An unknown film with a strange unusual title, a strong visible print promotion and many new names in its credits were enough to put me in the obvious doubts. But still, I was ready to give it a chance since I am always eager to get surprised from any of these relatively small ventures which may turn out to be the dark horse of the race any Friday. But unfortunately CIGARETTE KI TARAH is not anywhere close to that and it remains one of those ambitious projects made with an amateurish confident attitude without any basic vision or skill.
In most of the cases, such films always choose a 'Crime-Thriller' kind of subject for its basic storyline since it easily gives them the opportunity to add all the essential commercial elements into the film ranging from friendship, betrayal, conspiracy, murder, suspense, chase, love and sex. Now playing it safe the makers of CKT also do the same but in the process are not able to give you even a single scene rising above the mediocre level resulting in a pretty bad product in the end. The film begins with a chase sequence and as it progresses showcasing many weak, vague & unrelated scenes, one clearly gets an idea that it is going to be real hard to tolerate this amateurish attempt for the next two hours.
Confusingly moving between Kanpur and Goa, the first time director Akashaditya Lamadesperately tries every trick of the trade to establish his lead actor Bhoop Yaduvanshi as a hero, in vain. And if the boy is really interested in this tough world of acting then he seriously needs to give it a second thought or try something else. Walking on the same lines, Yuvika Chaudhary also disappoints hugely, who surprisingly looked quite charming in her small cameo in Shahrukh Khan's OM SHANTI OM. Sudesh Berry hams in his every scene but the debutant Madhurima Tulli thankfully gives the viewer something to see on the screen in comparison to others. So we have only one serious actor in here as Prashant Narayanan who also looks too casual suggesting his lack of interest in the project.
The cinematography of CKT gives you the feeling of a trial video being shot and the same can be said about its background score and soundtrack with some below average tracks. In simple words, either the producers here were too over-confident about their own instincts & so called passion for cinema or they unknowingly hired a less experienced and unprofessional team which was able to give them such a low grade product in return.
To be honest, I just had one thought in my mind while watching its end credits rolling and it was the way Late JASPAL BHATTI used to boldly write in all his ventures as "Misdirected by Jaspal Bhatti". However where the renowned comic writer-director fondly used the term as an intelligent sarcasm, CIGARETTE KI TARAH suits the term perfectly as a 'T' since its nothing but just another misdirected project backed by some energetic producers.
