Khauff (2000)
Starring: Sunjay Dutt, Manisha
Director: Sanjay Gupta
Synopsis: Ultra-violent, slick vigilante-style potboiler that fails to boil
Reviewed by: Faiz Khan

 

Another Sanjay Dutt–Manisha Koirala starrer directed by the slick, if somewhat vapid, Sanjay Gupta. One does wonder whether Gupta has ever made a film without liberally borrowing ideas, scenes or entire plots from Hollywood. I honestly cannot remember how many of his films have actually succeeded at the box office, although I am sure some have. The only ones that readily spring to mind are Aatish and Hamesha.

The story centres on a small-town girl (Manisha Koirala) who arrives in the city and accidentally witnesses a murder. The killer happens to be the son of an influential man who, realising that eliminating the sole witness would immediately arouse suspicion, hires a professional hitman (Sanjay Dutt) to intimidate her into withdrawing her testimony instead.

The police send her to Mauritius for protection until the trial, but Dutt follows her there. Before long, it becomes apparent that intimidation alone will not suffice and the decision is taken to eliminate her. Unfortunately for his employers, the hitman has by now fallen in love with his intended victim and suddenly finds himself protecting the very woman he was hired to silence.

It is all rather convoluted and thoroughly unconvincing. The film is essentially a lift of the Alec Baldwin–Demi Moore thriller The Juror, itself hardly a shining example of the genre. There is precious little here to recommend, and neither of the leading stars can inject enough conviction into the material to make it believable.

Shot in Sanjay Gupta's trademark glossy, music-video style, the film offers little beyond surface polish. The only real highlight is the lively song "Gori Tu Chali Kahan".

I only wish Sanjay Dutt's newfound enthusiasm for dancing would come to an early end because watching him throw himself into elaborate dance routines is simply too forced and faintly ridiculous.

Approach this one with Khauff—for sitting through it becomes something of an ordeal in tedium.