Some macho dimwit's fantasy.

Grade: C-

Wanted

Indian Release Date: 18/09/09
CBFC Classification:  A
Running Length: 2 Hours 26 Minutes

Cast: Salman Khan, Ayesha Takia, Mahesh Manjrekar, Prakash Raj, Govind Namdeo, Vinod Khanna, Aseem Merchant, Inder Kumar, Raju Mavani
Director: Prabhudheva
Screenplay: Shiraz Ahmed
Cinematography: Nirav Shah & S Sriram
Music: Sajid-Wajid

There are plenty of movies which I refer to as guilty pleasures, they may not have the most logical storyline or the best acting or even make sense most of the time but if they provide me a high enough visceral experience then they work just fine & other things are forgotten & forgiven, Wanted however isn’t one of those movies.

This movie is a perfect example of the Bollywood “Heroes don’t die, they just reload” syndrome. The entire movie is a throwback to the late 80’s & early 90’s type of “anything-goes” cinema coupled with the hyper-kinetic action sequences of many southern blockbusters. It is in fact the remake of a 2006 Telugu hit Pokiri, which starred Mahesh Babu in the lead & of the 2007 Tamil version which Prabhudheva directed.

I wonder if the entire exercise of making the movie was to bring some fantasy of Salman Khan’s to life cause he’s no less than a superhero here minus a costume, though he does wear a Superman t-shirt in one scene. He can beat up countless goons to pulp without a scratch to show for; he not only saves the “izzat” of the damsel-in-distress but also makes her fall head over heels in love with him even if he’s cold & indifferent to her, he may seem all apathetic on the outside but is a real softie on the inside, he can also dance the pants off Michael Jackson & spout pure pulp dialogues at the drop of a hat, which would have the “masses” in rapture. In short, the entire movie plays out like some macho dimwit’s unilateral wet dream.

Radhe (Salman Khan) is a gun-for-hire in the Mumbai underworld who does the dirty work of the highest bidder. His allegiance is only to money (or to Money-Bhai as he calls it) & not to any particular gang. He’s essentially playing two rival gangs, one headed by Guni Bhai (Prakash Raj) & the other by Datta Pawle (Raju Mavani) against each other. When he & his thugs (Inder Kumar & others) aren’t killing people by the dozen, they gaze at women in an aerobics class run by Shrikant Shekavat (Vinod Khanna). Here he meets Jhanvi (Ayesha Takia) who’s become an object of lust of the amoral Inspector Talpade (Mahesh Manjrekar). The other major player in this haphazard narrative is the Commissioner of Police, Ashraf Khan (Govind Namdeo) who’s desperate to wipe out crime from the city at any cost. With various elements in place the movie moves along stitching together action, comedy & romance scenes in a “rinse-repeat” pattern like a cheap quilt.

The movie’s only goal is to entertain the “masses” & Salman Khan is the key here. So he dutifully does everything any self-respecting “hero” in a no-brainer masala movie world would. In building the movie around him, things like a script with a semblance of logic are simply sent for a toss (it’d probably be a crime to mention them in anything related to the movie). To call the narrative of the film choppy is an understatement. Far too much time is spent in Radhe & Jhanvi’s clichéd romance replete with the couple globetrotting to sing lackluster songs. When material for the romance runs out, the movie either resorts to entire segments devoted to the buffoonery of Manoj Pahwa (replicating the stand-alone comic segments from the Johnny Lever / Mehmood / etc era with only 1/10th the humor) or the vulgar antics of Mahesh Manjrekar. Whatever little time left is given to the underworld plot which other than a few scenes with Prakash Raj in police custody, mainly comprises of Salman Khan single-handedly beating & killing enough people to make Arnold Schwarzenegger turn red with envy.

The dialogues are more like declarations than something said in a conversation & are sure to find popularity with a large Salman Khan fan-base which will quote them with aplomb. The action sequences are designed to show the violent nature of the film & while they work in parts, too much wire-work & some pretty hilarious speedup effects blunt their overall impact, though some of the sound effects are pretty neat. The humor is juvenile & I barely laughed once or twice throughout.

Salman Khan’s performance is the glue which holds this rickety ship together. He plays the character with supreme confidence & even though it’s no stretch for him as an actor it still keeps this debacle from being ‘Dead on Arrival’. Ayesha Takia plays the ‘damsel-in-distress’ role to perfection. Mahesh Manjrekar effortlessly essays an absolutely detestable villain, but it’s high time he tries his hand at something different. This year’s national award winning actor Prakash Raj thankfully doesn’t go the whole hog & keeps his hamming to a minimum. Govind Namdeo on the other hand does nothing other than flaring his nostrils & yelling at every instance. The rest of the cast including Vinod Khanna are entirely forgettable.   

With two high profile releases, Ghajini last year & Wanted this year, it seems the masala potboiler is making a comeback in a big way. By comparison Ghajini managed to do a far better job at combining various “masala” elements with a more focused plot in spite of Aamir Khan hogging all the limelight, Wanted on the other hand is more than happy being a talent show circus for Salman Khan alone.

If your idea of a good time at the movies is to simply park your brain at home & enjoy a movie high on attitude & style, in spite of a hazy narrative, repetitive scenes, lackluster music & a ludicrous climax, Wanted may be your ticket to a good time. For the rest of us with an iota of rationale, avoid this movie, cause god forbid this movie does well, tomorrow every tom, dick & harry in the film industry would want to have a personal “fantasy talent” showcase like this flick & not everyone has the panache of a Salman Khan to carry it off.

Final Verdict: If only the movie had paid as much attention to “little” things such as a script & a story as it does to Salman Khan.

Grade: C-
 

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