, the film doesn’t look like it is his maiden attempt. Vishal Bhardwaj’s music is a mixed bag. The ‘Ibn-e-batuta’ song is a hit and it is already very popular. The ‘Dil toh bachcha hai’ song is also app­ealing. How­ever, the two slow songs are very dull. Gulzar’s lyrics are interesting. Jai Singh’s action scenes are raw. Mohana Krishna’s camera­work is splendid. Namrata Rao’s editing deserves mention. Nitin Chandrakant Desai’s sets are superb.

On the whole, Ishqiya is an average entertainer which will do well in pockets. Business in multiplexes will be better. Al­though made on a med­ium budget, it will have to struggle to recover its cost and there are chances, it may not succeed.

Released on 29-1-’10 at Regal (daily 4 shows), New Empire (daily 2 shows), Maratha Man­dir (daily 2 shows) and 90 other cinemas of Bombay by BSK Network & Entertain­ment Pvt. Ltd. thru Aum Exhi­bi­tors. Publicity: very good. Opening: good. …….Also rel­eased all over. Opening was good in Delhi, U.P. and C.P. Berar but not upto the mark in Gujarat and several other places.

Issue dated Jan 31 – Feb 6, 2010

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