Musafir (2004)

Sanjay Gupta after KAANTE turned a new leaf in his career, which was a remake of Usual Suspects+Reservior Dogs. Musafir is a remake of U-Turn(1997) The film like Kaante has lot of style,sex everything and also a twisted plot. The film keeps you guessing throughout which is a plus point, also there are several twists and turns which keeps you engrossed, the film does get slow paced a bit in second half, Also Sanjay Dutt's character is missing from second half, the climax too is flawed, Direction is good, but the writing could be tighter even Sanjay Gupta overdoes in style department,too much of style in the film Dialogues by Milap Zaveri are too goodAnil Kapoor gets maximum footage and does a superb job, he looks too good and carries off his part superbly, Sanjay Dutt gets a small role but the best lines and he carries such roles with ease always Aditya Panscholi with a bald head and french beard suits the role and is superb, Sameera Reddy is good in her role,raw in some scenes Mahesh Manjerekar excels in a role which seems tailormade Shakti Kapoor has a brief role and is okay Koena Mitra doesn't impress much Ashwini Kalsekar is good in a brief role

Caveat Lector: May contain spoilers. The 2 Sanjays – Dutt and Gupta collaborate again. Even after a truckload of flops since Aatish, the 2 seem to seek for that one movie which will establish their supremacy. Well, most people may call Musafir the worst movie ever made. I will be kind. I would say – stop comparing Gupta with Orson Welles. Condition yourself to Gupta's movies. Be prepared to find rip-offs of other well known movies and/or scenes thereof. Be prepared to see unabashed corny plots and dialogs and vulgar dialogs. On the plus side, Gupta always manages to get the best technicians to work on his movies – cinematography, sound effects, the works – all world class. Is it Gupta's fault that he doesn't have enough money left to hire a decent scriptwriter after hiring all the technicians? Come on, give him a break. Nuff said. Back to the review… The characters:- Lucky (Anil Kapoor) is a street-smart crook who always has a soft spot for sexy ladies romping around in negligees. During a con operation (after which he is supposed to quit), Lucky manages to run away with a bag load of cash only to be duped by his "girlfriend" (Koena Mitra) who runs away with the money. Soon, Lucky comes to know that the dough belongs to Billa(The Dutt) – the wackiest gangster in town. Lucky promises to make it up for the losses and after Lucky passes a "Zindagi ka Highway" (Highway of Life) test (which involves running across a busy freeway blindfolded), Billa dispatches him to Goa. Lucky's assignment is to drop a conspicuous looking leather bag at (LOL!) Wacko Jacko's (Shakti Kapoor, after a long gap) place and collect a similar bag full of dough on the way back. Lucky barely enters Goa and his problems start. He meets the sadist Goan cop Tiger (Aditya Panscholi), who wastes one of Billa's men and worse – he holds a grudge against Lucky because Lucky refused a lift. At Wacko Jacko's Tattoo parlor in Anjuna, Lucky sees the ravishingly sun tanned Sam (Sameera Reddy) who is getting a tattoo done. Smitten by Sam, horny Lucky finally lands up at her place only to discover that she is married to a club owner, Luka (Mahesh Manjrekar). And surprise, Luka wants Sam dead (for whatever reasons). Luka offers to pay Lucky for the assassination. Meanwhile, Lucky finds himself being bugged by Tiger and the rest of Goa police force and ends up losing the dough he was supposed to take back home. So what does he do – he takes up Luka's offer, of course! Or does he? While Lucky is fooling around, Billa rides down to Goa on his Harley and all the hell breaks loose. Did you just say this is the review of Oliver Stone's "U-Turn"? Well, Sanjay Gupta is a glutton for inspiration, you know. And he owns a DVD Player too. What did you expect – another Sholay? All said and done this is a helluva movie for those who this genre of spaced out corny movies. In fact, there are points in the movie where one is forced to think that the corny lines were written first and the situation was added later to script! LOL! Now for the performances. To my surprise, the movie had fairly decent performances (sparing the 2 ladies, both were atrocious). Anil Kapoor, with his new rugged getup and crazy hair looks quite the vagabond. Shakti Kapoor is wasted and is limited to a few corny lines. Panscholi, who excels in these angry guy roles (Mahasangram, Aatish) does all the shouting in the movie and is quite OK, IMHO. The guys who take the cake are Sanjay Dutt and Mahesh Manjrekar! Manjrekar is excellent as wife beating sex fiend who had allegedly raped his wife's young sister and does a wonderful job with his facial expressions and his set of corny, risqué lines. Watch him when Sam narrates her story of how he watched her swimming in the pool and also the scene in the van when Lucky drops Sam and Luka back to the place where Sam's car broke down. This guy was born to do such roles. And as for Dutt, IMHO this was one of his best performances ever. His Billa is one of the most spaced-out screen characters in recent Bollywood history. Imagine, a knife-wielding, cigar-smoking mafia don who is obsessed with Bollywood movies and with a great sense of humor – that's Billa for you. He is the chief anchor for this movie. Another plus point of the movie is the cinematography which is brilliant with a music video like look and feel. Fast track background music by Chowta and Vishal-Shekhar is quite effective. Bottom line:- Sanjay Gupta's latest attempt at making a film noir and establish himself as the Quentin Tarantino of Bollywood would have failed miserably BUT there are elements in the movie that one can enjoy just for the "trip value".

