Right Yaaa Wrong

Coming from the house of "Mukta Arts" one would expect a quality cinema. Lets not forget the glorious days when they entertained us with Hero, Karma, Ram Lakhan, Saudagar, Khalnayak etc. Right Yaaa Wrong (I hate the numerology fetishism Bollywood has succumbed to!) barely misses a mark to qualify itself as a B-grade thriller thanks to Sunny Deol, Irfan Khan and Konkana who have lent their names to this project. A suspense-thriller strongly warrants 100% from the writing department and a taut execution - precisely its here the movie falters. In addition it succumbs to the typical Bollywood melodrama making it even worse.

ө Sunny Deol:: The action-scenes donning the cap of the cop was good. The moment he is confined to wheel-chair, the character loses the punch.

ө Irfan Khan:: As usual "the devil may care" attitude to the camera works in his favour, and Mr. Irfan knows it. Good performance if not excellent.

ө Isha:: Passable.

ө Konkana:: Why was she there in the first place?

ө Deepal Shaw:: I guess the romantic track with Irfan Khan got chopped on the editing table. She would have nearly qualified for a blink-n-miss role.

ө Parikshit Sahni:: Now this one was a real blink-n-miss appearance.

The cat-and-mouse game between the lead actors was so childish and so were the court-room scenes (straight out of 1970's, if I dare say!).

Be rest assured the TV rights will be sold asap to recoup as much moolah as possible, so I recommend you watch it then and make your own judgement if I was Right Ya Wrong.

To start with, the promotion was pathetic and the promos were bad. The title was never heard of and the lead hero was out of the lime-light. So, it was all dark before "Right Ya Wrong" finally got released this Friday after being in the making for two long years. But, perhaps it was all for the good, as the movie surprisingly proves to be a lot better than what was being expected by the viewers.

With a mild first half and an explosive second hour, the movie has everything ranging from a well planned murder to an absorbing court room drama. At first, it moves quite similar to many seen before routine cop flicks, but soon goes on to unfold new mysteries, plans and high tension drama which keeps you glued to the screen post intermission. So, in short the movie is a well worked upon crime thriller coming out of Bollywood after a long time.

But WAIT! There is a twist here in the proceedings…..But let me first introduce you to a few lines about the main plot of the movie:

"A Cop is paralysed in a shooting and is unable to walk. His misfortune brings him sympathy which he uses to devise a plan to rid himself of his unfaithful wife and her lover."

"But another officer starts suspecting that this well- respected former policeman, paralyzed after a shootout, is planning an untimely demise for his unfaithful wife."

Now what's the twist here? The twist is that the movie which successfully manages to impress with its engrossing second half and well written sequences towards the climax is not based on an Original Storyline. It is completely inspired from a western flick and the above few lines about its main plot prove it all.

Actually, the lines mentioned above are not about the basic storyline of "Right Ya Wrong" but they are in reality taken from the IMDb page of the movie called "ABOVE SUSPICION" (1995) starring Christopher Reeve in the lead.

Chek out at : http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0109034/

The moment I came to know about this acute similarity between the story- plots of these two movies, I felt sad and cheated as I really wanted to praise "Right Ya Wrong" as an Original Work. But Bollywood seems to be still caught in the web of its decades old bad habit of copying and may be that was the reason the movie was given such a low profile and effortless release from its production house.

Frankly speaking, writing a detailed review of a movie which is nothing but a copy of someone else's hard work is quite a complicated job for me. In fact, how can one comment on the script and sequences of a movie, which are entirely borrowed from another crime drama of the past and have no original contributions coming from its writer & director. As a matter of fact, one can only write about the technical achievements of such projects since rest all (the script, the scenes and the story) is nothing but copied in the first place.

So technically, "Right Ya Wrong" is a fine crime thriller which captivates the viewer, especially post intermission. It has a well directed climax in the form of an enthralling court room drama with many exciting moments to enjoy. Though the movie is not perfect and has its own flaws at certain places, but still it's surely much better than many recent crime thrillers presented before us.

Performance wise, Irrfan Khan is at his best as the honest cop and scores above all in the cast. He simply sets the screen on fire with his unique style of dialogue delivery and facial expressions. Sunny Deol is cool & calm in his role of a crime master and looks fresh on screen after a long gap. Both Konkona and Eesha excel in their limited scenes. Arav Chowdhary as Sunny's brother plays his part with confidence and the child playing Sunny's son leaves an impact. Deepal Shaw has nothing much to do in her cameo. Thankfully the movie has only one song in its narration and that's too a routine one. But Background score and Camera-work keep giving you the feeling of an outdated project at regular intervals.

In short, Director Neerraj Pathak, delivers a sharp crime thriller with a wisely chosen cast. His skillful direction shines on the screen post intermission and in the climax. But unfortunately, instead of working on an original idea, he chose the easy but unethical way of copying a western flick, which works against all the merits of his otherwise thoughtfully titled movie "Right Ya Wrong". Hope he comes up with an original piece of work next time?

(Watch it if you like gripping crime dramas and simply don't care whether it's copied stuff or not!)

What worked: It's a well balanced Bollywood movie that was a satisfying and unique story. It came during the times in Bollywood where almost majority of the movie were a copy of the international or national market. It's one of them, but Irrfan stole the show. It's a fine movie with a moral and legal dilemma, and taking sides is not advised but leaves you with a question at least of what happened and how it should be processed. The movie is thrilling, engaging and ends with a satisfying ending though questionable. What did not work:

• loopholes and flaws: the movie definitely did not answer all the puzzles and there were questions that needed answering. Overall, we can just let go of those flaws and enjoy the movie.

Final verdict: recommended, at least for the time it was made

It has become common knowledge that Pathak's 'Right Ya Wrong' shamelessly rips off 'Above Suspicion'. Thus, the writers do not deserve much credit. Normally I tend t avoid rip-offs, but since it stars Ishaa Koppikar and Konkona Sen Sharma, I made an exception. Considering that this is a Sunny Deol film, one can expect some 'dishum-dishum' (translation: tacky Bollywood fight scenes) but the good thing is that it's toned down and once the movie moves passed that phase, it stays in thriller mode. The execution isn't exactly sophisticated. The writing is quite amateur (even though it's ripped off). Sunny Deol is a little too old for the part but where acting is required, he's surprisingly subtle and pulls it off. Ishaa Koppikar is very convincing as the adulterous housewife. Irfan Khan is passable. In all fairness to him, the characterization was poor. Konkona Sen Sharma is wasted. I wonder what an actress of her calibre saw in such a half-baked role.

Only when you seem to have found the right suspense thriller to watch with the entire family do you find out it is actually a copy of another film. 'Above Suspicion' is the word. Sad isn't it? That's the state of most of the films of this genre made today. It's so much more challenging to make a film from your own imagination. Inspiration is also important, but a copy, why? Well the answer does not seem to be coming. I watched this film because of so many recommendations and I finally did it. And yes, this one really is an enjoyable fare - a very fast-paced, gripping suspense thriller which turns into an interesting courtroom drama. Sunny Deol stars as Ajay and he does well after quite a long time. Do not recall any good part since Gaddar. Here he is quiet and restrained. Isha Koppikar is effective as his unfaithful wife. Irrfan plays the investigating officer yet again, and he plays his determined act well. Konkona Sen Sharma gets a very small role, and she makes a great impact like only she can. The ending was pretty good. Right Ya Wrong may be unoriginal but if you can get past this fact, you will certainly enjoy watching it with family and friends. Just for fun.