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Ek Se Badhkar Ek
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'Ek Se Badhkar Ek'

By Nitika Desai
Film critic, ApunKaChoice.Com

Ek Se Badhkar Ek fails to live upto the expectations that can be attached to a director whose satirical comedy Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro still resounds in the memories of movie buffs.

Kundan Shah’s very first movie is perhaps the best work of his life. His following movies were quite likeable in their own ways, but none of them turned out to be exceptional like his debut.

His

latest movie Ek Se Badhkar Ek is funny in parts, a bit puerile in between, and chaotic towards the end.

The film has Sunil Shetty playing Rahul, a gardener’s son, who, by a fortunate twist of fate, inherits a property of Rs 400 crore. But, there is a condition he must fulfill – he must become the most dreaded criminal in the city.

The credit for this condition goes to the imaginative lawyer Anand (Shekhar Suman), who, by the sweet virtue of also being an ambitious novelist, added a small plot of his own novel into the will. Anyway, Anand promises to help Rahul become the topmost don in the city.

A part of the solution to Rahul’s problem lies in his neighborhood, where resides a ‘righteous’ police officer, Kanchan (Raveena Tandon), who dreams of catching the biggest don in the city someday.

Rahul and Kanchan reach an agreement with win-win situation for both – Kanchan will get Rahul an entry into the world of crime. In return, Rahul will help her with information about the underworld.

But the trouble is that the city already has a much-dreaded don Jindaal (Gulshan Grover), who is, in fact, planning to kidnap a most-qualified nuclear scientist Krishnamurthy (Makrand Deshpande). And also in the picture is Tracy (Isha Koppikar) who works for a secret government organization.

In order to pre-empt Jindaal in his plan, Rahul decides to kidnap the scientist before his ‘rival’ could, but, by mistake, kidnaps Jindaal instead. Things further get complicated when two look-alikes of the scientist appear and create confusion for all the characters in the film.

What makes Ek Se Badhkar Ek an average comedy is its shoddily written script and poor performances by its starcast. Sunil Shetty looks flat-faced with no expression for a good part of the movie, while Shekhar Suman often exaggerates his comic act. Raveena Tandon is just not capable of doing comedy and so is Isha Koppikar.

On the other hand, commendable performances come from people in marginal roles. Gulshan Grover, Sadashiv Amrapurkar, Shakti Kapoor, Deepak Shirke and Asrani keep the things lively with their entertaining acts throughout the film.

Watchable only once

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