Aa Dekhen Zara

The title of this is taken from an old song from an old move, "Rocky," which was the movie that introduced Sanjay Dutt to the Film Industry and which was sung by the late Kishore Kumar and Asha Bhonsle and also starred Tina Munim and Reena Roy. The song also is heard here, in this but is sung by someone else. This is a far fetched and especially if one has a piece of equipment that is able to tell the future.

Starring Neil Nitin Mukesh, Bipasha Basu, Rahul Dev, Bobby Vasta, Sophia Choudhary and Rajan Korgaonkar, this is directed by Jehangir Surti and is written by Sheershak Anand and Shantanu Ray Chhibbar.

Neil Nitin Mukesh, the grandson of the late and the famous Mukesh and son of Nitin Mukesh, has definitely made an impact and he certainly did it in his debut movie, "Johnny Gaddar" and he has done well in this. His opposite, Bipasha Basu has also done well and looks very stunning. But it was Rahul Dev who really does make the difference with his performance as he makes his character quite believable; but unfortunately this has not saved the fate of this movie, even though the cast has done a good job and is directed well by Jehangir Surti.

Because this is rather far fetched by the thought of having something that is able to tell your fate, this becomes predictable all the way through and though it has all the ingredients of being a good thriller, it is not able to do that and this is where the plot fails and it is really a shame but it is not a disaster.

Jumping from great heights and into a swimming pool is firmly a cliché in my books. Hollywood overuses it, and I see that influence has crossed borders as well. Need an escape when your character is cornered? Well, leaping off a building automatically means a body of water deep enough to cushion impact down below. There's nothing more lazy than that nowadays, so thumbs down to any story that offers this quick fix, like a "Goto" statement in a program, rather than opting for a more elegant programming structure.

It's a little bit surprising that Aa Dekhen Zara clocks in less than 120 minutes, with intermission. Not that all Bollywood movies are supposed to be at least 150 minutes long of course, but you can feel that director Jehangir Surti has not grasped the need to tell more in less time, and as such the characters suffer in being nothing more than cardboard caricatures. Sub plots tangent off one another that they felt half-baked, and were introduced for the sake of, rather than for a purpose and a need. Not that it was narratively bad, but the story suffered from the lack of time.

And time plays a key role in this science fictioner. Neil Nitin Mukesh plays Ray Acharya, a freelance photographer with mounting debt and no assignments. His grandfather is a great scientist, and when he passed away, Ray inherits an old camera which turns out to be more than meets the eye. Of course I'm not going to reveal what it does here, which the movie does in a montage one step being behind the audience who would already have figured out by then, but suffice to say that with great power comes great responsibility, and big trouble as well, as a given.

For what it's worth, it delves into the greed of man. With power comes the ability to satisfy the lust after money. You can bet your last dollar that everyone when thrusted with a new power, will try to see if it can be monetized. And if it can, then you're likely to milk it for its worth. And when it comes to money, it's typically all men for themselves, with everyone wanting a piece of the pie, stopping at nothing to try and get at it. If it's a golden goose that lays golden eggs, then there will be neighbours eyeing that fowl of yours. Villains though are extremely one dimension. Having the story shifted to Thailand in the later half of the film, there seemed to be no qualms in highlighting the corruption of the police as either informers, or greedy bastards, that seem to plague both countries.

Bipasha Basu delivers more spunk than the male lead Neil Nitin Mukesh here, and it's no surprise since the veteran has more mileage in action flicks under her belt. Her role as a DJ turned aspiring singer here I felt was little more than to allow the usual song-and-dance routine to come up. While that set in a club was natural, there was one awfully artificial routine in Thailand where Ray and Bipasha's Simi escape into an outlaw bar, and are forced to sing and dance for the Thai men just because they're expected to. Neil and Bipasha also looked very awkward with each other, sharing really no chemistry as lovebirds, but rather clicked when they're supposed to be estranged.

It has a potentially interesting premise and plot device set up, but alas the story's yet another bland action flick with little suspense as you're likely to stay one step ahead each time. If only it had a better story, but perhaps that was left to a sequel (which Aa Dekhen Zara lead into) which will probably not be made since this film would have tanked that prospect.

Beginning with the story, the overall plot was good, but it shows laking of budget resulting in less use of technology. For a debut director I will say has to work more harder to improve, else the acting were OK, but Rahul Dev's character acting leaves a mark to the mind after watching it, you could've think of him at the end. New concept for a Hindi film makes it markable, the ratings cut due to average direction, average acting, and less binding power in the movie, But I'll still say watch it for a different experience generally absent in Hindi movies, a different flavor,

All in all I'll say far more to go, but a good attempt.

my rating, 3/5

Even though the title says - 'Aa Dekhe Zara' - Its better to not take the bait. A pseudo sci-fi movie gone wrong. The build is good in the first half with lot of promise. But screenplay is all at sea in the second half. Plot gets all mixed up and confused. An average story is treated with below average screenplay and direction. Its a thriller drama gone bad in Bangkok.

Music, songs and fight sequence are hardly worth noticing.

Feeling sorry for Neil. After Johny Gaddar, coming after more than an year, this movie doesn't do justice to his talent at all. Bipasha is under utilized. Rahul Dev does justice to his role and for a change is not over the top.

Aa dekhen zara was totally a unique movie. The movies name and the songs were related to the movie scenes and story. Bipasha Basu was really good at her role. While Neil Nitin Mukesh was also good. But it would be better if his expressions were shown a bit more. The future camera was really interesting. It would be wonderful to have a camera which sees the future. At the first half of the movie it was unbelievable that Ray (Niel Nitin Mukesh) from a poor man he became a rich man. But the bad part is that he used the camera for a greedy purpose. At least because of the evil people he learnt to put the camera for good use. But the movie had many parts where there were no connections and there was no clearty. Still I would rate it 8, because of the mystery. The movie was to the point too.