Day: April 24, 2011

It’s a good thing I had time to spare to watch this all the way through, because had it been any other day than an easy Sunday afternoon, I would have most certainly nixed it after the first couple hours.  And not necessarily because I’d be short on time, but also because I might not have been in quite so indulgent a mood so as to tolerate a most convoluted gangster drama with a perennial flow of plots and subplots galore, and flashbacks and more flashbacks to boot. 

But had I stayed, it would have been more for the views of the city of Delhi, both the old and new sides of the city that I called home for a short while in the early Nineties.  And if the dynamic between Irfaan Khan and his love interest weren’t so compelling, well, there was more than enough compensation for that with the other couple, the gangster Kuldeep and his wife who exhibited the classic case of ‘can’t live with him and can’t live without him’. 

All in all, a forgettable film.  Except for all the choice gaalis that were sprinkled more liberally than chaat-masala on chaat.

I was glad to check it off my must-see list, but the fact that I did, didn’t leave me any better for it.  I found the plot weak, and the movie disappointing overall.  We know Michael Douglas can be the hard-nosed Wall Street wheeler and dealer from the first Wall Street, but it wasn’t too convincing watching him play the father and the father-in-law to be.  At the end of the day, we also know that the 2008 Wall Street collapse was no ordinary matter, and that, if not anything else, might have been the curiosity for many to see the movie:  in expecting to find a window into how the inner workings of the folks who work on Wall Street might have actually caused the collapse.  And if that window was there, it was a slim one.  What was instead more appealing than that were the panoramic views of New York City, both by day and night that showcased the glam and glitter of a city that is said to never sleep.  Also, Susan Sarandon put in a pretty convincing cameo as Shia LeBoeuf’s mother. 

It’s a terrible thing to say about any movie, but it’s good to be truthful about these things when you’re seriously critiquing a film:  it was worth waiting for on DVD, because it would have been a waste of a good 20 bucks, otherwise.