Producer & Director: Shakeel Noorani
*ing: Govinda, Twinkle Khanna, Johnny Lever, Kadar Khan
Music: Aadesh Shrivastava

Released on : June 16, 2000

Reviewed by: Anish Khanna
anish@indolink.com

out of 
The only real novelty about Shakeel Noorani's new flick "Joru Ka Ghulam" is that it pairs massy Govinda with the "classy" (supposedly) Twinkle Khanna. Other than that and a few good laughs - the film is not worth a whole lot.

Govinda plays Raja and Johnny Lever is Kanhaiya - two crooks who pose as narcotic officers at airports and loot innocent strangers. Here they meet NRI Raju Patel (Ali Asghar) who they practically rape and send to an insane asylum. Raja poses as Raju Patel in order to enter the house of multi-crorepati Dhaneshwar Pitamber (Kadar Khan) as a potential suitor for one of Dhaneshwar's four daughters. The only problem is that the four girls each have their own reasons for not wanting to get married. When Raja wins the heart of the youngest one - Durga (Twinkle) - Dhaneshwar agrees to their marriage (along with a large lumpsum of money for Raja) on the condition that Raja find husbands that fit the requirements of the three other daughters. Can he do it? No suspense there...

Ok - first things first - the film is funny. But it is also redundant. There is an excess of any joke that might have been funny otherwise had it not been overused. Razzak Khan, as Kader Khan's sidekick/servant, speaks in chaste Urdu while Govinda tends to misinterpret everything that's said. This is funny - except when it's the 9th scene involving a similar joke. Johnny Lever is thrown around in a wrestling ring and hits his genital region. Ok, funny...(I guess..) - but then he hits it at least four more times in four more different ways! Yaaawwwnnn.... Some good alcoholic jokes are made at Ashok Saraf's expense (who plays Govinda's ustaad-cum-mama) but again - this is done to excess. Govinda's "Gujarati" accent also gets rather annoying since it tends to sound a bit more Haryana than Guju at times. (Listen to Govinda's mocking of the character from Haryana and you won't see a huge difference from his Gujurati act...)

Govinda for the most part turns in a spirited comedic performance - as do Johnny Lever, Razzak Khan, Ali Asghar, Ashok Saraf, and Ashish Vidyarthi in a brief appearance as a South Indian gangster. Twinkle Khanna in some scenes (like the boxing challenge scene) displays a hidden flair for comedy. She definitely looks like a million bucks here and she is starting to learn to refine that nasal quality in her voice. Maybe it's me - but I thought her voice had some deep tones that are reminiscent of her more gorgeous mother. Another Dimple in the making? Who knows - but still - Twinkle impresses in an overall lacklustre role.

Another HUGE drawback is that their are too many songs. So this is a Hindi film- but most of these songs just plain stink. Although Twinkle manages to keep pace with Govinda, most of the choreography is uninspired as well. There aren't even any good tapori numbers here, which in the past has been a necessity for a Govinda film to succeed.

Will this film succeed? I hope not... This film is about quantity (as in redundancy) and not quality. If it does succeed, it will be a rather sad statement on the Indian theatre-going public. Still - if you absolutely must go see it, my advice would be to fall asleep for the second half since it only drags and you won't miss any new jokes. Yaaaawwwwwwwnnnnn......