Last Updated on Monday, 13 April 2009 18:15

THE PREMISE OF Ek Chaalis Ki Last Local is pretty simple. A guy Neelesh (Abhay Deol) misses the last local. It is then a story of his journey into the next two and half hours that takes him into the Mumbai underbelly; makes him witness to a gang war and the risk of getting raped by a ‘King’.

Risqué did I hear?

 

Well, Ek Chaalis Ki Last Local is risqué in parts; as is the narrative of the film at times, well most of it, faltering.

 

Neelesh (Abhay Deol) misses the last train. The run of bad luck continues as the auto-walas are on strike. The only solace is the soothing company of a middle-class girl, Madhu (Neha Dhupia), whom he meets while trying to pataao the auto-wala.

 

Soon the duo become companions and meet the Mumbai-underbelly (druggies, goons, dons, eunuchs, corrupt cops) as the clock ticks from 1.40 to 4.20 (hope I got the timings right!)

 

Now the problem is this genre of Mumbai underbelly has been done to death by film-makers like Ram Gopal Verma and much recently, his erstwhile protégé, Madhur Bhandarkar.

 

Each time a character sashays on screen, you chuckle isn’t he or she like, Chandu or Chanda (as the case may be) from that film.

 

The film is good in parts; two actually. The first part is when Abhay Deol accidentally ‘kills’ topya, don Ponappa’s brother and a corrupt cop Malvankar takes supari to kill Abhay. The build-up till the escape in the jungle is good; however very soon the build-up is lost when Neha takes the cops to the eunuchs.

 

If she had eunuchs to fall back on; why didn’t she tell it beforehand?

 

The second part is towards the climax, when the eunuch leaves Abhay in charge of Deepak Shirke, a don with an eye for males! The reaction of the character, Neelesh, to the whole situation; coupled with Abhay’s expressions gives the crass, class.

 

The biggest question in the film is left unanswered why didn’t Bhujang let Ponappa kill Malvankar?

Probably a better editing would have worked positively for the film. There are a number of sequences that can be edited.

Other Articles by  Amit R Agarwal

 

    * Go-laal: The colour of revolution

    * Dilli Fix: Movie review

    * This Raaz is no RAAZ

    * Bollywood Reel-outs 2008

    * Ghajini: Aamir, Asin rise above a mediocre fare

 

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    * The song ‘Bheegi Bheegi…’ where Abhay-Neha walk doesn’t move the narrative.

    * The Virendra Saxena part; out to cross Ponappa’s men is very patchy; ideally he should have been introduced directly on the fly-way.

    * The Nana Patekar look-alike put in for comedy fails miserably.

    * To top it there is a cop with Rajnikant hangover. Buddy this comic-style went out with Y2K.

 

Sanjay Khanduri, the debutant director, handles a couple of sequences well; but his own script is his handicap. Other technical aspects match the mood of the film.

 

Abhay Deol gives yet nother credible performance; but the best act comes from a little known actress cast as Rafeeq (Virendra Saxena’s) accomplice. She is effortlessly in sync with the character.