[ISA] Movie - MaStI !

[Indian Students Association]

 We will be showing the movie Masti tommorrow.
  (Review at end of mail)

 Starting at 6:30p.m., CL 50.
 Free for members.
 Non-members $3.

 See you there!

 Regards,
 ISA.

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MASTI : Movie Review
*ing : Ajay Devgan, Vivek Oberoi, Aftab, Ritesh Deshmukh, Lara Dutta,
       Amrita Rao, Tara Sharma, Genelia.

Overall its a movie you cannot afford to miss. A great comedy with a
great story.

Take it or leave it. A "Dil Chahta Hai" male-bonding fable with loads of
double-meaning, jokes, provocation and finally a neatly "conservative"
ending that says, 'Hey guys, fun done, extramarital peccadilloes over. Now
it's time to tell you that marriages are for keeps.'

Meet Amar Prem. That's their name. And while their wives stay at home,
skirt chasing is their game... Misogyny, homophobic and sexist jokes
abound.

Vivek Oberoi and Ajay Devgan comparing wives and girlfriends to home
cooked food and biryani.

But hey, it's all in fun! And our three principal stars Meet (Vivek), Amar
(Ritesh Deshmukh) and Prem (Aftab Shivdasani) seem to be full of the fun
factor. The actors give their roles a certain zany twist, which goes a
long way in preventing the satire from falling apart under the pressure of
spatial and time-related excesses.

Unfortunately, Indra Kumar's Gujarati brand of satire - on full display in
his earlier films like "Ishq" - when combined with Milap Jhaveri's urbane
boys' backroom chortles yields what can only be branded a pandemonium of
precocity and perversity.

Specially over-the-top and elongated are the gay jokes. There're two
highly unnecessary and prolonged jokes about Satish Shah, Ritesh and
Aftab.

Indra Kumar seems stuck between the traditional way of doing a sex comedy
and the more upmarket trendy nudge-nudge-wink-wink style. The end-result
is more shriek than chic.

The ongoing mockery of Satish Shah's homophobic character by Aftab and
Ritesh is inspired by Shah Rukh and Saif in "Kal Ho Na Ho", while their
names Amar and Prem are not so much a tribute to the Rajesh Khanna
romantic classic as Raj Kumar Santoshi's slapstick bonanza "Andaz Apna
Apna" where Aamir and Salman were named Amar and Prem.

If you peer really close at the mirth-worth of "Masti", you'll see
elements from several other comedies. Ritesh's choppy relationship with
his wife (Genelia) and mother-in-law Archana Puransingh is lifted straight
from Vikram Bhatt's "Awaara Paagal Deewana", which in turn was lifted from
Hollywood's "The Whole Nine Yards".

Like the two earlier films, Ritesh is an oppressed dentist. His track with
'patient' Rakhi Sawant, replete with cleavage jokes, ends with the 'lady'
turning out to be a transvestite.

Throughout the partially amusing sex comedy you get a feeling of watching
a Gujarati sex comedy and a West End porno play. Indra Kumar swings both
ways without creating a swinging comedy.

Naughty premises about men with roving eyes aren't strange to mainstream
Hindi cinema. B.R. Chopra's "Pati Patni Aur Who" and Basu Chaterjee's
"Shaukeen" romanced the raunchy, but without a cyclone of lewd dialogues
that seem to be an inherent part of "Masti".

The production values, including the music (Anand Raj Anand) and
cinematography (Mazhar Kamran) are just about serviceable.

Milap Jhaveri's dialogues are more foamy than funny. He creates a lather
of lewd lines for three grownup men.

While the rest of the film looks like a combination of "Dil Chahta Hai"
and "Jhankar Beats", the last lap of the raunchy journey resembles the
Kamal Haasan hit "Sathi Leelavathi".

The efficacy of "Masti" hinges on the performances. Vivek, Aftab and
Ritesh are in full bacchanalian bloom. Aftab is no stranger to comedy. He
pitches in sportingly with loads of self-mocking attitude.

Ritesh as the simpleton of the trio stays in character with a
lost-in-space expression. He's a natural.

Vivek's flair for comedy flares up in spurts of sexual innuendoes. His
craving for spousal space is achingly funny.

But what, pray, is Ajay Devgan doing here?

The trio of wives is all ill cast and shadowy in its motivations. Lara
Dutta in an extended cameo as the femme fatale who takes the three heroes
for a ride once again sizzles. She's cool, chic, urban, seductive and
entertaining.