Masand's verdict: Naksha mapped

Cast: Vivek Oberoi, Sameera Reddy, Sunny Deol and Jackie Shroff

Direction: Sachin Bajaj

At the cinema this week prepare for a dose of adventure sprinkled with a generous helping of 80’s masala in director Sachin Bajaj's debut effort Naksha.

Vivek Oberoi sets off on a quest to complete his late father's unfinished mission when he finds a mysterious map by accident. He's aided along the way by half-brother Sunny Deol and obligatory female lead Sameera Reddy.

Setting off from the legendary battle-town of Kurukshetra, this adventure takes our triumverate all the way to the Himalayas as they follow maniacal villain Jackie Shroff who steals the map from them and heads towards the mythical treasure that its leading upto.

So there's an encounter with violent dwarves, a round of death defying river rafting, and finally some mythological code-cracking for the awesome threesome before they can hang up their boots and pride themselves on a job well done.

The problem with Naksha is that it's something of an Indiana Jones-meets-Amar Akbar Anthony potboiler, so it mixes elements of both genres and ends up like a half-cooked meal.

The film's first half wastes too much time on comedy, romance and bhai-bhai bonding, elements that have evidently been included with the purpose of providing so-called "wholesome entertainment".

But since we're not in the 80’s anymore, these elements only stick out in a film like this and unnecessarily add to its length. In fact, here is where the real problem lies - the writers rely too much on clichés and clap-traps that seem terribly outdated today. That includes everything from Sunny Deol's dramatic entry through the roof to Vivek Oberoi's routinely cheesy dialogue.

The film's biggest strength is the manner in which it blends Hindu mythology into the central plot. The adventure instantly gains relevance when it's explained that this search will ultimately lead to the discovery of the armour and the ornaments sacrificed by a key protagonist of the Mahabharata. Once that's established, you're even willing to suspend disbelief and embrace the mythological mumbo-jumbo that the writers throw around generously.

If the film fails to hold your interest for more than five minutes at a time, then the blame for that must go to the writers for injecting predictability and that sense of déjà vu to every other scene. Bad enough they commit blatant plagarism, but you'd think they'd find something at least marginally better than the mediocre action film The Rundown to rip off.

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There's also something distasteful about using people with physical shortcomings to induce laughter, but the director of Naksha obviously has no such compunctions as you sit through those supposedly comic scenes involving a dwarf tribe.

The icing on the cake, however, has got to be the film's lines. The actors are saddled with dialogue that is so puerile that you cringe every time. Vivek Oberoi opens his mouth to deliver another gem. Like that bit where he responds to Sameera's fear of being conforonted by lions in the forest - Jungle mein sher nahin toh kya, pink panther milega?

You see, a refresher course in screenwriting might be just what the doctor ordered for those who penned such tiresome lines.

When you leave the cinema after a screening of Naksha you're overcome with a feeling of disappointment because there was potential in the plot but it's been wasted clearly.

An adventure film could have been so much more, but what you remember at the end are the inconsistencies and the holes. Too many songs including an item number in the mountains, a gratuitous catfight between the heroine and the villain's scantily clad moll, the comic book bad guy with a scarecrow wig, the legendary armour and ornaments that look like a neon orange waistcoat and out-of-fashion hoop earrings... you know the list just goes on and on.

Sadly the actors' performances don't elevate your mood either. Sameera Reddy is as dispensable as a sweater on a hot sunny day, and Vivek Oberoi's smart-alec acting style is a turn-off.

Your sympathies lie with Sunny Deol who tries hard to make this work, but is let down by a weak script. Now judge it as the director's debut effort and you have to admit he did try to pull off something different. But when you take a risk, you take it all the way.

It's a pity he decided to add emotional drama to what could have been a fantastic roller-coaster ride. So that's an average rating for director Sachin Bajaj's Naksha. It's an adventure gone wrong, and you don't need a map to figure that out.

Rating: 2 / 5 (Average)