REVIEW: Prince

NOT SHOWTIME YET

Every once in a while comes a film that tries to fly before it can walk,  and ends up tripping on its shoelaces.  There was Drona and there was Veer there’s Prince, so awful that it is enjoyable.  You have to see it with a crowd of irreverent college kids, or better still an upper stall audience—they rattle off lines before they are spoken on screen, come up with cheeky responses to the film’s soggy punch lines, hoot with derisive laughter and get their money’s worth this way or that.

It’s just his bad that Vivek Oberoi gets saddled with a film for which he is so clearly unsuited.  To pull off the non-stop nonsense that goes on in Kookie Gulati’s Prince, a guy has to be cute like Matt ‘Bourne’ Damon, or sexy like Daniel ‘Bond’ Craig— Oberoi is neither. He looks like a sad wannabe in black patent leather amidst Batman-like gadgetry.

All the fuss and bother in Prince is over a gold coin that has a chip embedded in it. This chip has memory-altering functions that can be used, as the villain says, to conquer the world.  It has already been used to erase the memory of ace thief Prince (Oberoi), and every time he is in a stressful situation, he clutches his head, twitches and faints.  Not much of a ‘hero’ – also too many ‘duh’ moments for his own good.

Seeking the coin is villain Sarang (Isaiah) with a bionic limb,  the CBI represented by Khan (Sanjay Kapoor) and a top-secret government organization called IGRIP—so secret that its gunmen wear jackets with the name embossed.

There are also three women called Maya trying (and failing) to sex up the proceedings—Neeru Singh, Nandana Sen and Aruna Shields.  Prince, with a puzzled frown on his face, is hurtled from one misadventure to another—and all the action takes place in South Africa, with the local cops not even batting an eyelid at the mayhem taking place in their backyard.

The sad fact is that Bollywood maybe able to copy Hollywood action (and stunt director Allan Amin does a lot more than all the actors and the director put together), but how about a new storyline to match the latest gizmos on screen?

 

Comments

[Interval]

Definitely a must watch movie - after a long time a movie has come around that captivates the audience the way Vivek and Prince do so. Nice Review on the movie Deepa - i agree somewhat regarding the storyline!

Regards,

Interval

[Chinoy]

My husband is a college buddy of Allan Amin. Does anyone have a contact e-mail or phone number for him?