Awara Paagal Deewana (2002)
Cast: Akshay Kumar, Sunil Shetty, Aftab, Preeti Jhangiani, Aarti Chhabria, Amrita Arora
Director: Vikram Bhatt
Music Director: Anu Malik
Synopsis: Action-packed no-brainer is still quite a gas - yet another guilty pleasure?
Reviewed by: Faiz Khan

 

When Vikram Bhatt says that you have to leave your brains behind—or words to that effect—and simply sit back and enjoy the film, he has a point. Because Awara Paagal Deewana aims to provide nothing more than slick entertainment and, to some extent, it succeeds.

Underworld don Om Puri kicks the bucket, leaving his son-in-law Guru Gulab Khatri (Akshay Kumar), daughter (Preeti Jhangiani) and son (Rahul Dev) all lusting after the crores worth of diamonds he has stashed away in a New York bank. There is, however, one slight complication. His daughter no longer loves her husband and is prepared to give up her share of the fortune if only he will divorce her—a request he flatly refuses.

A mini-don in his own right, Guru Gulab Khatri walks on walls and fights Matrix-style, usually against his villainous brother-in-law. After being framed for murder with the help of a remarkably convincing mask, Khatri becomes a wanted man and escapes to the United States. There, he moves into a house whose neighbours happen to be the shrewish Amrita Arora and her equally overbearing mother, complete with their two hopelessly henpecked husbands (Paresh Rawal and Aftab Shivdasani). The moment they recognise the infamous Guru Gulab Khatri, the women promptly dispatch their long-suffering spouses in the hope of collecting the reward on his head.

Enter contract killer Yeda Anna (Suniel Shetty), a not-too-bright assassin hired by Rahul Dev to eliminate Khatri.

If all this sounds vaguely familiar, it isn't because you've seen it before in Bollywood. As a Hindi film plot it actually possesses a certain novelty. You also have all the heroines playing a game of musical chairs with the heroes, everyone ending up with somebody different from the person they started out with. The familiarity comes from the fact that Awara Paagal Deewana is an adaptation of Bruce Willis' The Whole Nine Yards.

It isn't a film I would automatically have considered suitable for a Bollywood remake, but Vikram Bhatt handles the material with considerable panache and gusto. It never quite matches the pace or edge that Aankhen managed to achieve, but the action scenes are spectacularly staged and enormous fun to watch. Perhaps this is because the film is aiming more to be a comedy than an action thriller. While the humour is certainly entertaining, it is never consistently witty and is nowhere near the league of the vastly superior Hera Pheri.

What the film proves is that Vikram Bhatt was very much alive and kicking after the deathly Aap Mujhe Achche Lagne Lage. It also reinforces the impression that he feels more comfortable directing adaptations and remakes than developing original material. Perhaps that's not entirely fair, because Raaz is superbly directed and, although it borrows the basic premise of What Lies Beneath, ultimately becomes a very different film.

Akshay Kumar shines once again in a refreshingly unconventional role. Good for him for continuing to experiment with different genres and character types. In fact, I found myself missing him whenever he wasn't on screen. Suniel Shetty is amusing enough, although he comes a poor third behind the other leading men. Aftab Shivdasani displays an excellent flair for comedy and is genuinely very good, while Paresh Rawal, despite raising the occasional laugh, is beginning to repeat himself and his comic routine is starting to wear a little thin.

One word for the heroines: disastrous. What is happening to our cinema if we are now casting the likes of these three thoroughly ordinary-looking and largely talentless babes? Sorry girls, but better luck next time. In this film, all three are enough to give anyone indigestion.

The music is largely unimpressive, although it probably serves its purpose. There are far too many songs and an endless parade of scantily clad women gyrating through many of them. Oh, how dreadfully dull. The overseas locations, particularly those in Spain, look terrific.

A slick commercial entertainer, Awara Paagal Deewana may be just the thing after a long, hard day when all you want to do is switch your brain off.