Bearing a "resemblance" (or shall we say "inspiration" ?) with the Hollywood thriller "U-Turn", Musafir is a good entertainer. With veterans Sanju Baba and Anil Kapoor, one wouldn't expect any less.Lucky(Anil Kapoor) is a conman, thief, small-time gangster all rolled into one, having had a orphaned and destitute childhood. He dreams to have a peaceful life and takes all short-cuts to achieve that. One fine morning he wakes up to find that his last con-job went against Billa(Sanju baba), a feared, knife-swinging Mafia Don who would stop at nothing to get his job done. Now, with his partners killed, he has to save himself by carrying out a drug-deal for Billa, in Goa. When he goes to Goa, he is torn between a couple who want to get each other killed and try to use him as the instrument. To rub more salt in his wounds, he accidentally crosses paths with Tiger(Aditya Pancholi) a corrupt, encounter-specialist cop. Throughout the movie, Anil Kapoor's expressions are enough to show his inner feelings. Sanjay Dutt's mafia-Don image seems to have stuck to him, right from "Vaastav" and "Kaante", but then he carries it so well that it seems nothing less than natural. Anil Kapoor does perfect justice to the character of Lucky, who is smart and rarely loses his cool. Sameera Reddy fails to deliver; I guess she is in it just for the skin-show. I don't know what Shakti Kapoor is doing in this movie ! Mahesh Manjrekar's psycho-type acting is quite good but it seems to be getting stereotyped, these days (remember Kaante and Plan ?) Overall, it doesn't stand-up to the standards of "U-Turn" but a movie worth watching, if U don't have anything else to do. For all Anil Kapoor and Sanju baba's fans, its a treat. The Saki-Saki and Ishq Kariyo Na numbers are simply awesome !

I am no critic. I watch movies just to have a good time. I don't get paid to criticize or praise a movie. I will not praise a movie just because it has one of my favorite actors, Sanjay Dutt. Sanjay Dutt is one of the top five actors in India on my list ( Others are Naseeruddin Shah, Amir Khan, Irfan and Om Puri). But its sad to see him doing movies like Rudraksh, Plan, Kaante and all these new formula movies. The only purpose of these new movies is to make the viewers believe we are getting closer to Hollywood but in reality we are giving up our originality and wasting talents like Sanjay Dutt with movies like Musafir. Cleavages, Guns, Leather, Silver, Gold, Drugs can look good in a movie if the movies actually has a storyline, a theme, a SCRIPT! Musafir is nothing but a Suzuki engine inside the body of a Lamborghini. Its all looks but no torque. If you liked Kaante then you will probably like this movie because both those movies have something in common, they're both "kool" but have no substance.