Zinda: Movie Review

Cinema is an art but not a pure art. Its a highly commercial venture involving huge sums & everyone is in there to make profits. Hence, I don't scoff at movies "inspired" by some Hollywood success or by any film from elsewhere. It increases the chances to get a hit, or atleast so it seems. In the end, the movie should be entertaining to make money. Thus, it get very important to adapt the story & screenplay to suit the likes of Indian audiences.

I'm told Zinda is a frame-by-frame copy of a Korean film which goes by the name Oldboy. No one would've heard about the Korean movie, so no problems there. Infact the extreme dull-n-dark cinematography & Kill Bill style fight sequences were never seen before in a Bollywood film. The story & presentation are different too. But being different and being good are two very different things. That's what Zinda is, it's different but not good. Not even average!

The first half of the film is intriguing. The viewers are left amidst a mystery when Bala (Sanjay Dutt) is kidnapped from his home in Bangkok and without any explanation or reasons is kept captive for fourteen years. An old television, a cryptic painting and fried wantons are his companions for fourteen years. And one day, he is let out of the hole, without any notice or clue. He is determined to find the person behind his 14 year long exile. He meets an over-the-top taxi driver, Jenny Singh (Lara Dutta), and his school time buddy, Joy (Mahesh Manjarekar). Eventually, he reaches the man behind all this - Rohit Chopra (John Abraham), a multi millionaire and Bala's junior from his school. You'll have to watch the movie to get the logic of the movie after this point!

The second half of the movie is a big let down after the "almost good" first half. The screenplay doesn't have the fire to carry the film for the duration of two hours. It simply gives in to the cliches prevalent in Bollywood since eternity. The reason why Bala was kept in that hole for such a long time doesn't get down smoothly. Sanjay Dutt has done decent justice to his character Bala. He does the roles with more action + style and less dialogues with great success. However, his hairdo is plainly irritating! You keep on guessing which bird made it it's nest. John Abraham looks too immature to play a 35 year old millionaire, doesn't go well with his image. Lara Dutta's character is a total misfit in the dark story! The chemistry between her & Bala is missing and thus the scenes involving them both are big drags. Mahesh Manjarekar isn't given much screen time, but even in his limited time on the screen he doesn't miss any chance to irritate. I think he overrates himself very highly as an actor! The songs are good and fit well into the screenplay. The locations (Bangkok) are great. The dialogues are minimal and effective.

Overall, the movie starts very promisingly. The silver wrapper wears off around the interval and the second half totally puts you off! Don't waste your money on this.

(Review done for InfiCA. )