Kal Kissne Dekha Movie Review: Jackky Takes the Spotlight

Vashu Bhagnani's son has arrived. Jackky Bhagnani proves that he can do all that is required of a conventional Hindi hero dance, fight and emote with varying degrees of perfection. With Kal Kissne Dekha, Bhagnani ensures that his son enjoys the lion's share of the spotlight. The rest is shared primarily between Rishi Kapoor, Ritesh Deshmukh and the debutante Vaishali Desai, among others.

The film has an interesting premise, but suffers in the treatment department. The film's protagonist, Nihal (Jackky) from Chandigarh, that's how he introduces himself, is blessed with the ability to look into the imminent future. He comes to Mumbai and enrolls in a science college so that he can learn more about his gift. But here he finds a mentor in a physics professor, played by Rishi Kapoor (psychology would have been more like his field). But Nihal is also a gifted scientist and the professor recognizes the streak of genius in him, and even uses his gift for his own design. The professor has been nursing a grudge against the world as he was evicted from NASA. Hence, he decides to sell his soul to the devil and uses his gift to make bombs for destruction. But he comes up against his equal in Nihal, who can look into the future. This is one track in the film. The second is the love story between Nihal and Misha (Vaishali), which treads the familiar ground of a spoilt rich girl and a poor honest boy from Punjab. But this Punjabi munda is more than a match for all the rich dudes of the city as he can fight and dance better than them.

Nihal becomes an overnight hero when he manages to save not just Misha but thousands of others, with his ability to look into the future. He helps the cops in defusing a bomb which would have gone off in a mall. The terrorists, who have been working in tandem with the professor to blast Mumbai with bombs, decide to do away with him. But on the professor's insistence, they decide to use his gift to their advantage. But Nihal emerges as the true hero when he manages to save the city from destruction.

Director Vivek Sharma, who showed a lot more promise with his film Bhootnath, fails to make a consistent movie. While Jackky is spotlighted along with Vaishali, the film's plot goes awry because the plot construction seems to take a back step. The director spends enough time in showcasing the genius of Nihal and hence in the second half, he has to race through events. The result is that the film's ending looks like a rushed job. The penultimate scene when Jackky goes flying in the air with the car and crash lands into the Professor's yacht out at sea, it just becomes too much to take. One cannot suspend one's sense of disbelief any longer.

To come back to the debutants: Jackky is not only pleasing enough to look but shows that he can fight and do various daredevil stunts, and is quite adept at dancing as well. As for the most important ability, which is to act, he is expressive and has the potential. The best thing about him is that he is very easy in front of the camera. Vaishali is very pretty to look at and can dance too. She does not have too much to do in this movie, but shows definite promise.

Veteran Rishi Kapoor has a role with some length and meat to it, but it becomes very clich?d because of the poor quality of writing. The actor struggles to rise above the average in this role. On the other hand, actors like Archana Puran Singh, Ritesh Deshmukh and Rajpal Yadav, manage to create quite an impact in their two bit roles.

One feels that the Ritesh Deshmukh track wasn't really necessary or essential to the film, but Ritesh provides a few laughs along with Rajpal, especially in the jail sequence. Archana too adds to the laughs as Nihal's Punjabi mother. Without standing out, Akshay Kapoor does a competent job.

The film's music which has been composed by Sajid Wajid is very pleasant on the ears. The title track stands out for the manner in which it has been picturised and so does 'Jashn Hai Josh Hai'.

In all, Vivek Sharma makes a film which has evoked enough interest in the run up to its release. Also, it is the first big movie to release after the strike, hence there is a lot of interest centering around the movie. The director does a decent job, but one would have expected a little more finesse from him. The film lacks polish and looks a little as if someone has rushed through. Not the most picture perfect of debuts that Bhagnani would have hoped for.