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Main Hoon Na
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'Main Hoon Na'

By ApunKaChoice Bureau
Film critic, ApunKaChoice.Com

What happens when you put too many spices in a single recipe? The result is a stodgy dish which is hard to digest. That is exactly what Main Hoon Na is like. In the times when filmmakers in Bollywood are experimenting with more realistic themes, Farah Khan comes up with a flashy movie conforming to all the stereotypes of an out and out commercial flick.

Main Hoon Na has a little bit of everything in it. It has a youthful setting of a college campus, it has a patriotic angle harping on Indo-Pak relations, it has desi humor, videsi style of filmmaking, it has a good number of songs, it has stunts, action and pyrotechnics for adrenalin rush, it has emotional and romantic moments.

But

what Main Hoon Na lacks is logical progression of story and believable presentation of its characters.

For instance, SRK looks out-of-place impersonating as a student in college. He looks too mature to pass off as a student. And it looks absurd to see him indulging in fun and frolic in college when his father (Nasseruddin Shah) has expired just a few days back in the story. Even Sunil Shetty looks odd impersonating as a professor in the same college.

Not everything can be justified in the name of entertainment. The genre of entertainment to which Main Hoon Na belong can be traced to seventies when stories were hyperbolized and then laced with overtly sentimental songs with the inclusion of a special qawwali.

The story of Main Hoon Na couldn’t have been more hyperbolized. A young Major (SRK) in the army has his personal aim of fulfilling his Mission Milaap to join the hearts of people living in India and Pakistan. But there are some anti-national elements (Sunil Shetty) who want to foil this mission. Major’s mission takes him to a college where he indulges in teenage fun and frolic and also falls in love with the chemistry teacher (Sushmita Sen). But terror comes closer after the bad guy too comes into college impersonating as a professor.

Farah has taken too much cinematic liberty to tell an overblown story. But the movie will certainly appeal to those who want unadulterated entertainment with a pinch of everything from romance, humor, patriotism, action and songs.

SRK’s portrayal of Major Ram Prasad Sharma is convincing, but the actor appears to be getting straitjacketed in his acting style with every film he does. His facial expressions, his body language and that customary glint in his eye are so much similar to the characters he has played in other films. Even his style of dialogue delivery is predicable. It seems SRK adheres to just one formula of acting – that is flamboyance intermixed with an affected intensity. And this is taking out any surprise element from his acting coz whichever character he plays, he does it in same style, using the limited repertoire of his histrionic skills.

Zayed Khan is better than his previous movie and comes forward as a promising actor. He looks well suited to play the role of a young college going kid who is full of vanities at first but later grows into a matured person. Newcomer Amrita Arora matches Zayed in equal stead.

Sushmita Sen doesn’t get to show much histrionics but she looks resplendent dressed in free-flowing saris.

In marginal roles, Boman Irani and Kiron Kher leave an impact.

In a nutshell, Main Hoon Na contains wholesome entertainment in a glossy package. It has an inflated story strewn with flashy songs shot in stylized way. But it lacks subtle subplots. It is not the kind of a movie that stirs a viewer from inside.

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