Waqt (2005)
Cast: Amitbh Bachchan, Akshay Kumar, Priyanka Chopra, Shefali Chhaya
Director: Vipul Shah
Music Director: Anu Malik
Synopsis: Dreadful tosh of the most amazing kind with no reedeeming features at all
Reviewed by: Faiz Khan

 

Vipul Shah follows the highly entertaining Aankhen with another adaptation of a successful Gujarati stage play. Unfortunately, while Aankhen managed to transform its theatrical origins into an inventive and hugely entertaining thriller, Waqt emerges as an astonishingly contrived father-and-son melodrama that leaves one wondering what exactly attracted Amitabh Bachchan and Akshay Kumar to the project in the first place.

Ishwar Chandra (Amitabh Bachchan) is a wealthy toy manufacturer who appears to have everything a man could possibly desire—wealth, status, a loving wife (Shefali Shah) and an only son, Aditya (Akshay Kumar).

Sadly, Aditya is a complete wastrel.

He has no job, no ambition worth speaking of, spends his father's money with reckless abandon and harbours vague dreams of becoming a film star, though he seems far more interested in wandering from one song sequence to another than actually pursuing a career.

He eventually marries Pooja (Priyanka Chopra), a pampered rich girl whose biggest concern appears to be adjusting from a seven-bedroom mansion complete with indoor swimming pool—one that resembles more of a fish pond—to her husband's comparatively modest four-bedroom home.

Yes.

This is the level of drama we're dealing with.

Father and son spend much of the first hour playing childish practical jokes while poor Shefali Shah looks on in permanent disapproval. Beneath the cheerful exterior, however, Ishwar and his wife are hiding a terrible secret.

If you've watched more than three Hindi films in your life, you'll probably guess it before the interval.

Determined to transform his irresponsible son into a man, Ishwar suddenly undergoes a spectacular personality transplant. The affectionate father disappears overnight, replaced by a tyrant who throws Aditya and his pregnant wife out of the house so they can... live in a tiny shack conveniently situated at the far end of his enormous lawn.

Apparently this constitutes tough love.

His reasoning is that if Aditya grows to hate him sufficiently, he will somehow become responsible.

Quite how this piece of psychological genius is supposed to work remains something of a mystery.

Even when Ishwar discovers his son risking his life as a film stuntman—quite literally being roasted alive—he simply looks on approvingly, presumably considering severe burns an excellent character-building exercise.

By the time packs of dogs are chasing poor Aditya through fields and his wife is weeping with gratitude because he has managed to buy a broom, one realises the screenplay has completely abandoned all pretence of credibility.

Waqt is simply dreadful.

One wonders how much of the original Gujarati play survives because Vipul Shah appears to have expanded it by adding endless padding, subplots and songs that do little except stretch an already paper-thin premise beyond breaking point.

The first hour is particularly painful.

Three lifeless songs arrive in rapid succession, bringing the narrative to a standstill. Ironically, the title becomes painfully appropriate because waqt itself seems to slow to a crawl. Long before the interval, one realises there are still another two hours remaining and begins contemplating escape.

The screenplay's supposedly great secret is telegraphed so blatantly that only the hopelessly inattentive could fail to spot it almost immediately.

Had the hidden secret turned out to be Norman Bates living in the attic, it might actually have come as a surprise.

Vipul Shah directs without conviction, never finding a believable emotional centre for the relationship between father and son. Instead, every dramatic scene is pitched at maximum volume while the underlying psychology makes less and less sense.

Amitabh Bachchan sleepwalks through the role. It is frustrating because one wonders why an actor of his calibre continues to waste valuable years on such mediocre material.

Akshay Kumar fares little better. His performance is perfectly serviceable, but no actor could rescue such a badly conceived character.

Ironically, the film belongs to Shefali Shah.

In a role requiring restraint rather than grandstanding, she brings warmth, dignity and emotional honesty to scenes that would otherwise collapse entirely. She is several leagues above everyone else on screen.

Priyanka Chopra performs adequately, though the role gives her little opportunity beyond looking permanently exhausted and bewildered.

Boman Irani and Rajpal Yadav raise a few smiles initially, but even their comedy quickly outstays its welcome.

Anu Malik's soundtrack is every bit as uninspired as the screenplay. Not a single song makes any lasting impression, despite the composer's own brief appearance trying to inject some life into proceedings.

Aankhen suggested Vipul Shah might become one of Bollywood's more exciting commercial directors.

Waqt suggests otherwise.

Perhaps the subtitle should have been changed.

Not A Race Against Time.

Simply A Waste of Time.