Article Updated 20 November, 2005 03:59:56 PM IST   Ek Khiladi Ek Haseena By Prema K. ©2005 Bollyvista.com   Surprising that this film is the directorial venture of a scribe-turned-scriptwriter! One expected a bit of intelligence with this caper. To say that the film insults the inelligence of the audience is an understatement! So throw logic out of the film but at least one expects good performances in the film. Except for Kay Kay and Gulshan Grover (unfortunately the latter has very little screen time to make an impact) there's nothing happening in the performance department. Talk about oomph, Koena exudes a certain amount of that but in most places she ends up looking like just a hot body with an expressionless face and zero body language. A cardboard cutout is how she can be best dscribed. She should seriously stick to modeling and item numbers. Not actress material at all! The only reason one can attribute to her presence in the film is her daring skin show and a hot lvemaking song with costar Fardeen Khan. Of course, we forgot the hot lip to lip scenes in a few places. Although the maker claims that the script is an original (we pity him if this is true!) it is clearly inspired by Hollywood films. The film is not Bollywood at all. 'Kaante', 'Plan' started off this genre a couple of years back and in recent times we've had 'Dus' and 'Chocolate'. Without exaggeration, this genre of films seem to be getting worse over the years. Now for a bit on what this film is about. It's said to be a con film. Every character is out to con the other, but the film fails to grip you. Call it the incapability of the actors, poor screenplay or the director's shortcomings; but it had the makings of an edge-of-the-seat entertainer. But to give credit where it's due, the film is visually appealing! Some of the songs too are good. One con job that stands out and also looks real is the one in which Fardeen cons a man at a jeweller's store into paying for the diamond ring that he has bought for Koena. Coming back to the story. Arjun (Fardeen Khan) and his close buddy Rohit (Rohit Roy) want to get rich quickly. This leads them to start a series of con jobs. They con the accountant of an underworld don, Sikander (Gulshan Grover). This leads to Rohit's murder and Arjun escapes from the city. Sikander traces Arjun and warns him to return the stolen 3 lakhs plus 1 lakh as interest. He puts his henchman Kaif (Kay Kay) on his trail. A psychiatrist, Natasha (Koena Mitra who looks more like a sex worker than a psychiatrist), enters his life. She is fascinated by Arjun's con games and decides to be a part of the group comprising of Fardeen Khan, Kay Kay, Mukul Dev, and some unknown character. She accidentally shoots a cop (Murli Sharma). Later she discovers that she was conned into parting with her hard-earned money. Natasha seeks revenge. She confronts Arjun at Sikander's den (how does she reach there?!) She also comes up with the idea of having Fardeen cheat Jehangir Khan (Feroz Khan), the President of Standard Bank, of Rs. 25 crores. The conversation that the group indulge in as part of their planning session is too long and boring. In most places, it leaves the audience out of it. This also tends to make the film move at a very slow pace. As we said initially, the maker claims that this is an original story, but the story screams about Hollywood film 'Confidence' (starring Edward Burns and Rachel Weisz). The beginning of 'Confidence' was copied very cleverly in 'Musafir' and then 'Musafir' took a different direction, but in EKEH, 'Confidence' is smeared all over. So copy or not, you decide, go watch both of 'em! We've already spoken about performanes in the beginning but just realized that we'v forgotten Fardeen and Feroz Khan. The former sails through the film with his usual charm and gorgeous looks. The latter has very little screen time but is charming alright although he looks quite monster like. Mukul Dev is alright, and Rohit Roy is likeable. All in all a film best avoided. ** (Two stars) *poor; **average; ***good; ****very good; *****excellent   close   Print this Article http://www.bollyvista.com   http://www.bollyvista.com/article/a/29/5854