Posted:
19 years ago
From mid-day.com
Sheesha*
Dir: Guddu Dhanoa
Cast: Neha Dhupia, Sonu Sood
It was the lead actor of this film who famously blurted out the now much-brandied quote, "Only sex and Shah Rukh sells (at the cinemas) these days." I have a feeling director Dhanoa decided to merge the two concepts for his film then.
Not that Shah Rukh stars in this senseless sexcapade. However, at least one of Dhupia's characters replays Khan's 'obsesso' protagonist from Darr and Anjaam.
A 'femme fatale' (or so we're expected to label her) is fixated with the filmmaker boyfriend/husband (Sood -- it could've been anyone) of her identically twin sister.
The reason for this obsession incidentally is that the neurotic, psychopathic girl is verbally and audibly challenged, and craves for physical love (if that suffices for logic).
Well, nothing could suffice for logic here. Except, with all pretenses pushed to the pit, this is an unabashed excuse for wedding night full-on French kiss, half-nude, heavy-duty wooing by the miffed sis, bare-all post wedding bliss…. Basically, a soft-porn pic that does as much justice to the naked man as the lady — or the ladies in fact.
After long, we get to see a film with a 'double role'. Which in this unfortunate case only means double the agony.
Few months ago, after Julie (2004), a survey across Delhi's red-light areas had revealed Dhupia as the new patron seer of the capital's sex workers.
Not sure if that's why her sophomore film is set in the globe's sleaze hub Bangkok. Or is it because the last skin flick that got cash registers rancorously ringing, Anurag Bose's Murder, was also placed on Thailand's streets?
What I am wondering actually is why bother with such expenditures when the point of it all is to repeat the lead protagonist sponging and spraying water from the garden hose-pipe on herself (a scene I noticed in another B-grader-success Tauba Tauba).
What I am distressed about and wondering more actually, is what that pre-teen kid next to my seat was doing alone at Sion's Cine Planet theatre, watching this A-rated film.
Thankfully the censor board has dropped its guards (but that should only make cinema-owners more vigilant about not letting children in).
Thankfully there's an avenue for an excessively repressed lot in this country to savour less-adulterated skin show.
All good. No value judgments should be necessary. But hey, this ain't cinema alright.
