Sunday, December 31, 2006

i (don't) see you





it was a comedy of errors. s text messaged l and asked her to buy tickets for the a r concert. l ended up buying tickets for ar's film "i see you". i was hoping to see a r rehman and we ended up seeing "i see you". produced by 'ke sera sera' and 'chasing ganesha' films (i don't know what that means) and directed by debutant vivek agarwal this film is also a love story like the earlier one "vivaha" that i had reviewed. only the difference is that while the latter was between two mortals,the former is between a mortal and a spirit.

the story is about raj jaiswal (arjun rampal) who is the hot-shot anchor of the "british raj" tv show being broadcast from london. the handsome man is having lots of fun what with his roving eyes and girls swooning over him. one day when the casonova returns home he finds a woman in his apartment. he is shocked to see her. as the conversation develops shivani (vipasha agarwal) explains that she is a spirit. she is a doctor and in her hospital there is an organremoval and sale racket going on led by a senior surgeon and that she was a witness to one of the kidney removal cases. the doctor tries to get her killed in an accident .luckily she survived and is in a coma. she fears for her life as the doctor is now determined to finish her to remove all evidence. what is her cause? she wants to get back into her body and stop the surgeon from removing the life plug.she pleads for raj's help.

she breezes in and out of his apartment at any time of the day or night.and she even visits him in his office.fortunately or unfortunately raj is the only one who can see her and speak to her.raj falls in love with the spirit to the disbelief of his buddy akshay (chunkey pandey) who even gets a psychologist (boman irani) to help raj out of his madness. meanwhile shivani's mom (kiron kher) visits her daughter everyday hoping for her recovery. ultimately when the surgeon tells her that there is no hope,she agrees to the withdrawal of the life support system which is keeping her alive. the spirit sees and hears the conversation. she rushes to raj and asks him to speak to her mom and prevent her from signing the letter. raj tries but unsuccessfully as the mother doubts his intentions. he gives up perhaps more terrified by her dog than by her who does not trust these media people.he decides to get the patient out. raj alongwith his friend pose as doctors and commit a daring act of taking the comatose patient out of the hospital and he brings her to his flat.

now scotland yard steps in. a hindi-speaking officer is in charge of the investigations on the 'organs scam'. the sherlock holmes type pipe smoking officer's investigations bring him to raj's flat. the comatose body is forcibly removed and brought back to the hospital.the spirit is heartbroken. the plug is pulled out by the doctor and she is supposed to be dead. the police officer arrests the surgeon. miraculously shivani recovers and joins raj.

you have to hangup your senses to believe in such a story. the direction by first timer agarwal is very average. arjun rampal's acting is good though for a seasoned actor it could have been better particularly the scenes when he first meets up with shivani's spirit. even the newcomer vipaasha(rekha look alike?) does not perform too badly. screenplay by suresh nair is good and the cinematography by ashok mehta of 'moksh' fame(arjun's first film) is excellent. music by the duo of vishal-shekar is great but only in parts. there are two hummable songs out of four in all. 'subah subah' and 'halo halo'.the second one is an eyecatching disco number with trapeze artists et al choreographed by shamak davar.

this is arjun rampal's production debut. the love story has been shot entirely in london. the inspiration for the story is from an earlier hollywood movie 'just like heaven' starring reese witherspoon and mark ruffalo. the film title has been plagiarised from " i see you.com" directed by steven stahl.

don't waste your time watching the movie. get a cd and listen to the songs. and if you have absolutely nothing to do and you want to see pictures of london rent a dvd and fast track forward. also the movie seems to have been released at a wrong time. cinema viewing is minimal during xmas and new year eve. a movie for the urban class and mutiplexes ,it is bound to flop in the boxoffice.poor arjun.he seems to be having a record number of flops. where do i see him?

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