Review: '27_13.20 Nakshatra' is the 'baap' of all duds

This ludicrous chunk of footage (I dare not call it cinema) that claims to be a ‘romantic thriller’ neither encompasses romance nor doles out any thrills. Simply put, it is a series of frames put together as a slideshow; meaningless, brainless and distasteful. Everything — from the name of the film to its screenplay, direction, action and editing — reeks of artlessness and uninventive ideas.

 

The plot (or what passed for one!) goes something like this — Ajay (Mukherjee) is an aspiring scriptwriter who has faced rejection too many times to count while his girlfriend Jiya (Sheema) stands faithfully by him, offering encouragement and support every time he faces a new low. Luck smiles on him when he finally bags an assignment with a shady bunch of producers who want him to write a script based on the concept of a robbery. When he completes the script and earns his pay, Ajay finds himself drawn into a web of betrayal and fraud, victimised by the police and accused of a crime he did not commit. How he manages to prove his innocence with Jiya's help is something not worth even guessing!

 

Utterly drab dialogues coupled with expressionless performances by the actors — and you have 27_13.20 Nakshatra! Even Rozza Catalano’s sizzling item number fails to provoke any kind of feeling in you. The lead actors are newcomers who are definitely not hero-heroine material; they would probably pass off unnoticed as sidekicks in a big banner.  

 

In an atrocious attempt, Milind Soman plays a ‘kay re paandu’ Mumbai police inspector sporting an unattractively unshaven look and Louis Philippe shirts. Seriously, he would have been better off walking on the ramp rather than relentlessly chasing a fugitive on busy Mumbai streets and getting knocked off by cars.

 

Every scene in the film strikes you as inane and imprudent beyond tolerance. Even as the entire city police keeps hunting for Ajay, he wanders openly with Jiya whose telephone is supposedly tapped. (Would it be asking for too much if the police just followed her and caught him?)  

 

Then we have Anupam Kher playing a villain who, in the climax, wanting to bump off both Ajay and Jiya, sets a time bomb on Jiya’s body and flees on a boat leaving the laptop at her feet for Ajay to deactivate it! Obviously, ladka-ladki can’t die so Ajay succeeds in deactivating the bomb in 10 tiny minutes (wonder if scriptwriters are expert bomb deactivators too).

 

At best, the film is silly and predictable. At worst, it is unbearable!