So we have seen all the revenge-action flicks we possibly could. But what can one do if scriptwriters and directors have run out of ideas and fall back on routine stuff churned out again and again and yet again? We hardly have much choice but to watch and extract some entertainment from the stuff that is handed out in somewhat different presentations.
Target, as the name suggests, is a drama spilling over with blood, gore and action.
Subhankar (Joy Mukherjee), a tall, fair and handsome police officer, is suddenly transferred on promotion to Sundarpur because the Kolkata police do not care for his ‘encounter’ killing manipulations to wipe out the mafia. He is pleasantly surprised by this posting to North Bengal because, in this mafia-ruled town, there are many chances of similar ‘encounters’ and more importantly, he has a personal axe to grind. Does he?
Well, to know the answer, you must wade through miles of footage filled with violence and action and blood and gore. Well orchestrated for a change, two song-dance sequences with the dumb-doll heroine Preeti (Sayantika) in foreign locations with Thai chorus girls, one item song – really unwatchable, and the climax that rids the script of the bad ones by crusader Subhankar, including two good ones – his station constable Munna Sheikh and his lost sister-in-law.
Subhankar also meets his childhood sweetheart in this town and old flames flicker again making way for the song-dance routine.
Sayantika has little else to do but look very pretty and give simpering looks even when she is lecturing her policeman father with a penchant for the bottle and for the goons who run the place. But she has the looks, the glamour and the height to make it and can carry off short dresses with élan.
Raja Chanda’s debut feature marks him out as a mainstream masala churner of promise. The opening frames of the encounter killing by the hero sparkle with jazzily edited and well-cinematographed frames to set the mood of the film.
Joy Mukherjee, a relatively new actor on the block comes into his own as Subhankar after two unimpressive roles in two films, one of them marginalising him beside the numero uno of Tollywood.
He looks good, too good in fact if that jelled hair and the craftily designed shadow on his chin are signs of the police getting fashion-savvy. The black leather jacket and his body language as he walks down the countryside in an overlong journey through all forms of transport throws up promises of a new action hero who, under a good director and with a better script, could possibly give others a run for their money.
Mithun Chakraborty does a very brief cameo as the saviour of Subhankar when he is shot on the chest and is given up for dead. He plays Anthony, an orphan brought up by Subhankar’s father (Santu Mukherjee) who educated him to become a successful lawyer.
Dipankar De tries to be humorous as the arch villain and the good actor that he is, he manages to pull it off with lines that rhyme. The corrupt police officer changes colours and sides because his daughter has to finally tie the knot with the hero and it is happily ever after for the two.
Jeet Ganguly’s music is very good but the Maula Maula song is a cliché in every film. Some songs could have been clipped out of the film to make it more intense.
Given the stakes with a beaten-to-death story, Target is not as bad a film as one had expected it to be. Cut out the song-dance numbers and the item song and you have a film that spells action-filled entertainment with a capital E.
Critic: Shoma A. Chatterji
Comments
0 comment