STARRING

Fardeen Khan, Sushmita Sen, Ishita Sharma, Mohit Chadha, Johnny Lever, Suchitra Pillai, Bina Kak, Parikshit Sahni,  Tara Sharma, VIvek Vasvani, Howard Rosemeyer and others.


DIRECTION

Mudassar Aziz

STORY


The plot of the flick revolves around four individuals—Donsai alias Tej Dhanraj(Fardeen Khan), Samarpreet (Ishita Sharma), Pawan Raj Gandhi (Shah Rukh Khan) and Shimmer (Sushmita Sen). All the four characters are different from each other and live life with their own peculiar set of beliefs and ideas.

While Donsai is an heir to five billion dollar empire in Trinidad, he is commitment pbobic and not prone to long term relationship or marriage for that matter. Donsai is always surrounded by beautiful women but never ever thinks of giving them a permanent place in his life.

Then there is Shimmer, who is a hot model and loves to live life on her own terms. She loves high flying life style but avoids marrying anyone as that would affect her freedom and independence. No big party or social function is complete without her presence. In fact, she is the ultimate priestess of fashion and high society in the country.

Pawan Raj Gandhi is a rich business tycoon, who is in love with Shimmer and wants to marry her. But she is not in favor of compromising her freedom.  They are in a live- in relationship but not marred. Their photographs adorn the glossy magazines of the world and they attend parties in different parts of the world.

Samarpreet is a typical Punjabi girl, who is daughter of Donsai’s father friend. Donsai’s father had promised his friend that his son would his daughter Samarpreet..

To keep the promise of his father, Donsai visits Punjab and marries Samarpreet. However, after marriage and spending some days with Samarpreet, he returns to Trinidad. When Samarpreet comes to Trinidad in search of her husband Donsai, she comes face to face with reality about her husband.

How Samarpreet manages to win the affection of her husband and what happens to Shimmer and Pawan Raj Gandhi, is revealed in the later part of the film.


PERFORMANCE


Sushmita Sen, the former beauty queen who plays the part of supermodel and socialite Shimmer, comes out with a sincere performance. She does not only look sizzling hot but also enacts her part with consummate ease. She is complete natural in her scenes with Shah Rukh Khan and comes out refreshingly attractive.

However, Sushmita’s sudden change of attitude for Ishita’s benefit in taming Fardeen, while not applying the same criteria in her own life with King Khan, makes the whole character somewhat less convincing. But for this shortcoming, actor can not be blamed, and in fact, the blame should go to the writers who crafted her role in this fashion.

Fardeen Khan, who enacts the character of rich debonair commitment phobic Donsai, is honest in his approach. Fardeen Khan’s personality suits the character. Fardeen is loveable when he goes to Ishita Sharma to confess about his wayward ways with women.

Ishita Sharma, who plays the character of Punjabi Kudi Samarpreet, looks sincere in her effort. The young actress is successful in showcasing the typical Punjabi mannerism of a girl who loves her husband and does not mind going in search of him to even Trinidad.

However, Ishita Sharma’s character going to that far off place in search of her husband without telling her parents seems somewhat untenable and unconvincing.

Shah Rukh Khan, the badshah of bollywood who plays the character of millionaire Pawan Raj Gandhi, has nothing much to do in the film. His character does not have much to do except being obsessively in love with Sushmita, who in any case does not reciprocate his gestures.

It was during the shooting of this film that Shah Rukh Khan had sustained a fatal shoulder injury and was out of action for months due to surgery. Even then the filmmaker fails to take any advantage of the presence of King Khan.

Johnny Lever, the renowned comedian, hardly gets any scope in the film. Mohit Chadha impresses with his presence but has nothing more to do. Suchitra , Tara Sharma, Howard, Parikshit Sahani, Viveck Vaswani pass the muster. Others extend able support to the main cast of the film.

The direction of Mudassar Aziz is above average and he successfully provides some beautiful moments in the film. But a weak storyline works against him. The times are changing fast and the audiences are accepting newer experimental subjects and Mudassar could have done better with some new subject, rather sticking to same tested formula adopted in flicks like DDLJ and RNBDJ.

‘Akela Dil’ number stands out in the music department. Other numbers are just passed the muster. Other production values are average.

STARDUST VERDICT

Despite of Sushmita Sen’s sterling performance and Shah Rukh Khan’s presence, the flick will find it hard to attract audiences towards theatres in such times when Aamir Khan’s ‘3 Idiots’ is rocking at the box office. An average fare