Dastak

I can't believe how often a competent director like Mahesh Bhatt fell into the territory of derivative, cliched commercial filmmaking, especially when he made suspense thrillers like Gumrah (which was awful) and the current film, which is similarly unoriginal and not very good. The film was clearly made just to mark the debut of the beautiful Sushmita Sen, who was crowned Miss Universe just two years earlier. In this regard, it's not bad at all. Sen is not just beautiful but also a very talented actress with graceful screen presence. But Bhatt's direction is very poor here, and it just doesn't work. The second half is obviously stronger than the first, as it's where most of the action takes place, but it's still not as gripping as it could and should have been despite Sharad Kapoor's very good performance as the obsessive antagonist (seems to have been inspired by Shahrukh Khan's previous villainous turns in Darr and Anjaam).

I saw this movie quite a while ago. Perhaps an year after it was originally released. This movie was probably Sushmita Sen's debut movie after becoming Miss Universe. The sad part of this movie is that despite a convincing portrayal of a psychotic obsessed with the beauty queen by a very under rated Sharad Kapoor, one could not help compare him with the monster-like Shah Rukh in Darr(one of his best till date). This comparison does not seem fare considering Shah Rukh was a much seasoned performer than the newbie Sharad. Mukul Dev plays the cop who is responsible to protect Sen from Sharad. In a quick mix of Darr and Body Guard, Dastak lost it's original shine somewhere. What should please the viewer are the beautifully composed sound tracks. One of the best tracks is "Tumhe Kaise Mein Bataaoon" (How shall I tell you?) sung soulfully by Abhijeet. Portrays the battle of the love lost 'anti-hero' wonderfully. It remains one of my favorites till date.

I would give it a 5 out of 10 despite it's flaws for being one of Sharad's better performances in a time when the 'Anti Hero' tag belonged only to Shah Rukh.

Glittering persona from her very first movie,we want Sushmita to do more romantic films.

Dastak stars the gorgeous beauty queen Sushmita Sen in her debut. She plays herself in this 3 hour long melodrama and surprisingly gives a heart touching performance.

In the first half, Sush looked glamorous and had nothing to do but display her glorious stardom. It is only in the second half that her histrionics and acting talent come to the fore. She was superb in the climax.

As for Sharad Kapoor, you can't really tell if he's a good actor or not. Because his role is modelled after Shah Rukh Khan in Darr. Pretty much, he does a repeat of SRK's outbursts and craziness, just cut out the stuttering part.

As for Mukul Dev, the less said the better. He remains wooden throughout the movie and does nothing substantial to prove his worth in his debut. But I guess, it's a heroine-centric film. So obviously he was made to act that way.

The movie was quite good but the theme is very tried and tested in Bollywood. Didn't we see the obsessive lover track tried billion times in Bollywood before in Darr, Daraar, Agnisakshi, Anjaam and Yaraana?

Overall, a nice movie with good songs. 'Jaadu bhari aankhon wali suno' and 'Tume kaise main baataon' are the best tracks in this film. Please watch it for Sush and the songs. You won't be disappointed at least with her!