Aap Ka Suroor movie review

Aap Ka Sardard!  

Producer Vijay Taneja's (no relative of mine) first attempt at film production, director Prashant Chadha's first attempt at film-direction, Himesh Reshamiya's first attempt at acting (if we can call it that), Hansika Motwani's first attempt as a film-heroine (it's hard to decipher who is worse, HR or her) all fall flat and make 'Aap ka Suroor' a futile effort. The plot centers around HR (Indian Rockstar Himesh Reshamiya) arriving in Germany for a concert and falling in love with event manager Riya (Hansika Motwani) and then getting arrested for the murder of a TV journalist Nadia (Raj Babbar's german daughter) and eventually getting vindicated of all charges and winning back his lady-love.

Enough of intrigue is created to hide the master-mind behind the crime but when actually revealed (very blatantly in the middle of a city square) it is done in a most pedestrian manner. Probably the entire experience of Aap ka Suroor is pedestrian and comes as a shock to the sensibilites of ticket paying audiences (wonder how many will actually pay to watch this after a couple of shows).

The entire story (written by Prashant Chadha) is convoluted and comes across as having a single point program of projecting the image of Himesh Reshamiya as the one and only Indian Rockstar. The point is why waste precious film raw stock to do that? Surely the same can be achieved through PR (Public relations) exercises. The screenplay (Prashant Chadha & Vibha Singh) has major flaws, the most important being the escape of HR from a high security German prison, how HR manages to hold Raj Babbar (playing an ex-cop) at gun point and escape is funny as security guards with more sophisticated weapons standing on an elevated position from where HR is a clean target allow HR to get away with Babbar and there is no police vehicle which follows them afterwards. It is hard to believe how this is allowed to happen in a country like Germany which is renowned for its effeciency and tight security, (probably Vibha Singh and Prashant Chadha are unaware that the Germans taught the world a thing or two about security and secret service through the Gestapo.)

Even more ridiculous is getting three Mumbai auto-rickshaw drivers in the middle of a German city and making them help HR escape the clutches of the police, surely Vibha & Prashant could have saved us from this infantile attempt of playing to the galleries. There are many such flaws in the screenplay which in this case should be christened child's play. It is sad to see that the entire attempt has failed because the intentions and the means to make a good film were all there. The production values and designs are of a good standard. The director seems to have been given a free hand in executing his story. The camera-work (Manoj Soni) is good although I am sure he must have been pulling his hair out trying to light Himesh's face with a cap on perpetually.

Dialogues (Vibha Singh) are of no consequence. At various points of the film Riya keeps asking all those questions which the audience too wants to know for eg. Aap haste kyon nahin? (Why don't you laugh?) Aap itne arrogant kyon lagte hain? (Why're you so arrogant?) (Believe it or not for comic relief HR tells his best friend and manager "Meri naak mat katna" (Don't cut my nose) to which the friend replies “Woh main nahin kar sakta... phir tu gayega kaise” (I can't do that..how would you sing without it). Raj Babbar, Sachin Khedekar, Malika Sherawat (cast as a lawyer and HR's spurned lover) are wasted. Himesh's attempt at acting is highly forgettable. Wish he had as many expressions as the number of caps he posseses. It is sad to see that a talented music composer like him (love his scores in 'Tere Naam' & 'Aashique Banaya apne') has done his popularity no favours by exposing himself as such a non-actor.

All in all sadly 'Aap ka Suroor” is surely on its way to become “ Aap ka Sardard” for the audiences.

Rohit Tanejaa is a film director.