POOR MAN’S SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE

over poverty and pomposity. Aspiring to penetrate the squalor of slum life in Mumbai’s Dharavi, this lm ends up being the poor man’s Slumdog Millionaire

Then there is the hamming. So much of it from so many characters who most of the time hang around waiting to say things that they feel will change the world. There are men in lungis and dhotis running in every direction shouting bloody murder. And it’s all supposed to be ne and even moral because the ght is for their land.

In this mayhem-motivated mess of a movie no guns are visible except the weak morally deranged cop (Pankaj Tripathi in one of his worst roles in recent times) who is overpowered by the mob after he uses his gun. For the rest, it is swords, sickles and heavy iron objects all the way.

But that loud thud is not just primitive weapons bashing brains and skulls. It also the sound of a lm fumbling and falling as it attempts to create a raga of revolution through its cacophony of mayhem.

Rajinikanth’s political ideology here is nothing more than a migrant’s lament.

Nana Patekar as Rajinikanth’s adversary gets no attention from the script in the rst half. In the second half, Patekar tries to match wits with Rajinikanth and fails. Not only because… well, if you cross swords with the Thalaivaa you are bound to fall. But then the dialogues don’t make it any easier for Patekar. Rajnikanth’s relationship with his simple bucolic wife (Eswari Rao, behaving as though a ing with cerebral palsy left her shaken for life) strains at the leash. Rajini also has the hots for a woman called Zareen (Huma Qureshi) who we are told is an activist who won’t take no for an answer. She sometimes laces her dialogues in English to let us know she has travelled the world.

Kaala mows through our apprehensions, conveying the urgency of a pre- xed wrestling match. The bleeding heart for slum-dwellers in Kaala could have done with some temperance, restrain and self-discipline. Not the traits we can nd easily in a Rajnikanth starrer. Don’t say you were not warned.

Subhash K. Jha

Race 3

STARRING Anil Kapoor, Salman Khan, Bobby Deol, Jacqueline Fernandez, Saqib Saleem, Daisy Shah, Freddy Daruwalla

DIRECTOR Remo D’Souza

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Race 3, as the name suggests, is the third edition of the franchise, but has no narrative connection with its previous editions. And unlike its predecessors, this one seems like a jaded fare as it lacks thrills and the adrenaline rush so palpable in its earlier editions.