Cuts like a knife!

Sukanya Verma

Place: New Empire, Bombay
Players: Sophiya Haque, Saurabh Shukla, Sohrab Ardeshir, Makarand Deshpande, Nikhil Chinappa, Archana Puran Singh, Nadira, Kashmira Shah (sp appearance)
Director: Sunhil Sippy
Producers: Girish Sanger, Aditya Mittal and Sunhil Sippy
Music: Ashutosh Phatak and Dhruv Ghanekar
Cinematography: Ravi K Chandran
Storyline: Not much to speak of.

What Snip is about: A skimpily-clad, British-Asian hairdresser Tara (Sophiya Haque), is an unintentional participant in the cold-blooded murder of a daft, frustrated, lunatic, yesteryear actor Monty Kapoor, when she inadvertently clips off his ear.

Meanwhile an overweight, overenthusiastic gangster Munna Bhai (Saurabh Shukla) catches her in the act and blackmails her into let him stay with her.

Now what? Thrills and chills? Not quite.

Instead Ms Snip goes to bed with the first Johnny (Nikhil Chinappa) she lays her eyes on in a jazzy pub. Mr Gangster, for his part, drowns his sorrow by dressing up like a drag -- nail Polish, lipstick, wigs, et al.

Wait, there's the odious character, Abdul (Makarand Deshpande) popping up every five minutes to ramble in what could only be called imbecilic lingo. Who is he, anyway? Why is he there? How does the director explain his presence?

Sophiya Haque shows more skin than substance. She and fellow veejay Nikhil Chinappa, one thinks, are better off hosting music-based shows.

The usually dependable Saurabh Shukla is rather over the top and loud.

Sohrab Ardeshir and Makarand Deshpande take the cake in hamming. Sohrab is unbelievably atrocious in the scene where he dreams of his glory days.

The musical score is insipid, except for maybe Love kiya.

On the positive side, excellent camera work by Ravi K Chandran (Virasat, Saat Rang Ke Sapne).

Snip is neither commercial nor arty. Nor does it qualify in the independent cinema bracket.

Verdict: In a theatre with the capacity of 1,000 people, an approximate crowd of 23 showed up.

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