Tathastu

Hmm. Now I have nothing against remakes of Hollywood films at all. This one is based around a potentially heartrending idea - the father (Sanjay Dutt) who has to break the law in order to save the life of his son. He's stone broke and the hospital ain't playin' ball, so to speak. It's a case of 'No dough, no show'. So, he decides to hold people hostage in the hospital in a last-ditch attempt to force the surgeon's hand (literally).

It doesn't normally take much for me to start bawling my eyes out - but at not one single point in this film was I ever in danger of needing a quiet sob. *sigh* From the moment Amisha Patel (the kid's mother) starts wailing hysterically (with dry eyes), to the point where the hostages decide to side with Sanjay and stay locked up until the operation is carried out - not a single moment of tension or tear-inducing drama was produced.

Some of the scenes with the hostages were laughable - Sanjay manages to hold a gun and solve a few of the hostages' personal problems at the same time. The guy who beats up his wife, the prostitute who beats up her pimp - it's all there. A few minutes are devoted to the resolution of each and there's also time enough for a quick 'The moral of this story is...', and a speech by Sanjay at the end.

The Sanju-The-Hero bit wasn't necessary and wasted time that could've been spent on building up some much-needed tension.

Gulshan Grover as the head cop did his usual stern staring and posturing, but seemed to switch in seconds at the end from someone who'd instructed his guys to shoot the hijacker on sight, to slapping Sanjay on the back and saying what a great father he was :oS

The whole thing was just bland. You couldn't care less about the characters - even the poor, dying boy elicited little sympathy from me...not a good sign!

Tat, indeed!