Ehsaas drains you of all feeling

Ronjita Kulkarni

There are many kinds of storylines -- original, unoriginal, remakes, strong, weak or just missing.

Ehsaas falls in the last category.

Suniel Shetty (Ravi Naik) is a poor widower with a 11-year-old son Rohan (Mayank Tandon). He wants to make his son a great athlete and win the national championship in the All India Inter-School Meet. He adopts an intensive training routine quite unacceptable to his son and his next-door neighbour Antara (Neha).

Antara is a young widow who stays with her mother-in-law, Kiron Kher. They share a close bond, as the older woman is like a mother to the younger. In the course of the film, Ravi and Antra fall in love with each other.

Rohan's training period lasts the entire first half of the film. Finally, the day of the race draws close. But fate has a different plan. Rohan meets with an accident, crushing all the dreams Ravi has for his child.

But this, after all, is a Hindi film. What's more, it is a children's film. So the ending has to be happy. Hence, Rohan manages to run the race.

Expecting more? There was nothing much to begin with. The story is as bland as food without salt.

Ravi Naik is shown as a poor government employee who has no money to buy his son imported spikes for the race. He goes on to sell his late wife's mangalsutra, his last remembrance of her. At the same time, one wonders how he can afford rimless spectacles and light up his entire house with decorative lights for New Year's Eve.

The humour in the film is best not spoken about. Sanjay Narvekar might make a good comedian, he is just not funny here.

It's strange that a talented director like Mahesh Manjrekar with Vaastav and Astitva to his credit could make a film as shallow as this.

Manjrekar's last film, Tera Mera Saath Rahen also did not live up to the mark. But most of his previous films have been hard-hitting and thought-provoking.

Ehsaas stumbles with its bad script.

The director appears in a cameo as Antara's colleague who misbehaves with her. His drunken slur sounds pretty convincing.

Singers Anand Raaj Anand and Sunidhi Chauhan also have guest appearances in the film.

The music is, to say the least, bad. Songs like Kuch kehna hai and Yeh din bachpan ke sound corny, even though appropriate in this children's film.

Suniel Shetty as the strict father who finds it hard to express his love to his son is average. In many scenes, he appears wooden. He really needs to work on his emotional scenes.

Neha looks perpetually confused and hurt.

Mayank Tandon as the small boy makes a good debut. He is genuine as the poor little deprived boy.

Kiron Kher as Antara's mother-in-law is totally wasted. One wonders why such a talented actress would act in such a half-baked role.

I do not need to give a verdict for this film. The sparsely populated theatre on the first day, first show says it all.