What's wrong with Manisha Koirala! Once considered a classique candidate, she has plummeted to doing seedy sleazy see-me type of voyeuristic projects that do nothing to enhance her reputation.
In "Chahat" she plays Mallika, a pop star whose career is on the skids. Drowning her sorrow in drinks and raving against her stud-type lover-boy Rahul (Aryan Vaid), Koirala's Mallika is made slightly less unbearable than it would have been otherwise, thanks to the actress' new slim-and-svelte look and her ability to turn into a powerhouse performer under the most arduous circumstances.
There's a rather ugly interlude in this uniformly ungainly film where Vaid calls Koirala a 'whore' in full public view. Her sense of outrage, humiliation and disbelief is deftly projected by the actress.
But why is she wasting her time trying to act when her co-stars sleepwalk through what looks, feels and smells like an exercise in cheap voyeurism?
The film is set in the music world. Incidental characters include a cheesy middleman (Siyaji Shinde) who makes passes at every wannabe singer-actress.
Don't squirm. If you're stupid enough to walk into this crap trap then you deserve a lot worse. You sure get it, as Koirala's Mallika goes through the degradation of losing her career, man and life... in that order.
For some strange reason Mallika's man Rahul prefers a frisky floozie (Preeti Jhangiani) who first hangs around the music producer trying to catch his attention, then after a hilarious seduction sequence jumps into bed with him and finally after undressing, gives him a dressing down with harsh words. "I had read in a book that men are like animals. They can never be satisfied with one woman."
Don't know which school this lady of the lewd mood attended. But director Jai Prakash seems be a backbencher from the school of drool. Half naked cavorting bodies negating all aesthetic considerations, and other twisted definitions of entertainment stare us from every nook and cranny.
By the time the climactic shootout on a boat in Goa (apparently inspired by Yash Chopra's "Darr") floats into sight, the narrative has lost sight of its original intent... whatever it might have been. One suspects Jai Prakash needed an excuse to bring the team from his earlier film "Market" together. And what better excuse than a supposedly sexy project with women being objectified in lurid shades of purple?
Next time, please leave Manisha Koirala out of the lascivious design.
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