Kathmandu:

Ek Khiladi Ek Hasina (experimental)

Cast: Fardeen Khan, Koina Mitra, Feroz khan, Gulshan Grover, Kay Kay Menon

Direction: Suparn Verma

Showing at: Jai Nepal

How much can one dare-bare and still keep off the tag ‘smut’? Okay, do we need to be reminded that Bollywood is increasingly being inspired by Hollywood? And with this one audaciously tossed along your way, you wish Bollywood had some more sense. As you sit through this flick, you even wonder if this could have passed as the ‘secrets of boudoir’ because you’d rack your brains and still be confused about who’s who (the much ballyhooed Khiladi and Hasina)!

Frankly, it’s a knock-down-drag-out attempt to catapult the actor, who has had to bite Bollywood dust. At some point however, you’re forced to believe that it’s a con flick, with none of the clever con acts other than loads of hogwash. The khiladi has to save his jackass plans, despite interminable double-crossings, and you expect the hero to come along with intelligent schemes, but you’re bogged down with too many duplicitous discoveries that lengthen the hausfraus about nothing almost non-stop.

Arjun (Fardeen Khan) along with a bunch of yobs are looking for some smart sting, so that they can spend the rest of their lives with elegance but never make it big other than to get tangled in one trouble after another. Enter, a randy shrink (Koina Mitra) who sheds her scruples and enters into a nefarious plot for fun is nothing more than a bundle of bum. However, it is one of the high points of the flick when she flaunts her anatomy with absolute liberty, believing that is what is called acting.

Post intermission, (though one wonders if one could manage to stay that long!) however, the story apparently catches a racy pace. Feroz Khan, the stylish old bloke who can still speak with every contour of his being, though infuses some life with his signature style dialogues. But we miss the bohemian beauty who once made a perfect match with this old chap. And we don’t quite like his own henchmen beating up the archetypal Bad Boy, Gulshan Grover.

However, it’s the deadpan screenplay that makes this flick a package of ragbag that fails to elicit any emotions, and of course Koina, who numbs the senses with her bountiful skin show. With some quantity of humour and good screenplay this is one film that could have clicked.