Crook

Director : Mohit Suri

Cast: Emraan Hashmi, Neha Sharma, Arjan Bajwa

Damn! Why didn't we think of sending the amazing super-hero Emran Hashmi to Australia before? Emran Saab's solution to global malevolence as provided in this disappointing mismash of masala and headlines is simple enough.

It's good to be bad. So says the smooth-sayer. Fair enough. If only the director had not decided to apply the motto to the treatment of this film.

At last our revenge on the Aussie attacks. This film is the ultimate comeuppance for the Australians… those so-and-sos who have been maltreating our hapless students who go to the firangi land to garner education and come back black and blue.

Blue is the colour that director Mohit Suri favours for his lurid leery look at gori babes in Melbourne. There's a gori chick and a brown chick for the Chick-let hero to chose from. He sleeps with the former and falls in love with the latter. As simple as that. Indian women are to revered. Foreigners are to be you know!

In trying to do a ferocious flag-waving trick over the complex issue of racism and colour prejudice, "Crook" ends up making the Australian population look like a bunch of psychotic killers bashing and burning the good desi boys who have gone Under to gain gyan. Is this Australia or Chicago during the Prohibition?

But wait. Suddenly the script decides to tilt the imbalance. Now the goras are not that evil. It seems Indians too create an obstinate culture block when they go abroad. They just don't know how to blend.

Thoroughly confused in its politics, "Crook" is one of those films that attempts to combine conviction with entertainment and falls between the two stools in the absence of those tools that lend skilful curves and slants to the storytelling. The narrative is uneven lopsided and askew. The pace goes from sluggish to frantic within a few reels providing us with no space to observe the characters' motivations beyond a cursory glance.

Mohit Suri who revealed a substantial grip over his material and characters in "Kalyug" here seems undecided about where to take his plot. The people who populate the storytelling seem to start off on page 1 of the newspaper and then head towards the cartoon section.

Technical aspects, another strong aspect of Mahesh Bhatt's films, are on this occasion just about okay. The performances miss the intensity of Bhatts' "Gangster" and "Kalyug" by a wide margin. But Neha Sharma makes an expressive Hindi-cinema debut. As for our super-hero Move over, Rajnikanth. Emran Hashmi is more robotic in his expressions than you can ever be.

The most important fact about Crook is that it deals with Racism. But it is false that the movie points at the racist nature of Australians. Rather it pokes a finger into the Indian mindset of being superior culturally and hence turning racists themselves.

However the issue with the film is not the points made but the way it has been done. There is a valid story but the screenplay fails big time with too many loopholes strewn all over. Crook evolves from being a story about just one guy, who escapes his way out of India to Australia with help of fake documents, to become a story on racism and hatred among two different cultures. It is about how this guy, who was looked down upon in India for being a deceased criminal's son, makes the world sit up and admire him for bringing back peace to between Australians and Indians. Sadly though, the connection between this guy's life and the chaos does not come across.

The first half is used to build up a romance between this guy, played by Emraan Hashmi, and new girl Neha Sharma. The second half suddenly gets grimmer, faster and better and is actually where the story evolves. And in between there is a spate of characters through which the director tries to add his touch of Bollywood masala - comedy, drama and even a bit of titillation. Mere waste of time! The dialogues are no better and prove complete misfit. To add to its woes, this film does not even have good music which usually is a draw in other Emraan Hashmi films.

Technically though the film is shot well. There is way too much liberty taken on location. The attempt of the director to pass of South Africa as Australia is as silly as any Hollywood director's attempt it would be to pass off any south Asian country as India. And considering the number of Hindi films that are shot in South Africa, even Indians have become aware of the cities like Johannesburg.

Performances are fine. Emraan Hashmi is his usual self. With not much experimentation he just about suffices. New girl Neha Sharma is fine. It is however Arjan Bajwa who shines in his role. Crook is neither a love story not is it any serious depiction of racism. The posters and promos too will be misleading to the audience, just like in the case of 'Tum Mile'. What could have been a much better film ends up as too mediocre a fare. You won't miss much if you don't buying this ticket. Buck up Mohit Suri, we know you can do better!