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'Jaani Dushman'

By ApunKaChoice Bureau
Film critic, ApunKaChoice.Com

This is as banal a movie could get. Two Ichchadhari snakes, living aeons ago in Nag Yuni, are unable to consummate their relationship because of a sadhu’s curse. Ages later, they are destined to meet in the 21st century as human beings.

Jaani Dushman: Ek Anokhi Kahani carries the touch of director Rajkumar Kohli’s yesteryear flicks like Nagin(Reena Roy, Feroz Khan) and Jaani Dushman (Sanjeev Kumar, Sunil Dutt). Like his former films, Jaani Dushman: Ek Anokhi Kahani too boasts of attractive starcast and has vendetta as the basic theme of the story.

The

story begins in the remote past when Vasundhara (Manisha Koirala) and Kapil (Munish Kohli), two lovers, are separated from each other because of a sadhu’s curse. According to the sadhu (Amrish Puri) they will reunite in future in most unlikely surroundings in 21st century.

The setting of the story now moves to present times in a college where Atul (Akshay Kumar), Vijay (Sunil Shetty), Prem (Aftab Shivdasani), Abdul (Arshad Warsi), Ashok (Aditya Panscholi), Victor (Sharad Kapoor), Rajesh (Rajat Bedi), Vivek (Sonu Nigam), Madan (Siddharth) and Divya (Manisha Koirala) study together.

Divya, the re-incarnation of Vasundhara, is in love with Karan (Sunny Deol). Karan too loves Divya but he has to leave her to go to Britain for an important business deal. However, Karan leaves behind his younger brother Kapil (Munish Kohli) to pursue college studies and take care of Divya in his absence.

Divya’s two college friends Rajesh and Madan call her slyly to a secluded place and rape her. A molested and tortured Divya dies in Kapil’s arms saying that all her college friends are responsible for her death.

Thereby begins the tale of revenge with Kapil vowing to kill every one who had hand in Divya’s death. In this endeavor he is helped by dead Divya’s spirit.

But for its attractive cast, Jaani Dushman: Ek Anokhi Kahani falls flat owing to its predictable and commonplace storyline. While Manisha Koirala is wasted in a just-for-the-heck-of-it role, Sunny Deol does his ‘hollering act’ with elan. The rest of the actors merely seem to sleepwalk through the movie.

Jaani Dushman: Ek Anokhi Kahani fails on many fronts. First, the film’s story is unimaginative and full of sequences that are deliberately forced into the plot.

Secondly, unlike Kohli’s former hits that had the masterstroke of music director duo Laxmikant-Pyarelal, Jaani Dushman: Ek Anokhi Kahani does not have a single melodious song to its credit.

Finally, Kohli’s sloppy direction and poorly executed special effects makes Jaani Dushman: Ek Anokhi Kahani unbearable.

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