Cast: Emraan Hashmi, Neha Sharma, Arjan BajwaDirector: Mohit Suri
Producer: Mukesh Bhatt
Banner: Vishesh Films
Music: Pritam Chakraborty
Story/Writer: Ankur Tewari
Released Date: 8 october 2010
Rating: 1.75 / 5
Mukesh Bhatt New film Crook Hindi Movie Review:
Bhatts are back, churning out another quickie dealing with a topical theme and treating it with customized convenience, indifferent to the sensitivity of the issue. Perhaps they assume that the audience will easily relate to contemporary concerns but seldom do they realize that some study on the subject matter would help. The makers choose the premise of racial discrimination in Australia against Indian nationals. Rather than having an in-depth look on the issue, its origination and its outcome, the movie chooses to touch it only peripherally.
It accounts instances of sporadic attacks by some local ruffians to racism and never bothers to represent the bigger picture. And by the climax, the makers would want you to believe that the bigotry began because an Indian didn't approve of a cross-country (Indo-Aus) love relationship which resulted in rebellion across the country. The story can't get more crooked than this.
Story:
Jai (Emraan) has a troubled past in India. To get rid of it he lands in Melbourne, illegally though, with the hope of starting life afresh. At the airport only, he sees his ticket to his OZ dream. Suhani (Neha Sharma), an Indian living in Australia. She is the host of a radio show that aims to bring the Indians and Aussies together. Her hot-headed brother Samarth (Arjan Bajwa), however, is opinionated against every Aussie.
Artist Performance:
Emraan Hashmi is plain regular and makes no effort to improve on his average act. Neha Sharma's façade bear resemblance to Katrina Kaif's facial features and she complements Emraan in the ordinariness of her act. Mashhoor Amrohi hams as the sidekick. Arjan Bajwa deserves better roles.
Analysis:
The first half follows a template that has become a trait of Emraan Hashmi films. He has a friend and wants a girlfriend. Love is established by the standard formula of two songs one smooch. There's also an Australian stripper who makes way for an uncalled-for topless scene (sensationalism is always significant to Bhatt scripts). Amidst all this, you start wondering whatever happened to the film's central theme of racism. Enter Samarth (Arjan Bajwa), the heroine's brother who is leading Indians against the discrimination in Australia. The heroine (Neha Sharma) wants the hero (Hashmi) to support her brother but he is least interested. He's an illegal immigrant to Australia and doesn't want to invite trouble. Soon it turns out that Samarth's revolt is triggered by personal vendetta.
Behind the guise of racism, Crook resorts to a very dated plot. The writing is consistently poor to the extent that it makes Sohail Khan's run-of-the-mill racism flick I Proud to Be an Indian (2004) look much better in comparison. The maximum advancement that the film shows is by upgrading the inter-community disharmony (Hindu-Muslim) depicted in several films to inter-continental (Indo-Aus) discord.
There is no graph to the narrative and the supposed twist in the climax falls flat because Samarth's fundamentalism is palpable from the start. The characters are half-baked and the flashback accounts do no good to make them any better. This is, by far, Mohit Suri's weakest directorial attempts so far.
Final View:
The film opts for the most convenient conflict of showing India of rich cultural heritage and the other country (Australia in this case) of loose morals where people have children out of wedlock. Sadly all that the Indian hero of this film does is sleep around with Aussie babes and smack female butts while singing glory to India ( Challa India ).
The title of the film ' Crook ' is as much unconnected to the plot as much as the plot is unconnected with its central theme of racism. The tagline reads 'It's good to be bad' but there's certainly nothing good about watching this bad film.
