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'Zor' Nothing zordar in the movie

By IndiaExpress Bureau
Film critic, ApunKaChoice.Com

Zor comes with the exhortation: "Never underestimate the Force". The force of what? Sunny Deol's formidable biceps to which Sushmita Sen clings as she does to her worn-out Miss Universe glamour?

Or the repetitive mantra of Hindustan being the land where Mandir-Masjid should co-exist in harmony while conscienceless politicians, fake Godmen and minority leaders with underworld connections let loose communal riots for their own ends, while the honest DIG and hero's father goes to prison on a trumped up charge?

And the son goes on a one man mission to nail the real villains and bring back his misguided Muslim buddy (Milind Gunaji) to the path of true nationalism? Yet another conscientious hero - so imaginative to call him Arjun (Sunny Deol) to invoke the righteous warrior! -- takes on the "evil troika". This phrase is evidently much favoured by the publicity handout to describe Swami Satyanand, smeared with a Chandraswami-sized bindi (Mohan Agashe), a devious Muslim leader Shah Alam (Om Puri) who favours a squadron of black-suited bodyguards, and an anti-national minister whose screen name is Sharad Patil.

The story and screenplay by NK Maharajan shows a woeful lack of geographical knowledge. The action veers from good old Mumbai to the Himalayan snow-clad peaks to Rajasthan's undulating sands without a word of explanation or sequential logic. Jeeva, the cinematographer, is obviously intent on capturing furious horses thundering across the snow, motorbikes careening off glazed ice patches, camels and dupatta-draped damsels disporting themselves on golden sands and perched on picturesque jharokas.

To underline the topicality, there are bomb blasts, Hindu-Muslim riots over a piece of land claimed by both for a mandir and masjid, a pious old Muslim who speaks in Gandhian idiom but even this ploy fails. The Muslim character and his pretty daughter exist only to justify how their death turns the BSP officer Iqbal Khan (Gunaji) into a terrorist working for a Muslim cause.

More realism and fewer declamations might have saved the day. Worse is in store for the women in the film. Sushmita Sen is supposed to be a journalist from the rival daily but her witless capers and even more witless colleagues are an insult to journalists. She tries to stall and then steal Arjun's papers to get hot copy for her paper. When the silly, giddy girl is caught, the hero gives her a stinging slap and presto! She falls in love! Dina Pathak and Deepanjali supply the sentimental angle as the doting grandmother and irritatingly chirpy sister. Do filmi sisters have to be so irritatingly chirpy?

Agosh, the music-making trio comes up with a striking score but the background music is uniformly deafening. The hero trusts his brawn more than his brain — and he is supposed to be a brilliant investigative journalist! — and expects his musculature to carry the film's dead weight. Alas, Sunny Deol is no Atlas and the film is really not worth the effort. If at all there is anything new in this high-pitched harangue, it is debutant (in Hindi) director Sivan's touching faith in the power of over-statement. Unfortunately, the film neither educates nor entertains because the script alternates between hysterical preaching and mindless killing

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