Prince Its Showtime 2010

Movie Review: Prince Its Showtime

Opening-weekend box office indicates 'Prince' could be in the Reliance Fresh Rs 10 dump bin as a worthy replacement for those hard to find rocking-coffee-table balancing objects. For incompetent and cartoonish are the best words to describe 'Prince'. The film actually wants us to ponder its moral and ethical implications, which is like a stripper telling you she wants to go to law school.

Fans of both action and comedy will likely be howling for director Kookie Gulati's head, and I can't say that I blame them. The IQ here is as low as the body count is high and the uncharismatic Vivek Oberoi might as well have been wearing a mask for all the emotion he shows. One can't call 'Prince' shoddy, exactly, and the actors take it painfully seriously - it's just dispiriting to see all this endeavour in the service of something so daft and hopeless. The fight scenes are saggy, the actors are stiff, and the sleepiness of it all is enough to make you nostalgic for the simple smackdown charms of a violent videogame.



'Prince' boasts some of the most involving special effects ever conceived by Bollywood. Of course there isn't really any acting to speak of, although Aruna Shields and Nandana Sen get to chew Vivek and scenery, the dialogue is pretty much what you'd expect. There is a tremendous amount of shooting and running. You could build a large pond just from the adrenaline we see expended in the course of the movie. Most of the film is good enough that way - dumb, but not boring. But does it have to be so witless, so stupid, so openly contemptuous of the very audience it's supposed to be pandering to? Not by a long shot.

The film borrows heavily from Hollywood's 'Crank'. Prince (Vivek Oberoi) wakes up one morning with a severe bout of amnesia and a gunshot wound on his arm. He realises that he is being simultaneously hounded by the CBI, India's secret service and a shadowy criminal organisation. He also finds out that he has committed the biggest crime in the history of the universe and embedded in his brain is a secret that threatens the ENTIRE human race. Three scantily clad girls (Nandana Sen, Aruna Shields and Neeru Bajwa) wag their tongues and claim to be his girlfriend Maaya. And if it all weren't uncomfortable enough already, Prince finds out that he has only five days to live. Will our hero vanquish the villains and save the human race? Watch the film before acute anticipation turns you into a squeezed lemon.

Action director Allan Aamin and cinematographer Vishnu Rao are the real stars of 'Prince' - if there's anyone who deserves Aruna Shields in a bikini its them. Oscar winner Resul Pookutty's sound design matches big budget Hollywood standards. Editor Nicolas Trembasiewicz could as well have been dropped considering there is no escape from Sachin Gupta's music. Director Kookie Gulati's concept is cookie, he seems so pleased with the fact that he came up with a thinly plausible pretext for this clash of the visual effects that he didn't bother to develop the characters or fashion a plot with any suspense.

Final verdict? If your favourite idea of fun involves staring at Vivek Oberoi who is attired in black leather, brandishing guns in various poses, grimacing and thrashing around violently, uncertain as to why he is doing it or what will come of it, then this is the movie for you. Others should take it as a warning to stay the heck away from this literally and figuratively deadly travesty.