| Reply 1 : Cast: Maanas, Sayantani, Tinu Anand, Rajesh Khattar, Julia, Mansi, Amanjot, Sanjay Gagnani, K. Jeeva
Direction: Anil Balani
Genre: Action
Duration: 2 hours
Story: Abhay Jatav is a fearless dacoit trapped by the police. His son Ajay is a fearless CEO trapped in conspiracies. Who lives another day?
Movie Review: Ok, let's get this straight - Rakhtbeej is a film you laugh at, not with, the kinda movie you could see with pals, popcorn and a cushion to pop behind when someone's ear gets slashed or arms crushed. Gruesomeness aside, the film's full of howlers. Remember those movies where everyone said 'daynce' and 'chaynce', where the hero's lipstick was pinker than the heroine's and sexy scenes always announced with a silky blast of trumpets? This is one of those - most of the time.
Abhay Jatav (Maanas) is Beehad's top dacoit. But his gang's composed of baby-faced criminals, including dakoo 'Chabila ' who's gay. How do we know? Guess.
Still, Chabila's the least of Abhay's problems. His second-in-command Sarita ( Julia), who looks straight out of the nearest spa, not thorny bush, is in love with him (like he cares), he's in love with Poonam ( Amanjot) who escapes her simple home to work as a professional but lands with the bang-bangs, and he's being used by politico Maya Singh (refreshing Anand) plus red-eyed policeman Reddy (Jeeva) whose thick accent sounds like he's telling his commissioner they need more "oms, ommonition and bullet-proof chocolates" to fight the dacoits. Considering the commissioner mulls, "These bastards are a terrible menace", they're clearly not rushing to action, despite Abhay massacring people merrily.
20 years later - Abhay's son Ajay (Maanas again - hail the double-role) is CEO of Dabral Companies which wins, ahem, licenses for telecom spectrum. Industrialist Dabral (slick Khattar ) comes with clingy daughter Sanjana ( Mansi) chasing Ajay, who falls instead for sexy model Priya (eye-catching Sayantini), posing for - don't miss - 'La Heaven hair remover'. That certainly comes in handy as the two plunge into pools and tiny beds. Everyone's having fun - except Ajay's rival Dharam (Gagnani), who traps him in a murder.
The idea of Rakhtbeej is to show how blood connects two men over two generations. Fine - except it's done very badly. Despite striking black-and-white sequences, the time-travel's ham-handed, the acting largely insipid, the music uneven, and sensing little real passion, the script's full of cusswords smoking like spent bullets. What stands out - no, not Rakhi Sawant's average item number - are the scenes of rural India, muddy, bloody and forceful. Maanas is almost convincing as the hulky Jatav but heavily wooden as Ajay. Indeed, Rakhtbeej's entire city portion drags what could've been a tighter film down into confusion plus gore - and howlers galore. |
