The Film: Market
RATING: 2.5/10

Tirumalai Pictures. Market (A) revolves around a girl who is caught up in the flesh trade and the underworld. Fifeteen-year-old Muskan (Anuradha) is married off by her father to a Dubai-based sheikh. The middle-aged man uses her to satisfy his lust for seven days and then divorces her. The girl then drags him to court, crying .rape., but the sheikh manages to get bail while Muskan.s father commits suicide out of guilt.

Eight years later, Muskan (now played by Manisha Koirala) has grown up to be a prostitute in Hyderabad. She uses her earnings from selling her body to continue fighting the long drawn-out court battle against the sheikh. One thing leads to another and Muskan moves on to becoming a high-class sex-worker in Bombay with the help of Lisa (Suman Ranganath) and Isha (Shweta Menon). She also meets a hardcore criminal, Babu (Aryan Vaid) who falls in love with her.

Later, while in Dubai on a work assignment, Muskan bumps into the sheikh and decides to avenge the wrongs he had done to her. On his part, the sheikh hires a hit-man to kill her. How Muskan survives to achieve her aim forms the rest of the story.

On the plus side, the film has a mass-oriented subject and caters to the lower class. Dialogue (Masood Mirza and Meeraq Mirza) are bold at places and are quite authentic for a subject like this. One item number . .Khali wali. . will draw whistles from the front-benchers. The .Ishq lada de. song is also good. Some portion of the climax, dealing with the underworld in Dubai, is thrilling. There.s also the required amount of titillation for the masses.

The minuses, however, outnumber and outweigh the positive aspects of the film. A simple storyline has been stretched too much by the writer (Arshad Jamal). The pace of the drama is slow almost throughout. Moreover, there is not a single character, including Muskan.s, for the audience to sympathise with in the film. After becoming a prostitute, Muskan seems to forget all about her desire to seek revenge. It is only after she bumps into the sheikh in Dubai that she suddenly appears to remember that it was revenge which was her main purpose in life.

This flaw in her characterisation dilutes the impact of the climax a great deal. Also, 15-year-old Muskan and 23-year-old Muskan are played by two different actresses . Anuradha and Manisha Koirala. This jars because it is difficult to understand how a girl.s physical appearance can change so drastically in a span of just eight years.

Besides, Manisha hardly passes off as a 23-year-old, especially because she has put on too much weight. She rather looks more than 33 years old. Among the other defects, the track of Shweta Menon has been stretched beyond what was necessary and looks forced after a point. The use of Hyderabadi accent in the initial portions gets a little boring after a while.

Manisha Koirala acts well, but needs to watch her weight. Aryan Vaid impresses in a small role. Suman Ranganath, Shweta Menon and Govind Namdev are good. Makrand Deshpande acts well but is loud at places. Anuradha is impressive. Sayaji Shinde endears himself to the viewers with a mass-oriented performance. Others lend adequate support.

Director Jaiprakash doesn.t quite succeed in coming up with an engrossing fare. He is also not able to create the right amount of impact the subject demanded. Music (Altaf Raja) is ordinary, except for the two aforementioned item numbers. Cinematography and other technical aspects are okay. The Dubai locales have been captured effectively.

On the whole, Market has masala for the masses and will prove to be average. Will fare the best in Maharashtra and South.