The Film: Jaal - The Trap
Director: Guddu Dhanoa
Producer: Parth Productions
Music: Anand Raaj Anand
Lyrics: Sameer and Anand Raaj Anand
Starring: Sunny Deol, Tabu, Reema Sen
RATING: 2/10

Parth Productions' Jaal - The Trap (UA) is a film about militancy. Ajay's (Sunny Deol) beloved, Neha (Tabu), is kidnapped by militants who demand the home minister's daughter Anita (Reema Sen) in exchange. The job of bringing Anita to the militants falls upon Ajay. The militants' game is to use Anita to force the government to release their captive leader Naved Rabbani (Ashish Vidyarthi).

The film's first half is terribly dull and boring and it tests the viewers' patience with its completely uninteresting and extremely slow-moving drama. However, the action in the last 30 minutes of the film is not just brilliantly conceptualised but also excellently executed. The action scenes, coupled with a fantastic twist in the story in the second half, elevate the insipid drama to a fairly interesting level. But the sad part is that by then, most of the viewers have lost interest.

Sunny Deol's romantic portions have been handled quite routinely and hardly befit his age. Even the comedy in the pre-interval portion is too weak. The drama picks up somewhat when Neha is kidnapped but it drops down again when Ajay reaches New Zealand to bring Anita to India for handing her over to the militants. It again gets interesting once the scene shifts to India. The action portion, of course, is excellent and will be lapped up by the masses.

Not only have writers Rajiv Kaul and Praful Parekh done a truly half-hearted job of the story and screenplay, but they may also not themselves be able to explain one glaring fault in the script - why do the militants try time and again to kidnap Anita and only Anita? The most important thing about a kidnapping is the suddenness of the act. But the militants treat Anita as the only person from India, whose kidnapping can ensure their leader's release from prison and they make several attempts to pick her up.

Couldn't they have changed their target? Actually, shouldn't they have changed their target, considering that they were such intelligent brains? It almost appears that if not for Anita's existence, the militants would never have been able to demand the release of their leader! To say the least, the entire kidnapping exercise after the first attempt (which, incidentally, has been brilliantly shot in the snow) looks silly because of the above reason!

Emotions fail to touch the heart. Dilip Shukla's dialogue are routine for a good part of the film.

Sunny Deol does a fine job in action and dramatic scenes. But age does show on his face in some scenes. Tabu is very natural and restrained. Reema Sen overacts as the spoilt daughter of the home minister. She is, however, better in the second half. Amrish Puri does well. Anupam Kher is also effective. Ashish Vidyarthi gets limited scope to act and is alright. Mukesh Rishi does a fair job. Shahbaaz Khan, Farida Jalal and Virendra Saxena lend good support. The rest of the cast fills the bill.

Guddu Dhanoa's conceptualisation of the action sequences is praiseworthy but his handling of the rest of the film is just too dull. Music (Anand Raaj Anand) is a mixed bag. 'Jo pyar tumne', 'Sona sona soniya' and 'Jahan jaate hain' are the better songs although two of them look forced. 'Jo pyar tumne' as also 'Ek ladki' need to be trimmed. Unfortunately for the film, its music was released so long back that the film appears stale for that reason, among others!

Tinnu Verma's action scenes are masterly. They keep the viewer on the edge of the seat. But the action comes too late in the film which is otherwise quite boring. Camerawork (Shripad Natu) is splendid in the action and chase sequences. Technically, alright.

On the whole, despite good action, the rest of Jaal - The Trap is so weak that the film will find the going very tough. It will entail heavy losses to most of its distributors. Should do relatively better in circuits like U.P., Punjab, Rajasthan and Bihar. Business in multiplexes will be poor.