DVD Reviews - WANTED

MOVIE DETAILS

Cast: Salman Khan, Ayesha Takia Azmi, Mahesh Manjrekar, Prakash Raj, Vinod Khanna
Director: Prabhu Dheva
Producer: Boney Kapoor
Music: Sajid-Wajid
Lyrics: Jalees Sherwani, Sameer, Arun Bhairav, Wajid, Shabbir Ahmed, Salman Khan

THE FILM

- Wanted is one of those films where the heroine (Ayesha Takia Azmi) pops up every time our hero (Salman Khan) is in the act. Whether killing people, eating 'chakli', spending some idle moments with his friends, getting rounded up by police or walking down the streets.

- Wanted is one of those films where a song pops up when the heroine is a little 'roothi hui', a sidekick moll (Mehak Chahal) wants to exercise some dance steps in a villain's den, the hero wants to celebrate in a festival procession after killing a dozen odd baddies and of course the couple wants to profess love for each other.

- Wanted is one of those films which starts off in Ram Gopal Varma-isque manner, what with 'naye Police Commissioner ne shehar mein jurm ka naamon-nishaan mitane ka beeda uthaya hai' headlines screaming from TV channels and turns into an out and out mayhem outing when the MMS of the daughter of the same Commissioner starts making the rounds of the country.

- Wanted is one of those films where a hero will never ever get even a scratch on his body even with 50 odd goons attacking him in one go, bullets flying all over, international mafia after him and multiple gangs planning his elimination.

- Wanted is one of those films where the title doesn't hold any significance whatsoever with the storyline and the word doesn't appear even once throughout this 150 odd minutes duration action drama entertainer.

Yes, Wanted is one of those films and guess what, it is very very very enjoyable.

2007 - Shah Rukh Khan eliminated these boundary lines with his Om Shanti Om.
2008 - Aamir Khan did this with Ghajini.
2009 - Salman Khan completes the trilogy with Wanted.

Yes, Wanted is an entertainer and how!

Not that performances are sidelined when action director takes over. One may argue if Wanted is Salman's career best performance ever (his Andaz Apna Apna, Hum Aapke Hai Kaun, Maine Pyaar Kiya, Karan Arjun have been masterpieces after all). Still, on this side of the century, Wanted is the film where Salman has gone all out in at least 'being interested' in the film. At least he is not bored. At least he is not taking his stardom for granted. At least he is not being careless about his looks. At least he is not letting his own self come in the way of director's vision.

Others pitch in as well. There are at least two men who are terrific in their portrayal of baddies. Prakash Raj is just as superb as an international don with a comic streak to him. His scenes in police detention are priceless and actually make you 'not miss' Salman during that duration of the film. On the other hand Mahesh Manjrekar plays the kind of role that made Ranjit and Shakti Kapoor the names that they are today after being in the industry for decades. Ayesha Takia looks extremely beautiful and plays her cute girl role well. And as for the veteran Vinod Khanna, he makes one wish that he is seen more often after that terrific roar towards the film's pre-climax.

Of course there are distractions as a part of the package as well. Manoj Pahwa's side track of Ayesha's irritant Romeo neighbour act is completely and truly unwarranted. At least two songs ('Dil Deke Dard-E-Dil', 'Le Le Maza Le') just so much annoy you just when the drama was reaching its peak. A couple of repetitive romantic/roothna-manana scenes (in the second half) were just so-not-required. Eliminate all of these and the film would have become much crisper with a near two hour duration.

But then one does get a hint of director Prabhu Deva's intent behind keeping the film the way it is. As mentioned earlier, the movie has been made keeping masses (mainly adults, as also suggested by the 'A' certificate that the film carries) in mind and not just the urban cine-goers who want their entertainment coming in small-n-crisp-and less time consuming packages. It's made for the set of audiences who watch the movie and say - 'Maza aa gaya. Aakhir isme action bhi hai, emotion bhi hai, drama bhi hai, suspense bhi hai. Full masala movie thi yaar! '

Yes, Wanted is indeed one of those films.

PACKAGING

To go with the super hit status of the film, the 2 DVD set of Wanted comes in a thick paper packaging wrapped in an attractive case with the picture of Salman Khan standing tall

DURATION

The film's duration is 153 minutes

SPECIAL FEATURES

- Deleted Scenes
- Music Video (Mitti Ke, Ishq Vishq)
- Remix (Love Me, Ishq Vishq, Jalwa)
- Making of music video of Mitti Ke
- Film Making

'Deleted scenes' segment is hardly enticing since it features only those shots that featured Manoj Pahwa. Thankfully they were deleted from the film though how one wishes that his entire track would have been eliminated from the final cut. What is interesting though is the inclusion of certain music videos and remix versions that keep the entertainment factor on.

The making of 'Mitte Ke' music video primarily takes viewers through the round of interviews of people associated with it (video director, music directors, producer etc.) who expectedly go gaga over the uniqueness of the video and how it was devised. In a sense they are right since the video did become quite a rage en route to the release of the film.

Making of the film could have been better though since all one gets to see are interviews with cast and crew. There are few shots of on-location shoot as well that make for an interesting viewing since most of them are centred on the action sequences. Also, it is always fun to see Salman Khan talking about things that he has done in the film in his inimitable deadpan expression. Also, it is nice to see Prabhu Dheva sounding really clean hearted while talking about his intentions behind making 'Wanted' and how he divided the responsibilities of choreography into other professionals.

There are quite a few references to action director Vijayan and how he was the man who eventually made Wanted look like the film it is. Surprisingly though, he doesn't feature in the 'making' segment. Moreover, what is annoying is to see numerous spelling mistakes in the text that displays on screen. For example, one of the most glaring mistakes is where writer Shiraz Ahmed is referred as Sriraj Ahmed and that too not once but twice!

Looking at the limited content of these special features, one wonders if the 2 DVD pack was really necessary and all this could have been plugged in the movie DVD itself!

TECHNICAL DETAILS

- 16:9 Anamorphic Widescreen Presentation
- Subtitles in English
- Dolby Digital 5.1 and Stereo

PRICE

Rs. 399/=

CONCLUSION

Wanted reminds one of the cinema of the 80s when heroes (in true sense) like Sunny Deol, Mithun Chakravorty and Anil Kapoor ruled. When the sheer purpose of cinema was to get people their 'paisa vasool' moment. When there was no difference between mass and class audience. When there was no apparent categorisation of cinema being made for A, B and C centres. When there were no multiplexes. And when the 'bhaav' of popcorn and 'samosa' was same across all theaters.

Yes, Wanted belongs to that brand of cinema.