Stealing beauty!

Suparn Verma

Bollywood is duty-bound to steal from Hollywood films.

Take the God of all Hindi films: Sholay. It is a take on The Magnificent Seven, which is a take on the Akira Kurosawa classic, Seven Samurai.

But let us not get into an history lesson. The latest chapter in Bollywood lore is our lesson for the day: Sunny Deol's Farz.

The first half of the film is a replica of Lethal Weapon (Part One): Older cop Om Puri (Danny Glover in the original), is saddled with a new partner, Sunny Deol (Mel Gibson in the original), who has his own idea of justice.

Actually even this idea is from the Sly Stallone cop drama Cobra. Complete with Sunny Deol mouthing, "Crime is a disease, I am the cure" throughout the film.

The second half of the film is a remake of Ricochet, a drama in which the DA has to fight a crazy drug lord.

So Jackie Shroff (John Lithow in the original) and Sunny (Denzel Washington in the original), play a cat and mouse game because Sunny has killed Jackie's baddie brother, Mukesh Tiwari.

So Jackie does all the things that happened in Ricochet -- drugging Sunny, destroying his credibility by indicting him in a drug deal money racket, videotaping him making love to a prostitute (whom he hires to seduce), etc.

Not one original thought or idea here.

The songs are all mistimed, all worth a miss, save for two pleasant numbers.

The action? That's something you have seen in the last 10 Sunny Deol films. Think Salaakhen, Ziddi etc, and you'll get the picture. Think expensive cars somersaulting 20 ft and you've hit the jackpot.

Sunny Deol himself is the same as he was in his last film. Mouthing the same things, doing the same... Worse, he is made to dance twice!

Now, the question is, where does Preity Zinta fit in?

Well you needn't think too hard. What would a pretty woman do in an action film? She is a decorative prop who has all of four songs, one crying scene and gets to be tied up by the villain. She also, as a mark of heroine status, gets to play Sunny's lover and wife further in the film.

Om Puri as Sunny's partner, and Preity Zinta's dad, is totally wasted. However, he has one decent scene when he is showing his distaste for Sunny. But if you have seen Lethal Weapon, this one palls.

Jackie Shroff playing the villain is no big draw since he has already done that in 100 Days, Aar Ya Paar and, more recently, in Mission Kashmir.

Though he does look great and acts with conviction.

Director Raj Kanwar, who also assumes responsibility for also having written the film, seems to have done an all-time shoddy job.

Hungry for success, he seems to be filling up the shoes that Mahesh Bhatt left behind. At least Bhatt has Saransh and Arth to his credit.

Kanwar's Daag -- The Fire is nowhere near par. He also seems to be using the same formulae that made him successful, instead of evolving as a director.

As for Sunny Deol, he seems to be stuck in a rut with the same coterie of people he keeps making films with -- and all of them remakes.

The film does not hook you on any level -- emotionally, nor action wise.