Lanka makes for tedious watching. The story premise is interesting enough. In small towns of India apparently local goons and politicians take on women they fancy as their mistresses and terrorise their families into accepting the situation. However, the movie mixes up this issue with the relationship between the goon and his protg and this makes it all an unpalatable emotional khichdi.
Bhaisaab played by Manoj Bajpai is the local goon who takes a fancy to the Chief Medical Officers daughter and makes her his mistress. She is also a doctor but a pretty spineless one. Enter Bhaisaabs adopted brother who falls in love, feels sorry for her and finally revolts against Bhai saab and agrees to be a part of the CBI case against Bhaisaab that had been started by the good Doctor who finally commits suicide unable to save his daughter. The girl is saved but no one else is the emotional fallout between Bhaisaab and brother. There are also some side stories of a cop and a politician but they all just blur the focus.
Manoj Bajpai as Bhaisaab builds a strange character. Bhaisaab is powerful yet emotional, ruthless yet weepy. He is drunk most of the time and I really could not understand how he is so powerful with so many weaknesses. Its a complex personality to build up and if that was the Directors intention Manoj Bajpai achieves it very well. Tia Bajpai as the girl caught in Bhaisaabs net is a huge disappointment. Dolled up in a tawny lipstick and ironed hair, her appearance is not that of a distressed person, even less a Doctor. Of course she looks all upset and cries a lot but I would think a girl who does not want to be a gangsters mistress would want to downplay her beauty rather than dress up in some negligee when the man comes visiting or put o so much make-up. Arjun Bajwa as the brother has to look grim most of the time which he does with ease. He has a good screen presence and was sort of tolerable.
The movie is sluggish in its pace and the maudlin music that plays in the background each time Bhaisaab talks to the brother is very irritating. I would avoid booking tickets to go this Lanka if I were you.
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Bhaisaab played by Manoj Bajpai is the local goon who takes a fancy to the Chief Medical Officers daughter and makes her his mistress. She is also a doctor but a pretty spineless one. Enter Bhaisaabs adopted brother who falls in love, feels sorry for her and finally revolts against Bhai saab and agrees to be a part of the CBI case against Bhaisaab that had been started by the good Doctor who finally commits suicide unable to save his daughter. The girl is saved but no one else is the emotional fallout between Bhaisaab and brother. There are also some side stories of a cop and a politician but they all just blur the focus.
Manoj Bajpai as Bhaisaab builds a strange character. Bhaisaab is powerful yet emotional, ruthless yet weepy. He is drunk most of the time and I really could not understand how he is so powerful with so many weaknesses. Its a complex personality to build up and if that was the Directors intention Manoj Bajpai achieves it very well. Tia Bajpai as the girl caught in Bhaisaabs net is a huge disappointment. Dolled up in a tawny lipstick and ironed hair, her appearance is not that of a distressed person, even less a Doctor. Of course she looks all upset and cries a lot but I would think a girl who does not want to be a gangsters mistress would want to downplay her beauty rather than dress up in some negligee when the man comes visiting or put o so much make-up. Arjun Bajwa as the brother has to look grim most of the time which he does with ease. He has a good screen presence and was sort of tolerable.
The movie is sluggish in its pace and the maudlin music that plays in the background each time Bhaisaab talks to the brother is very irritating. I would avoid booking tickets to go this Lanka if I were you.
view less
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