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.

I find this to be an interesting combination. Also it may have some lacks in the overall plot it is still an enjoyable movie for the Hindi fans and not only. It is a bit boring in the beginning but when the "action" part starts it goes on like that till the very end. The idea is very interesting (it is another "version" of many SF flicks... You will catch on very quickly what the general idea is if you haven't already read it in some other comments). The actors do a convincing job. I've liked the most the one who played "The Captain". He reminds me of Clive Owen at times (his looks and his style of play). I recommend this to anyone who has nothing better to do on a rainy Sunday afternoon. :)

Plot: A man gets a camera that can take future(24 hrs at the same time of the next day) picture of a particular place . He uses the opportunity to make money. He goes and take picture of lottery results and buys the same lottery. The. He goes to race course, takes the picture of result as to which horse will win the next day. He bets on the same hours and wins the money.

Twist : He clicks his own picture and the photo comes as blank. A blank photo means the person will die before that time so the camera couldn't see the future picture. Now our hero has 24 hrs to find out who will kill him and try to change the destiny. Hence the name "Aa dekhe zara". The suspense is revealed at the end and has a good dialogue

The basic plot is interesting, the movie is fast paced. It has some illogical sequence but one should expect in sci-fi movies.

Performances are average but the main plot is interesting. The movie can be watched at least once.

It is not a great movie but not bad for sure. It is far better than 3x10 tasveer and Kurbaan.

This is an average Bollywood movie and from the beginning to the end go as audience will expect. The movie has good suspense which makes us watch it till the end, but fails to make an impression which will last longer. The movie is good to watch on TV for free for more than once. But if you pay for this it may not be a good experience. The good thing about the movie is the main storyline, which is new to the bollywood and has the potential to make the drama interesting till end. Ray (Neil Mukesh) got his hands on a camera, which can forecast future. He uses the camera to earn money. Troubles started when he becomes greedy. Eventually bad guys find out about the camera and wants to gain it at any cost. It is the duty of Ray now to keep the camera away from bad guys, and also saving his and his girlfriend Simi's (Bipasha Basu) life. Though the narration and the speed is good somehow the movie doesn't make a strong impact. At the end the moral of the story is don't be greedy. Screenplay, scripts, direction and actings should have been better. Some characters (lady agent played by Sophiya) are totally wasted and some scenes (Malaysian thieves capturing the couple) are totally useless. Also the car chase and the over all action fails to impress. These and some other facts helps killing the spirit of the movie. At the end everything is goodi goodi and everyone is happy. Not many songs in the movie, but still the music makes a good impact. Also some small concepts like blank photo were used nicely. Not much romance drama and not having any unnecessary parallel story line are some more good points. Over and all not a bad movie to watch if to be watched for free. One may even buy the video song CD containing the "Gazab dhayo" song.

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.