Karobar (2000)
Starring: Rishi Kapoor, Juhi Chawla, Anil Kapoor
Director: Rakesh Roshan
Music Director: Rajesh Roshan
Synopsis: Bollywood reworking of Indecent Proposal.....what took them so long!?
Reviewed by: Faiz Khan

 

 

This long-delayed effort finally reaches our screens, piggy-backing shamelessly on the success of the director's previous blockbuster, Kaho Naa... Pyaar Hai. One imagines the producer believed that Rakesh Roshan's name and a stellar cast might be enough to recoup some of the enormous investment sunk into this rather transparent lift of Indecent Proposal.

Sadly, this tired and tiring film is a relic from another era—a dinosaur that doesn't run so much as limp painfully towards its plodding conclusion.

The film opens with a greying Rajiv (Anil Kapoor) and Seema (Juhi Chawla) waiting at the airport to collect "their" son. Thanks to a switched suitcase, the young man is promptly arrested, and the case lands in the hands of Public Prosecutor Amar (a grossly overweight, alcohol-sodden and visibly ageing Rishi Kapoor). The moment Amar hears the names Rajiv and Seema, his interest is immediately piqued. Clearly there is unfinished business between them, and so we disappear into one lengthy flashback.

In a nutshell—and the film scarcely deserves more than that—we discover that Amar and Seema are deeply in love. Numerous songs, accompanied by Rishi Kapoor's wobbling tummy moving enthusiastically in every direction imaginable, repeatedly remind us that these are supposedly young lovers.

Amar has only just qualified from law college, which, judging by appearances, must apparently make him somewhere in his mid-twenties.

Into their idyllic romance walks Rajiv, Amar's wealthy college friend, a man convinced that everything has its price. Naturally, he decides to test this theory by attempting to "buy" his best friend's girlfriend. Confident that she cannot be purchased, Amar laughs off the challenge, marries Seema and the couple begin their life together.

Then fate intervenes. Amar suffers a serious accident, leaving Seema with nowhere to turn except Rajiv for financial help. The price, naturally, is her body.

I really cannot say much more without giving away what little remains of the plot, and that would be rather unfair to those foolish enough to endure this thoroughly predictable affair.

Rishi Kapoor is disastrously miscast. One can only be thankful that he has since moved comfortably into character roles because here he looks utterly ridiculous attempting to play a lovelorn young graduate searching for his first job. Watching him dance romantically with Juhi Chawla is unintentionally hilarious and probably the film's greatest source of entertainment.

Anil Kapoor fares somewhat better as the obscenely wealthy playboy convinced that everything and everyone can be bought. The problem is not so much his performance as the writing. The character is given absolutely no believable motivation. We never really understand why he should become so obsessively determined to steal his best friend's wife, and without that foundation the entire drama collapses.

Juhi Chawla, meanwhile, is surprisingly subdued in a role that gives her precious little opportunity to shine. It is one of her less memorable performances.

The music is ordinary and, more importantly, there are simply far too many songs, each one prolonging the audience's agony a little further.

As for the direction, this must surely rank among Rakesh Roshan's weakest efforts. The entire production has an unmistakably dated feel, and beyond some attractive foreign locations there is precious little to recommend it.

My advice? Buy a few postcards of the locations instead—and give this one a very wide berth.