Dobara | despardes.com

OCT 10: When asked why did Shashi Ranjan choose such an unusual story for his directorial debut, he had said in an interview that he did not want to make the usual run-of-the-mill formula films. He preferred a unique one.

Ranjan appears to have succeeded in directing a unique film because very few can convert a marital thriller into a marital comedy!

Dobara is about a happily married couple, Anjali (Mahima Chaudhry) and Ranbir Saigal (Jackie Shroff). One day, Ranbir receives an unexpected call from a mental asylum, that Ria Deshmukh (Raveena Tandon) has escaped.

Ria, by the way, is Ranbir's first love but he had to leave her because she was a schizophrenic (what is with this medical condition? Bipasha suffered the same in Madhoshi, which also released today). Due to this, Ria becomes violent and at times, even hurts herself.

After her escape, Ria meets Ranbir and convinces him to accompany her to meet their 13-year-old son on his birthday.

Anjali finds it difficult to digest it, and follows them to Goa. On the flight, she meets Rana (Pakistani superstar Muammar Rana). Muammar performs gracefully, but his role is very tiny, and totally unnecessary.

Only two songs out of five -- Tum abhi the yahi and Mujh se kyon roothe ho -- are good.

That the picture is paced to pull you to the pillows is its prime problem. The film was tagged a 'thriller,' and you wait throughout the film for something to happen. But the story just drags on and on.

Knock off at least four songs, chop off at least 45 minutes, not that the result shall be a masterpiece, but at least an immensely watchable enterprise.

Some well-crafted dialogues and situations there, albeit too few and far in between long yawn stirring meanderings.

Hence, when you cut off the caveats, you begin to acknowledge the sincere intentions of the film and hope Dobara spawns a genre of realistic movies about adult loves and lives.

When you talk about a married couple triangle story, you think of films like Arth, Silsila, even Pyar Tune Kya Kiya. But what did Ranjan make?

So at the end of it all, while you’re unlikely to say ‘dobara’ — ‘once more’ — to this one, if powerful persistence and almost masochistic patience is one of your virtues, you should catch this once for sure.

Rating: * *

Cast: Jackie Shroff, Raveena Tandon, Mahima Chaudhry, Muammar Rana
Director, producer: Shashi Ranjan
Music: Anu Malik, Jasbir Jassi
Lyrics: Javed Akhtar, Jasbir Jassi

Rating Index: * * * * * Just brilliant * * * * A cut above * * * Enjoyable
* * Average * Bomb

A still from 'Dobara':
Raveena Tandon, Mahima Chaudhry and Jackie Shroff

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Top 10 Desi Movies

1 Salaam-e-Ishq
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As of Jan 28, 2007

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