Lanka

Just imagine…

A place where there is no end to corruption, murders, frauds & all the possible crimes you can think of! Sounds like already watched it a trillion times? Well, it could be the premise of at least half the Bollywood films!

Jaswant Sasodia, better known as Bhaisahab (Manoj Bajpai) is supposedly the “Ra.One.”, sorry, I ment “Ravan” of his corrupt world Lanka. Well, this Lanka is full of poverty (be it script, songs, performances or dialogues) as opposed to that of Ramayan-the Indian Epic. Moreover it surely won’t be able to collect much gold on the box office either!

As the tag line “she was trapped in the kingdom of lust, love came to free her” suggests, the story is based on a female protagonist Anshu (Tia Baajpai) who is the “involuntary” concubine of Jaswant, the uncrowned king of crime. Her character is nowhere similar to that of Sita in the Ramayana! Sita was the incarnation of goddess; strong, fiery, determined & capable! Unlike Anshu who seems to be the epitome of sadness & helplessness (maybe partly because of the premonition of the failure of the movie). With perennially miserable expression, she seems to have come straight out of some “saas bahu” soap opera!

Suddenly & Sporadically there is an introduction of a third character, Sisodiya’s younger brother (Arjan Bajwa), who soils the Tide detergent act of Anshu on the festival of Holi! And yea, it’s a spoof & not an in-film Ad campaign! Couldn’t get more cliché! There is some romance angle added, it is so pathetic that it falls flat 180°! & also there is Yashpal Yadhav, who dies midway during the movie (Perhaps he is dead bored)!

Now if the film makers are trying to draw a parallel between the Ramayan & Lanka, then a lot of questions arise. Like, if Tia=Sita; Manoj=Ravan & Arjan=Vibhishan, then who is Ram? (Ramayan khatam ho gai, aur Ram ki entry hui hi nahi!) & how come a romantic angle is shown between Arjan & Tia! Whatever! It is a modern version of the Epic, sending across the message that sometimes Vibhishan is enough to free Sita, It is not necessary for Ram to take birth!

By the end of the show, the audience is already half asleep & probably in a distant nightmare…thinking “Trapped in a Ridiculous film-show, the end credits came to free us”!

L(ov+uc)