STARRING

Abhay Deol, Satish Kaushik, Tannishtha Chatterjee, Mohammed Faisal  Usmani, Veirendra Saxena, Yashpal Sharma and others.

DIRECTOR

Dev Benegal


STORY

The plot of the flick revolves around the character of Vishnu (Abhay Deol), who does not have any interest in the oil business of his father and wants freedom from his father’s always enquiring eyes. A chance comes when an old truck is sold to a local museum and Vishnu is assigned the work of delivering the same across the desert state.

On the way, Vishnu meets a young boy (Mohammed Faizal Usmani) and an old entertainer (Satish Kaushik), who were wandering in the desert. Soon he is joined by a gypsy woman Tanishtha Chatterjee, who impresses him with her mannerism.

All three start journey together but soon find it tough when corrupt cops and a water lord harass them. Soon they start searching for an elusive fair and also for some water to survive.

In their efforts to survive, the old projectors lying in the truck come to their rescue. At every stop they start showing movies to survive and the response was amazing. They also found the true meaning of love, understanding and survival during this journey of theirs.

What happens to Vishnu and others during this journey, and if they were able to survive the ordeals, has been revealed in the latter part of the flick.


PERFORMANCE

Abhay Deol, who plays the character of Vishnu in the film, tries his best to enact the role of a young restless man and succeeds to a certain extent. However, due to not- so -well -defined character, the talented actor fails to impress the audience with his superb acting prowess.

Satish Kaushik, who plays the character of a wandering mechanic, does impress with his witty one liners and interesting characterization. The veteran actor-cum-director is successful at creating several comic moments in the film.

Tannistha Chatterjee, who plays a gypsy woman in the desert, passes the muster. Though the lady is expected to scorch the screen with her romantic angle with Abhay Deol, but even her kissing scene fails to do anything for the audience. But fault must lie with not- so- well defined characterization of her role in the film.

Same is true about Faizal Usmani, the character of the young boy, who gets refuge with Abhay Deol in the truck along with Satish Kaushik and Tannishta.

The direction of Dev Benegal lacks all that which was present in his earlier flick ‘Split wide open’. In fact, the director has not only left the characters less defined but even pace of the film is too slow for this genre of the flick. The direction lacks depth and deep understanding of the genre of road movie on the part of the director.

Michel Amathieu’s cinematography is good and able to capture the beauty of Kutch and Jaisalmer deserts. However, somewhere monotony creeps in and that goes against the movie. Michael Brook’s background score seems to have been influenced by western curry genre. However, ‘tel maalish’ remix is able to pass the muster. Other production values are good.


STARDUST VERDICT

The film lacks coherence and its pace is problematic for this genre. Even the characters of Abhay Deol etc lack the depth needed to savior the flick at the box office. An average fare.