Woodstock Villa

Sat, May 31 03:35 AM

Cast: Sikander Kher, Neha Uberoi, Arbaaz Khan, Gulshan Grover, Sachin Khedekar

Director: Hansal Mehta

Woodstock Villa is a White Feathers-Sanjay Gupta production, which translates into the standard dark, moody cinematography, background score shuttling between loud and louder, and shifty-eyed characters. Sanjay Dutt co-produces, so he gets to do a rockstar number in which he is to be seen strumming a guitar, held strategically at crotch-level. It also features debutant Sikander Kher, son of Anupam-Kirron, who've handsomely propped A-list Bollywood for a long, long time. It's styled as a whodunit, so naturally Samir (Sikander) gets to play both sides of the fence: did he kill the wife (Neha) of a rich businessman (Arbaaz) or is he being framed? Was there really a kidnap, or is there something more sinister going on?

There are enough plot points, which while not bothering to be original could keep you interested but the film is done in by Mehta's old weakness - not being able to keep it tight and together.

Sikander, who looks a lot like mommy, works hard at the black singlet, the biceps, the de-rigueur shoulder length curls. His first scene is classic Bollywood - we first see him astride a bike, after which he proceeds to the dance-floor where all the jazzy edits convince us that he can dance. He even has a pet gangster (Gulshan), who keeps appearing at intervals to administer both pats-on-back and slaps-on-face. But alas, he doesn't come off tough.

Next step: maybe a youth film, which he doesn't have to helm?

shubhra.gupta@gmail.com

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