Prithvi

Producer: Nitin Manmohan, Late Mukul S. Anand, Sunil Manchanda
Director: Nitin Manmohan
*ing: Sunil Shetty, Shilpa Shetty, Faraz Khan, Shakti Kapoor, Suresh Oberoi and introducing Shweta Menon
Music : Viju Shah

Reviewed by: Mohammad Ali Ikram
ali@indolink.com

out of

Prithvi had the potential to be a memorable film. Nitin Manmohan's first directorial venture picks up steam half an hour into the proceedings... but after a few intriguing moments, we are thrown into a world that grows more filmi, cliched and implausible each passing second.

Prithvi's main plot (by Anees Bazmee) is of an Indian couple separated when the wife (Shilpa Shetty) is kidnapped on their voyage to the United States. Evidence of her existence is intentionally wiped off the face of the planet by the kidnappers, making the husband's (Sunil Shetty) task of finding his love impossible. The sub-plot of identical appearances may be a bit more contrived, but in the context of a commercial film, the story had great potential.

In numerous scenes, pretty Shilpa Shetty proves that she may develop the talent to tackle a meaty role. Faraz Khan does an unforgettable villain act, and that laugh whenever Prithvi is threatening him over the phone is ingenious. (Faraz makes a better villain than hero.) Even Sunil Shetty has improved his accent since his debut in Balwaan. (Too bad his voice and that irritating dialogue delivery still jar.) Shakti Kapoor has a unfunny multi-role and he is an irritating distration. And newcomer Shweta Menon thinks a stripping dance in her debut will prove her talent. (By that logic, her career will not go anywhere.)

So what is the real problem with Prithvi? For one, Nitin Manmohan has abused his cinematic license. For those individuals unfamiliar with the term, cinematic license lets a film-maker dispell logic or common sense in a few parts of his movie. In any commercial movie, I will accept a character having a car accident, flying through the front window and running away. (Okay okay, I am lenient.) But cars racing down Houston's roads (and docks?), blasting bullets at each other endlessly, and not a police car in sight? An American Police Commisioner who has a cubby hole for an office and accompanies his squadron on duty? An Indian character (Suresh Oberoi) who is apparently in charge of the Texas Police Force... doubles as a lawyer... and yet asks the Indian Embassy to contribute to the extra protection of a murder witness? These are just some of the gems I am supposed to digest in Prithvi. If the characters were in India, maybe I would accept it, but in the most powerful nation of the world? I think not.

Speaking of the U.S., the second major problem is Sunil Shetty repeatedly insulting Americans and the U.S.A. in this movie. He calls Americans na-mards, says they have no respect for the institution of marriage and threatens to burn down the city of Houston if he doesn't find his wife. Valid, invalid or idiotic comments aside, I suspect Shetty may lose some of his NRI fans with Prithvi. Then again, I have yet to meet a bona fide Sunil Shetty fan.

Of the four Viju Shah songs, only 'Jis Ghadi Tujhko Rab Ne Banaya Hoga' is downright magnificent. Harmeet Singh's cinematography is as always above average, and he makes Shilpa look better than ever before with his camera. (No it is not only because of her new nose job.)

Nitin Manmohan must work on his sense of logic before he makes any more attempts at direction. A film with Prithvi's lack of logic may become a hit at the Indian box office (e.g. the hideous Khiladiyon Ka Khiladi), but no one remembers a dunce venture twenty years down the line. If only a more realistic director had tackled this story.

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