EMI: Liya Hai To Chukana Padega

"liya hai to chukana padega"that's the catch fraise of the movie.The story is about bank loans.Debutant director Saurabh Kabra picks up incidents from real life and depicts the pros and cons of availing loans. In this film, four different stories run parallel, plus there's a 'Bhai', who not only recovers outstanding dues from defaulters, but also sorts out their personal lives.Unfortunately the story lacks a lot.Starting is good but then goes haywire.It's a typical masala movie of how a "bhai" helps people's problems.To cut a long story short, EMI loses focus midway and hence, loses balance. Watch it for Sanju's sake, who plays the lovable 'Bhai' with flourish. The music is very good especially chori chori dekhe mujko.The performance of Sanjay Dutt is outstanding,the other's do their part well.Sattar (Sanjay Dutt's) sidekick to their part with ease and are very enjoyable. Overall this movie lacks power but give it a watch for Sanju's sake.

The movie narrates different stories about how different people decides to take bank loan as per their requirement and finally ended up by becoming defaulters. They cannot pay their instalments in due time because of their situations. Finally recovery officer comes in the picture to chase them and to make them to pay instalments. Here it is good to see how recovery officer make these defaulters to pay their instalments. It has been also made clear that how people are taking bank loans by going ahead than their capacity and increases their liability. It also shows how banks are giving loans without any status check and strict criteria and finally comes in trouble when clients are not able to pay as their situation worsens. It shows that how good recovery officer, with good counselling and using proper way, can solve problem of these people and make these defaulters good clients. So here subject is new and good as per today's EMI culture. Though the subject is good but still it is lacking a good script and good music.

Sanjay Dutt did very well as a recovery officer and suits the role. Urmila matondkar also looks good in her role. Kulbhushan Kharbanda is also good. Rest is OK as per their role.

So over all it is a good one time watch.

The theme makes a brave attempt to drive across a social message that is very much serious and relevant in todays times. But midway the maker seems to have run out of steam to reach a logical destination or the financiers ran out of moolah. It seems the director was confused if he wanted to drive a social message in the garb of comedy or evoke laughter in the garb of a social message.

All the tracks are very crass. The newly wed couple seems more of boyfriend-girlfriend breakup rather than a marriage breakup. Sanjay Dutt/ Urmila romantic track reminds you of Robert De Niro in comedy-gangster movies. The father-son track seems to a reverse of Baghban.

The only good thing is it gives you an insight how the industry operates.

And the end? Where did it come from?

If a particular idea gets accepted by the viewers then its usual that every film-maker just wants to cash it on in Bollywood. The trend of taking 5-6 stories together and making a film is again followed in this movie with an interesting angle of EMI, the term familiar with every common person. But the good plot gets ruined by unimpressive writing and weak execution.

The movie starts promisingly but is not able to keep the promise in the later reels. The stories of all the characters taking loans for different reasons are similar to real life instances. But they fail to generate interest and the viewer cannot relate to them as his own story which is the greatest drawback.

Another flaw in the script is the late entry of Sanjay Dutt as the loan recovery agent. His presence brings some moments to enjoy but as he moves on to the lines of "Lage Raho Munnabhai" and decides to help all the loan takers, from that moment the film starts dropping and drags. Sanju Da should now avoid taking up assignments showing him as a Bhai with a heart of gold, as he has overplayed it many times. Still he tries his best to give his all to the movie but his sincere attempt goes in waste.

All the characters in the movie have nothing extraordinary to discuss upon. Aashish Chowdhary, Neha Uberoi, Kulbhushan Kharbanda are just OK in their roles. Arjun Rampal again gives a feeble performance after his last few good movies. But its strange why Urmila & Maliaka Arora did these mini roles, may be only for friendship sake. They both look gorgeous and alarming hot but don't have enough meaty roles to deliver a performance.

The first half of the movie still has its moments but the second half just goes the other way round when everyone is having a heart transformation and all goes on predictably. The love angle between Sanju and Urmila, going into unwanted lengths also should have been avoided. Only the idea of Sanju liking the girl and girl taking advantage of it was enough to have some entertaining sequences but couldn't find any.

Even after getting a good star cast to roll on, the director, Saurabh Kabra's misses on his big break. Though he thought of a good plot to work on, but was back stabbed by his own writers. The dialogues at some places are enjoyable but in the song department, it's again the good old formula to simply add the songs anywhere any time irrespective of any need. And in the end it's a perfect example of good intentions, a novel plot becoming a victim of poor execution. Was really expecting a surprise but it wasn't up to the mark.

The premise is interesting and the idea behind the concept is innovative but the film itself fails to make the point it sets out to make because the focus shifts from one plot point to another and heads down the pathway of clichés. The humour works for the most part, especially in the first half, and that's about the only thing that works for 'EMI'. While the story focuses on intertwining lives through their loan dilemmas, their subplots are hackneyed. The performances are overall decent in spite of their half-baked characters. Sanjay Dutt plays a part that he has played in at least about fifty different other movies. Kulbushan Kharbanda, Aashish Chowdhury and Arjun Rampal are alright. Pushkar Jog makes a decent debut. Urmila Matondkar is wasted. Overall, I'd only suggest 'EMI' if you have absolutely nothing else to watch or if the other options include trash like 'Blue', 'Love Aaj Kal' and whatever because at least you cna look forward to a few minutes of laughing.