Naqaab

Having seen this with no idea what it was about, I wasn't sure if it was going to be a complete song-and-dance-fest..or not. But, I stuck through it all. A couple of minutes of no subtitles in some sections, subtitles of spoken English that didn't match the spoken English and spelling mistakes in the subtitles added to the hilarity. It doesn't try to be a comedy, but is completely unbelievable throughout and features a ridiculous storyline that becomes more hilarious towards the end.

If you didn't pay to see the film (I used my unlimited pass, so I can see as many films as I like in a month for one price), then great, it's a passable form of entertainment as long as you don't expect, well, anything at all. Otherwise, unlucky.

'Naqaab' which comes from the stable of the director duo Abbas-Mustan is a watchable movie! One wouldn't come out of the theater cursing it or ruing the wasted money!!! The first half of the movie is below par but I have given it a rating of 6 because the last 30 minutes really takes the graph of the movie to a new level. The first half seems a half-baked plot where all the three leading protagonists (Akshaye Khanna, Bobby Deol and the new Urvashi Sharma) are trying to create a love-triangle/drama of sorts. The character sketch in the first half not up to the mark and I can see a lot of viewers losing patience at the intermission mark. But boy, the movies does take a good turn in the second half. Though the movie is a rip off from a Hollywood flick (I would not name it though), it would come as a good enough thriller for Bollywood fans. Acting is not the strong point of the movie, Akshaye is strictly O.K. and Bobby Deol needs to get back to form really quickly. For her first movie, Urvashi is fine (and she is a quite a treat on the eyes). Another good thing is that song interruption is minimum in the movie (just 3 songs and one is kind of introduction). So all in all an average movie! Watch it just for sizzling Urvashi and the last 30 minutes.

From prolific filmmaker duo Abbas-Mustan Naqaab.In this film that's set in Dubai, newcomer Urvashi Sharma and Bobby Deol play a young couple engaged to be married. It's another thing he's a multi-millionaire with a home the size of a palace, and she works at Burger King and pays him rent to live under his roof. Just days before her marriage to Bobby, she meets and strikes up a friendship with an aspiring actor played by Akshaye Khanna. Sparks fly between the two, but on Urvashi's insistence their friendship is kept strictly platonic. On D-Day, however, just moments before she exchanges marriage vows with Bobby, Urvashi has a change of heart. Up until this stage, the film made perfect sense to me, but it's from this point onwards that Naqaab turns truly bizarre. It would be unfair to reveal any more of the plot because that would give away the surprise element of the film. But believe me, you'd never have guessed where this film was going anyway, because it's so ridiculous and unimaginable. Now you're probably wondering why I'm complaining if the film is unpredictable, because unpredictable is a good thing, right? Well, there a difference between unpredictable and ridiculous, and the thing about the twists and turns in Naqaab is that they're absolutely ridiculous. For years Abbas-Mustan have ripped off popular films from Hollywood and delivered successful Hindi remakes: Khiladi, Baazigar, Daraar, Chori Chori Chupke Chupke, Ajnabee, Humraaz and Aitraaz.But with Naqaab they've hit their weakest note because it's a thriller without any thrills if you ask me. There's none of that nail-biting tension, no suspense and an anti-climax to top it all. I could pick a hundred holes in the screenplay but I don't even want to bother, because that would still mean putting in more effort than the writers and the directors have. You know one's willing to suspend disbelief if your script can convince me to make that leap of faith. And Abbas-Mustan know that better than anyone else. We've happily gone along with their stories of mistaken identities, reincarnations, double roles, death-avenging relatives, and murderous spouses.But with Naqaab they come up with something so bizarre that's it's really difficult to digest. In all honesty, I was so stunned by the banality of the plot that I was convinced this couldn't be a rip-off. It had to be some amateur writer's amateurish effort which Abbas-Mustan decided to direct. But to my surprise I discovered that Naqaab is not only a bad script, it's also not an original script. It is copied from a film called Dot the I starring Gael Garcia Bernal. The directors of Naqaab have plundered, lock stock and barrel from that obscure American film. It's not just the plot and the premise of that film that's been borrowed, even dialogues from that film have been directly translated into Hindi and shamelessly used. When a film's not working for you, you can usually find a million things to not like in it. As far as Naqaab is concerned, I have to ask if the costume designer of the film was smoking pot while at work. How else do you explain the horrifying clothes that she's draped most of the actors in—red lace gloves for the leading lady, pink satin shirt with a matching pink waistcoat for Bobby, and double-layered clothes for Akshaye. Hell, why? Also what's with all those ugly sets? From the outside Bobby's home looks like the Queen of England's holiday home, but the interiors are the kind of tasteless sets they used to construct at Hyderabad's Banjara Hills for those B-grade family dramas in the eighties. There's little one can say about the three actors in this film, they perform adequately but fail to make much of an impression and it's hardly their fault given the kind of material they're working with. Abbas-Mustan's Naqaab is far-fetched and illogical and there's hardly anything to like about it.

Right before watching Naqaab I understood that if I have ever to catch this Abbas-Mustan thriller that would be only for newly introduced Urvashi Sharma. Beside this I find no other reasons to watch. Every time I see Urvashi I remember of Diana Rigg, the Bond girl of 1969's On Her Majesty's Secret Service opposite George Lazenby. She is new but surprisingly she did help to flash the camera as a new battery. Although the movie was made colourfully it hardly puts any positive colour to our heart, due to such an over-twisting plot.

This is the third nonsense directorial presentation from director duo Abbas-Mustan after Daraar and Badshah. After watching a single time I got fed up with the movie and hope not to repeat it watching again. So far they have used Bobby Deol with better prospects in their previous thrillers - Soldier, Ajnabee and Humraaz, but here they all put him under the mud. Although his role has a bit tragedy here but it fails to load back in memory after the movie reaches its end. But the romantic humours between Akshaya and Urvashi are really hilarious and worth watching. Quiet something they can form a good pair if mechanized correctly.

I had to say once again if there is any reason to watch Naqaab, that is Urvashi Sharma. She performed her first role with full confident, and I noticed nothing weaknesses in her acting as well as screen-presence. I beg to Abbas-Mustan to cast her in future again in their next upcoming projects with good story, casting and production.

This movie's a poor remake of a 2003 movie called "Dot The i" written and directed by Matthew Parkhill and starred Gael Garcia Bernal, Natalia Verbeke and James D'Arcy. I loved that movie and was saddened to see this awful remake. This not an adaptation or an interesting take on the original. It is totally ripped off, scene for scene. The location has been changed to Dubai- that's it. This travesty is made worse by forgettable songs and third rate acting by the whole cast. I don't think anyone ever acknowledged the original movie. I wonder how anyone can get away with this in this day and age when everyone is sensitive about intellectual property rights.