Asambhav

Watched this film with an audience of....5 in total! Had a choice between Lakshya and Asambhav...(realized then I should have gone for Lakshya). A typical plot...India v Pakistan..but just isn't cricket as you have Kashmir in the middle. An Indian super hero goes on a mission to save the President of India from some Pakistani rebels who are involved in a mass drug smuggling racket. I left the film half way as it was simply boring and the plot was confusing and all over the place. The songs were also awful, the film tries to hide the flaws with its special effects but unfortunately they are outdated too.

Overall...avoid it if you can, has to be the worst film I've seen this year.

A decade or so ago, i immensely enjoyed the flesh show the movie called "Tridev" was never forgot the name Rajiv Rai. Subsequently dissolved into the more gripping Hollywood and eventually world cinema.

Meanwhile, have always followed the changes in the degrees of flesh flashing that has taken place in bollywood. But then the pompous beginning of "Tridev" remained in my mind and also the strange tonal and also pompous rambling of the villain during a song. Of course the legend of alternate movies Naseruddin shah acting in it made it remote compulsive viewing. Typically 80's with villain's jumping out of every twist and each one having a strong character of their own, the dialogues are naive, pompous to the point, subtlety is like the wind that blows past the window.

Many decades later, thanks or no-thanks to a friend i was persuaded not to miss the ebb and flows of bollywood.

Asambhav is definitely an Ebb in the scheme of things. The movie was as ridiculous as a carry over from the 80's, but then it seemed deliberate to relive the pompous not at all subtle 80's. But then the twists are a deliberate inclusion and they exist in the format.

A handsome Arjun Rampal (my girlfriends call him "The Dish") referring to the tasty meat he can make.A slick "the Hulk" like comic book edit, where multiple screens are adapted to narrate the story. A shapely non-actress but quite a turn on called priyanka chopra, she holds on to the nearest hunk like thing (it is only Arjun in the movie).

The short coming here was that the screenplay remained steeped in the 80's an upgrade to the 2000's screenplay would have aided the idea even more.

What is gravely naive and even more funny is that the format that rai adapted and also claims original concept rights to is best suited for a comic strip hero, it seems a good adaptation from a naivety point of view but not so in a mature movie space, but then bollywood is not a mature movie space but purely a entertainment space for the 1/6 of the world. What right do we have to assume that a large cross section like that will need mature entertainment?

So the 80's screenplay in multiple screen format is the novel inclusion, that is if the movie was not multiple screen format it would have been one hell of a long movie that could have served better narrated in a cartoon format.

The multiple screens format obviously does create a technical challenge and Rai was up to the challenge less times than he should have been. When the multiple screens format is abandoned the movie gets limp like all the 80's get limp when watched now in the 2000's .

Purely from the above stand point of enjoying a clean juxtaposition of concepts, the trashy 80's and slick techno 2000's this is a hilarious movie. No matter what Rai's intention was I enjoyed 'Asambhav' from that stand point and if I have to view it from a serious critic standpoint, which Bollywood movie is better than the other?

Well, besides the great views of Ticino and Locarno, Switzerland, the movie has a recurrent theme: Kashmir and Indo-Pakistani War. Besides the fact that Arjun Rampal is doing a good performance, I found pretty hard to understand who had the money, who finally is good and bad, and why there are so many changes in the gangs' composition. I kind of was lost but enjoyed watching it. It's action, action, action and lots of blood. Well, it's not Devdas or Yuva. But the mix between Bollywood and the famous scene in Switzerland is well done.

I saw this movie with some hopes, despite its dull performance at the box office. I was disappointed. Low points: Stereotypical bad guys - I mean come on, the whole Pakistani/Kashmiri/Jihad plot is just so OLD. I am really sick of movies featuring this subplot as they just never offer anything new in terms of villain motivation or behaviour. You can predict what they'll say before they do and it's certainly not good for relations between the two countries. Find a new source of bad guys already, Bollywood.

Direction: The director had some snazzy techniques of using a split screen. Then he overused it way too much by putting this technique in every few minutes.

Priyanka's character: Unneccessay side plot without any character development or motivation

Bad music: absolutely no memorable or inspiring music

Predictable storyline: enough said

Good points -

Arjun Rampal: Arjun is looking as gorgeous as ever, so if you're female you'll probably enjoy this movie. He's also quite a good actor and very good in an action role.

Naseeruddin Shah: This guy is a scream every time I see him. His villain was one of my favourite parts of the movie he was so campy.

All in all the world would not have been at a loss if this movie had never been made. However, Arjun Rampal is quite good and very nice to watch, so rent it on video and fast forward the boring/bad bits.

What has Rajiv Rai done to himself? Once a hit director of films like Tridev and Vishwatama is now making one bad film after another. I was initially excited at the thought of Rajiv Rai returning to the action genre but that soon fizzled out. As a Rajiv Rai fan I thought I should at least give it a go but I left after an hour. One reason for me leaving the film so early so the amount of Paki- bashing in the film, this was not in Rai's previous venture.

A lot of directors have tried Paki- bashing but I did not expect it from Rajiv Rai Another letdown was the music. Rajiv Rai's have always had good music until now. There is only one good song and that is Tere dekh dekh Ladgayan. The performances are not upto scratch, not even from Rai Loyalist Naseer-Uddin- Shah. Avoidable fare from once my favourite director.