Viruddh

Article Updated 24 July, 2005 11:25:46 PM IST

Viruddh

AB Corp along with Satyajit movies return to production after a hiatus with 'Viruddh - Family Comes First'. Three weeks after 'Sarkar', Amitabh Bachchan returns in yet another pivotal role around which the entire movie revolves.

Vidhyadhar and Sumitra Patwardhan [Big B and Sharmila Tagore sharing an amazing on screen chemistry] are a retired couple who live in quiet neighborhood with their select group of friends. They are enjoying their relaxed life with their world revolving around the two of them and their only son Amar [John Abraham] who is studying in London.

While Vidhyadhar is ever eager to have his tea full of sugar [despite of diabetes], Sumitra is also not far behind in putting extra salt in her food [despite high blood pressure] when Vidhyadhar is not watching. They reprimand each other when they catch each other's folly. Short scenes like Vidhyadhar dozing off while reading a newspaper, Sumitra giving him a 'monkey cap' to protect himself from cold and little cribbing about the neighbors continue to bring chuckles on a regular basis. The entertainment reaches its peak with introduction of Ali [Sanjay Dutt], the next-door garage owner, who shares a love 'n' hate relationship with Vidhyadhar.

The majority of first half just breezes by with John Abraham acting as a candid narrator. He finally makes his entry, with Jenny [Anusha Dandekar], a British national in tow. There is no pace lost here either, as Jenny is whole-heartedly welcomed by the Patwardhans who subsequently get them married in a temple the very next day.

Life moves on nicely until Amar gets killed in an attempt to nab a politician's son Harsh [Amitabh Dayal], who is trying to run away after killing his girlfriend in front of a nightclub. One expects the movie to take a dramatic turn from here on with some fiery sequences to follow. Unfortunately, the script doesn't allow any such things to happen. The family mourning a death is surely not something that could have been done away with, but the punch that one expected from this stage on is missing.

Vidhyadhar files a case against Harsh and predictably looses due to police-lawyer-politician nexus. Instead, Amar is tainted as a drug peddler. At this stage, once again the audience hopes that things would pick up with Vidhyadhar coming up with some superlative scheme. But again, the execution is not hard hitting enough to sympathize with the proceedings. In fact, it looks childish to see Vidhyadhar first recording Harsh's statement in a hidden recorder and then openly playing it right in front of him to expose him. His rationale behind doing so is not convincing either. The subsequent court scene is one of the tamest scenes ever in current Bollywood that defies all logic [and probably even the rules of law]. This is where one feels sorry for Mahesh Manjrekar, the director, as he built up the story so well for most of the part, only to have it fall apart with some weird writing at the end.

Sharmila Tagore comes up with a lovable performance [one of her best ever] that should make number of producers start thinking about signing her and Big B together more often. Bachchan continues his good form in 2005 and enacts his character very well as he turns from happy-go-lucky, to helpless, to finally rebellious (though one misses the fiery part in him that was expected in the last few reels). John Abraham shows that he can do much more than be a cool dude and given his career chart so far, this should be yet another interesting addition to his profile. Anusha is a delight and brings on a smile in all her happy scenes with the Bachchan family. Sachin Khedekar doesn't get much scope to act except for the opening scene, which he does well.

Sanjay Dutt is simply wasted in an inconsequential role. Any other lesser actor could have done his little help for Bachchan in the end. Agreed that he interests the viewers whenever he comes on screen but as someone who could contribute to the story, he doesn't have anything to do. Beena is so-so while the trio of Prem Chopra, Sharat Saxena and Shivaji Satam as Bachchan's friends are just passable. Amitabh Dayal is a revelation in the role of a high-headed minister's son cum owner of an interior decoration firm who unapologetically believes that crime comes naturally to him. His solitary sequence with Bachchan in the pre-climax is expertly handled where he does exceedingly well. If he was fine in 'Kagaar', he is quite well in 'Viruddh'.

Dialogues by Sanjay Pawar are first rate in the movie's first half but the ordinary script in some part of the second half doesn't give him many options. Vijay Arora's cinematography captures the life of a middle class family well on camera. The background music by Ajay Atul is appropriate for this genre.

A few expectations are set in mind once you decide to watch 'Viruddh - Family Comes First'. One, you look forward to the screen pairing of Amitabh Bachchan and Sharmila Tagore to see how it fares in comparison to Amitabh-Hema [Baghban] or Amitabh-Jaya [K3G]. Two, you want to see how John stands up as Big B screen son, the position that occasionally juggles between Akshay Kumar and now Abhishek Bachchan. Three, and the obviously the most critical one - how does the character of Vidhyadhar Patwardhan give it back to the forces behind law and order departments, who leave no stone unturned to prove his dead son a criminal to save their own face.

The first two expectations are very well met, but it is with the third expectation where you feel a little disappointed. Not that the culmination of story with the parents getting justice is horribly run-of-the-mill. But the issue lies with the sheer lack of thought that went into maintaining the same standards till the end of the movie, which were pretty high for the most part of the movie.

**1/2 (TWO AND A HALF STARS)
*poor; **average; ***good; ****very good; *****excellent

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