When the vehicle controls the driver

Dishkiyaoon
Hindi (U/A) **
Director: Sanamjit SinghTalwar
Cast: Sunny Deol, Harman Baweja, Aditya Pancholi, Prashant Narayanan, Anand Tiwari, Sumit Nijhawan

If ever a film gave the audience the distinct feeling of watching an individual control three unruly toddlers simultaneously, it is the inexplicably named Dishkiyaoon. One is almost convinced that the venture was meant to be named Viki Kartoos, the sobriquet our “lead” character (played, or rather, butchered by Harman Baweja) finally earns. 

Director Sanamjit Singh Talwar seems to have had a tough time distributing his attention to the various aspects of this film. Like the aforementioned individual, when he managed to make a portion of the story interesting, one or more of the actors let him down. When he managed to elicit some good histrionics, glaring continuity errors crept in. And when he managed to get everything in order in front of the camera, plot, character and story development suffered. 

A couple of things Talwar seemed to have got right is the film’s pace and length, thanks to some good editing. That’s how one manages to sit through the 119 minutes of a gangster’s revenge tale. Young Viki shares a rapport with local goonda Mota Tony (an effortless Prashant Narayanan), who works for Gujjar. But Tony, Viki, and his childhood friend Ketan defect to the gang of Iqbal Khaleefa (Sumit Nijhawan), along with Rocky (Anand Tiwari) and his uncle.

When Gujjar flees, Khaleefa takes over and orders Rocky to kill Tony. Viki decides to avenge his death, but ends up in jail for Tony’s murder, where he opens up to Lakwa (Sunny Deol), a Haryanvi whose right hand is paralysed, save the trigger finger. Together, they plan to topple Khaleefa.

The director does deserve some credit for the use Tolstoy’s gun. As a result, even though Aditya Pancholi’s corrupt cop, Viki’s love interest Meera (played by Ayesha Khanna, a Mila Kunis-wannabe) and Ketan’s fiancée get less screen time than Lakwa’s monobrow, they are instrumental to some twist or the other in the plot.

That and a couple of other songs apart, there is little more about Dishkiyaoon one can praise. Sure, the dialogues sparkle momentarily, but everything else under-delivers to such an extent that watching this film in a multiplex is an absolute waste.

Harman Baweja is still to shed his “Hrithik Roshan-lookalike” mould, and take a few more acting lessons. Talwar has the ability to present the same film in a better way, and that goes for Baweja, too. But looks like the audience will have to wait some more.