Film review: Naseeb, starring Amitabh Bachchan, Hema Malini, Shatrughan Sinha, Rishi Kapoor

(From left) Reena, Amitabh, and Hema in Naseeb: Making hay while the stars shineNaseebProduced and Directed byMan mohan DesaiStarring:Amitabh Bachchan, Hema Malini, Shatrughan Sinha, Rishi Kapoor, Reena Roy and KimIt would be short-sighted not to take this movie seriously. And it would be sanctimonious to spell out the morals of its story. Three days after it was premiered in Delhi at the Odeon, the cinema had pulled down its shutters - to keep out gatecrashers and thugs, black marketeers and pouring crowds. Well into its first week, paanwallahs outside suburban theatres were doing a roaring trade in keeping the black market for tickets up - often by a 400 per cent margin per seat.That being the prevailing ethic outside the cinema, what was going on in the dark? Everything and nothing, for as any Indian sage will tell you: darkness and light are the same thing. Or as Hema Malini tartly tells Shatrughan Sinha and Amitabh Bachchan the first time they make advances at her: "Stop acting like a hero. What do you think this is - a scene from a movie?"Naseeb isn't a movie, it's a high-cholestrol addiction, which makes it enjoyable but terrible for your health. If you can remember what's going on, and there is very little chance you will by the end, you're lucky. But you're luckier if you don't remember, because you're not expected to, and you'll have a better time. This film's formula is taken two parts from 500 films before it, one part from foreign movies of the moment, and one part from Manmohan Desai films of the future. If you still insist, this is how it goes.....Four good friends (a waiter, a bandmaster, a photographer and a bum) buy a lottery ticket. They also decide to share the spoils among them. One wins. Two of them conspire to kill the winner, but end up killing two. The dead men lose their wives also in an earthquake. Luckily the sons don't get swapped, but that would be too much, considering all this happens before the credits.What happens after the credits is memorable not so much for the plot (Manmohan Desai admits that story zara weak hai) but for those sequences of love and war that make Desai a lottery winner each time he has a movie out.Such titillation as Hema Malini offers on a stunt motorbike ride, or Amitabh Bachchan offers in a boxing match, or Shatrughan Sinha provides fighting on London Bridge to save Hema's izzat, or Rishi Kapoor and Kim jointly offer in a school sports day kabaddi match are the stuff Desai's lotteries are made of.Who can ignore the nubile curve of Kim's breast, the supple shape of her thigh or the lewdness of the lyrics, even if Hema as a crooner is a poor imitation of Zeenat Aman in Qurbani? Who can avoid the crude slapstick of Amitabh in a pie-fight in the kitchen? Or the arrival of two dozen stars, from Sharmila Tagore to Simple Kapadia, in a party sequence? Or the busting of a Rs 25 lakh glass mansion? As everyday trash goes, this isn't easy to surpass except by Desai himself in any other incarnation. But in any incarnation Desai, by his own implication, may not be a movie-maker at all.For all you know, he may be a dealer in foreign cars or the proprietor of Hotel Naseeb. Speaking in an interview recently, he confessed that his ambition in life was to be able to buy the latest model Mercedes. "But it" costs Rs 18 lakh," he moaned, "I can't afford it." Since Desai's production costs on this movie were Rs 4.5 crore (and he had recovered them twice over by selling the rights to seven distributors for Rs 72 lakh each) Desai can probably now buy 18 Mercedes worth Rs 18 lakh each.For every ticket bought to see Naseeb, at the counter or at the paanwallah, is nothing but a voluntary contribution to the Buy-Manmohan-Desai-A-Mercedes-Fund. Or a valid licence for Desai to print money.Published By: AtMigration Published On: Nov 21, 2013 14:41 IST--- ENDS ---

Download App

Get 37% off on an annual Print +Digital subscription of India Today Magazine

Film review: Naseeb, starring Amitabh Bachchan, Hema Malini, Shatrughan Sinha, Rishi Kapoor

Naseeb isn't a movie, it's a high-cholestrol addiction, which makes it enjoyable but terrible for your health. If you can remember what's going on, and there is very little chance you will by the end, you're lucky.

PUBLICATIONS

TELEVISION

EVENTS

RADIO

GAMING

USEFUL LINKS

PRINTING

WELFARE

DISTRIBUTION

SYNDICATIONS

WEBSITES

EDUCATION