Customer Reviews

Insan

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3 star:		(1)
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1 star:		(0)

 

 

To be blunt, ANSAN is merely okay. I got thru it without wincing and even managed to enjoy certain scenes within the film. Bollywood star power fuels ANSAN as it boasts on its roster the likes of Ajay Devgan, Akshay Kumar, and the two sexies Esha Deol and Lara Dutta. But the film ends up wasting these talents by unveiling an uninspired and hackneyed storyline.

Here's the plot (and I'm typing it listlessly): ANSAN introduces four men and lays out their interlocking stories. First is the very intense policeman Ajit Rathor (Ajay Devgan), who still burns to catch the terrorist who murdered his wife. Next is Amjad (Akshay Kumar), an outgoing and opinionated Muslim who drives an autorickshaw (taxi) and, once in a while, delivers a sermon or two about politics and religion (you know, the "Can't we all just get along?" schtick). At times, he's also a mediator between acrimonious Muslim and Hindu factions. A not so fun fact about Amjad: Years ago, his brother Munna vanished without a trace and it's hard for Amjad and his mother to not give up hope. Then there's Avinash Kapoor (Tusshar Kapoor, KHAKEE), Amjad's friend, who's trying to get a foot in the door of the acting business. The fourth man is the dead-eyed Azhar Khan (Rahul Dev), the very monster being sought by Ajit. Azhar is not very nice and has a habit of flipping a razor blade thru his fingers, in lieu of a coin.

Azhar arrives in Mumbai with the purpose of liberating an imprisoned fellow terrorist. Soon, he begins to spread his brand of misery on the city, much to Ajit's frustration. Meanwhile, Ajit and Amjad bump into each other (in an amusing misunderstanding, wherein Amjad not only gets his arse whupped but also lands behind bars). These two become not exactly friends but more like amicable nodding acquaintances. Somewhere in all this, Avinash continues to strive for an acting role. He meets aspiring actress Indu (the unimpressing Laila) and comes to face certain truths and evils about the film industry. Also, out of the blue, Amjad's long absent brother appears.

Get all that? Confused? Yes, the plot's all over the place. Bollywood does this a lot. But most of the Bollywood films I've seen tend to produce a more diverting (and, therefore, in a way, a more cohesive) clutter. While I won't go so far as to condemn INSAN as a bad movie, let me just say instead that, for lack of ample entertainment value, the weight of its cliched, mishmashed stories becomes more pronounced. For every effective moment, there's a counteracting insipid scene. The tonal shifts are often as the film, in turn, focuses on the deadly serious story arcs of the no-nonsense Ajit and Azhar the terrorist, the semi-serious subplot of Avinash and Indu, and the juvenile romance of Amjad and Heena.

I must mention that, of all these subplots, Avinash's story is the most jarring because it's the most out of place. At least there's an all-important connection between Ajit and Amjad's stories. Avinash's arc feels like a third wheel, plot wise, and seems to have been tacked on solely to fill in the movie length. I don't care too much for Tusshar Kapoor's turn as Avinash. There's a rehearsal scene where he gets fed up with the inept male star's incessant flubbing of script lines. Avinash brashly embarasses the star by supposedly ably demonstrating how the lines should be read. Thing is, it didn't impress me - I didn't buy Avinash's line reading as quality stuff and certainly wouldn't have considered him leading man material. Tusshar Kapoor was much better in KHAKEE. Here, he ends up as inconsequential.

More grumblings about the movie: Not only does Meghna, Lara Dutta's character, not appear enough on screen but she comes off as someone the writer seemingly didn't care enough to invest some thought in. One second, Meghna is a karate instructor (a plot device which the movie could've had fun with, but chose to ignore), then, out of nowhere, she's a news reporter. Huh? The film also chooses to make the Mumbai police out to be a bunch of incompetents, discounting Ajit. Didn't matter to me, but just how many times exactly did the prisoners snatch a gun right out of a cop's holster? Then there were the fight scenes, which looked phony and boringly staged, with many punches obviously missing, yet the opponent reacting as if he'd been struck.

Ajay Devgan is again in a very fierce role. I've only seen him in a number of films, but I'm beginning to see a pattern, and I hope he doesn't become too typecast. But he's good as the charged up Ajit, and I particularly enjoyed his revenge on the jailbird who mocked the motherland's national flag. Akshay Kumar (who looks like a younger Arnold Vosloo of the MUMMY series) steals the scenes as the persuasive, quick talking Amjad, although I do think that the "comedy" sequence where he fools the landlord with the rent money "action replay" tanked big time. But he atones for that with his wacky and dubious plan to win over Heena's parents. Like most Bollywood male actors who get a chance to do fight scenes (and even Abhishek Bachchan does this), Akshay does go overboard pouring on the baleful "Look! I am hero!" expressions. By the way, Akshay and Ajay have nice chemistry together. The film would've benefited by a greater interaction between the two. They should do more buddy flicks.

Of the womenfolk, Esha Deol gets the most significant screen time, but I wasn't feelin' her bland performance. Koena Mitra gets an extended flashback cameo as Ajit's wife and is ravishing. If nothing else, these flashback scenes go to show that, years ago, when his wife was alive, Ajit might've been just as intense and bound to duty, but at least he indulged in the occasional Bollywood musical number. The gorgeous Lara Dutta, she might as well not have been in the film, her role was so miniscule. One supporting actor who does make an impact is Archana Puran Singh, who plays Heena's hilariously shrill and confrontational mother.

The terrorist angle is, of course, relevant to INSAN. This movie strives to juxtapose Azhar's terrorist actions done in the name of Islam against Amjad's speeches regarding his Muslim faith, which espouses peace and unity. I don't want to get stuck on religion here, so I'll only mention that how well this film succeeds in that area will depend largely on how sincere or annoying you find Amjad's occasional forays into preaching. Bit of both, for me.

The special features present a 5 minute segment, "Star Talk," which is an interview with several of the cast, but, just be aware, there's no sub-titles provided. There are four songs in INSAN, the one I liked most being the club scene number "This Rain Rain Rain."

INSAN may have been theatrically released in 2005, but the shoddy production values lend the film a washed out 1980s look. It's a shame, really, that this good cast is saddled with an inferior script. True, there are some good moments here and there, mostly brought about by Devgan and Kumar, who, as mentioned, show good buddy chemistry. The positives do lift INSAN to the level of cinematic mediocrity, if barely. It's an okay film, nothing special, and rates only two and a half stars.