No rain no sunshine

Nonika Singh

He catches a glimpse of her at a police station and is instantly smitten. Now many a Hindi film, yes classics too, have been woven around love at first sight. Only Barkhaa isn’t your rain-laden badli that will usher romance in your lives. Actually not even a whiff of it, forget an intense love story that will sweep you off your feet. 

And not merely because the heroine happens to be a bar dancer. Yes dear that is the twist in the tale with which the director as well as the writer hopes to keep you on the toes (read wide awake). But be it Barkhaa’s (Sara Loren) jhatkas and matkas or her sob story or even more sobbing back story ... nothing moves you.  Says out dear hero a budding lawyer (Taaha Shah) jab dil chalta hai toh dimaag kaam  nahi  karta. Oh dear, here neither seem to be working. 

The film is far too linear and superficial to touch any chord. The desperate attempts to prove that dancing in the bars is not synonymous with flesh trade prove as futile as the twists and turns to generate interest. Actually, the justification it builds up for the existence of dance bars itself is way too lame. Sure the director knows dance bars have been closed down. But here he tells you these continue to operate with implicit and complicit knowledge of the police. The only point on which the film scores is that the bar owner is not some sleazy pimp kind of guy but a decent fella who will protect the dance girls’ honour too. Fair enough, but beyond that the film provides no deep insight into the life of girls caught into the vortex of a profession of considerable disrepute.

Watch it only if you have nothing better to do. The film reminds right in the beginning books are  man’s best friend. Better take it seriously for our advice too is-snuggle into the bed with a book. If at heart you are first and foremost a cine buff… rewind in time. Grab a DVD of Madhur Bhandarkar’s  Chandni Bar for a real slice of dancing bars.  Of course, if you are a diehard romantic… any love story would do. Ah, only if the film was just that— a cute simple love story.  In its present format by trying to take the high moral ground on a subject that deserved serious deliberation and marrying the unenviable plight of bar girls with a love story, it falls between two stools. Worse still you don’t even hear the sound of its fall. Sound of music here by the way is way better than the dull sleepy tale. 

As for actors, you warm up to none. Looks like Puneet Issar is yet to come out of his mythological avatars. No wonder despite sugar-sweet dialogues he looks and behaves less like a loving dad and more like a man on a serious mission.  In fact, be it bit parts or lead actors they add nothing to the film. The romance falls as flat as the acting skills of Sara Loren and Taaha Shah. The only thing that grabs your attention is Sara’s luscious lips, not to miss the ample cleavage. Alas, these too add little to the oomph factor or to the final verdict on the film.  Na barkha no bahar… what to talk of ras ki fuhar!