From the last few years, the team at Rajshri Films is regularly coming up with all similar kind of projects having some fixed characteristics. For instance, if a film starts with a pleasant family atmosphere where everyone is smiling at each other, there is Bhajan being sung at an in- house Puja Ghar with the idols of Ram Seeta & Lakshman, the first half goes on with no story development at all, a conflict arises just before the intermission, the rest of the film has a feeble plot with an important message for a society and essentially if Mohnish Behl is there in a key role
then the film is definitely a product of Rajshri Movies without any exception.
As expected, ISI LIFE MEIN also suffers from the same above mentioned Rajshri Syndrome, which urgently needs to be looked upon by the people associated with the banner. The film is simply shot and weakly written having few average performances from the cast, which are incapable of making any kind of impact on the viewers. Moreover the music, which always has been an important quality part of a Rajshri product, is also below par this time which further acts as a major letdown for the venture.
The first half has everything going on in a pleasant manner which clearly indicates that something wrong will only happen towards the intermission. But against all the expectations the second half too keeps on moving at the same pace and the real plot only crops up in the last half an hour, which also fails to register. With such a lazy and uninteresting script, having all seen before kind of content, I don't know why the reputed production house gave its green signal to this product in the first place.
The only likable feature of the movie remains its leading pair, who look pretty on the screen especially Sandeepa Dhar in the role of cultured girl with all the Indian Values. She acts pretty well and also looks gorgeous on the screen in both western and Indian attires. Akshay Oberoi too has got the talent and looks but he somehow scores less in comparison to his leading lady. Salman Khan making a cameo for a few seconds is wasted whereas Mohnish Behl has got the same old expressions to show in all those emotional scenes. Similarly the rest of the cast also acts exactly like you have already seen in many previous Rajshri Movies. Therefore there in no freshness or novelty in the treatment given by the director Vidhi Kasliwal to the film, which ideally could have been much shorter than its present length? In fact, the director should have ended the movie right after the marriage sequence in the climax as per the need of the subject.
Having said that, I would like to praise Rajshri people for their noble intentions of making films which always have some important social messages to give to their viewers. Following their valuable tradition, ISI LIFE MEIN too has TWO important messages for the society, pointing towards the concept of modernism and the ages old dowry issue still prevalent in our modern civilization.
As its first message the film tries to explain that a modern person doesn't necessarily mean a person far away from his traditional values and customs. In other words its always possible that a person may be modern along with having the same rich culture and traditions in his heart which in turn enables him to lead a much better life than the West.
Secondly, the film talks about the still to be tackled Dowry issue in our society from a different angle never touched before. Moving away from the usual stuff, the story here emphasis more on the father of the girl, who with a heavy heart, always agrees to the greedy demands of dowry, for the sake of his own image in the society and relations. Instead of pointing the finger towards the dowry demanding families, the film asks an important question to the girl's father that, "How can you even think of throwing your own daughter in the clutches of such greedy people and that too with all that glamorous show off? Why can't a father just refuse such a ridiculous demand and wait for the right kind of families to make a relation with?
And as an answer to this question, the film has a sequence where Mohnish Behl himself stops the marriage of his own daughter and asks her would be in-laws to simply leave with his folded hands
The act really needs to be followed by every father of a girl in our society, since it's the girl who later suffers severely till her last breath and yet cannot complain.
Hence, though ISI LIFE MEIN has got nothing in it as a movie experience, but as a social venture it does have a great message for our younger generation and their future. So you may give it a chance but only after it gets released on the Home Video after few weeks.
In the end, along with reviewing the movie here, I would strongly like to oppose this ugly one sided practice (Dowry System) of our society through this platform of my site and I hope my readers would also try their own bit to fight this unwanted curse imposed upon us from decades.
