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Apoorva Lakhia has got a lot more right with
his second outing Ek Ajnabee after the
disastrous Mumbai se Aaya Mera Dost though
that's not saying much. An inconsistent screenplay
and a hotchpotch second half let down the film.
The first half where Lakhia sticks closely to
the Denzil Washington starrer Man on Fire works
comparatively better and perhaps Lakhia should
have elected to stick closely to the original
in the second half as well – But item numbers,
gimmicky cameos that add nothing to the film (Abhishek
Bachchan seems to have become an expert at this
- Hum Tum, Home Delivery, Neal
n Nikki and now Ek Ajnabee) and
other 'filmi' deviations from the original plot
dilute the otherwise pacy flow and inherent logic
of the film. What is the Sanjay Dutt 'item number'
accompanying the end credits???
 The
film looks at Col. Suryaveer Singh (Amitabh Bachchan)
who is called to Bangkok by a colleague who worked
under him, Shekhar (Arjun Rampal). Suryaveer is
hired to be a bodyguard to the daughter Anamika
(Rucha Vaidya) of a successful Indian Businessman
(Vikram Chatwal) and his wife (Perizaad Zerobian)
as there has been a spate of kidnappings in Bangkok.
Suryaveer is an alcoholic having unable to come
to terms with his past where in an Indian Army
Operation he accidentally killed two children
in Kashmir. He prefers to be a no nonsense professional
going about his job without warming up to anybody.
Gradually however Anamika gets him to open up
to her and they become the best of friends. In
spite of his best efforts however, Anamika is
kidnapped and Surya shot and left for dead. The
payment of the ransom goes horribly wrong and
the brother of the kidnapper is killed in the
ensuing shootout. In retaliation Anamika is killed
or so we are told. Suryaveer decides to stay in
Bangkok and kill everyone involved in the kidnapping…
The strength of this film are the scenes between
Suryaveer and Anamika as he at first reluctantly
bonds with her and their subsequent friendship,
which are some of the best moments of the film.
Although admittedly, their bonding over him teaching
her swimming or how to burp to avoid piano lessons
and her being kidnapped after a piano class are
again straight out of the original. These scenes
however give the film its emotional core to justify
Suryaveer's brutal, killing spree in the second
half.
Certain Plot points fail to hold credibility.
When the parents know Anamika could be a likely
target for the kidnappers, they both leave for
London leaving her alone with the bodyguard. Surely
one or the other, particularly the mother as she
is not shown to be a working mother would be at
hand to be as much with the child. This is a problem
even in the original but time has to be given
for the bodyguard and little girl to bond, you
see! The end with its so called twist ending (not
in the original!) leads to yet another of those
long winded explanations the villains make before
being killed.  The
original had a powerful ending with Washington’s
death but here not only do we have a tacky happy
ending with Suryaveer blowing the villains away
but a useless 15 years later epilogue to get Lara
Dutta and Abhishek into the film. And prey, what
was the Big B wearing the Mumbai se Aaya Mera
Dost Cap?! This is self adulation of the
worst kind especially since one knows how little
merit the earlier film actually had. And oh yes,
the army flashback scenes are terribly tacky.
The film is aided greatly by the central performances
of Amitabh Bachchan
and Rucha Vaidya. Bachchan as the weary alcoholic
Col. Suryaveer Singh with a past is superb as
always. Look at him in the scene as a gamut of
emotions fleet subtly on his face where he goes
back to the kidnapping site or his breakdown when
he goes through Anamika’s diary. Rucha Vaidya
gets just the right balance of sweetness, brattiness,
precociousness and cuteness. Arjun Rampal is presented
well but is barely adequate as an actor. Actually
to be fair, he hasn't got anything much to do
in the film in spite of the final twist at the
end. Perizaad Zorabian as the mother of Anamika
has her moments while Vikram Chatwal as the father,
part of the kidnapping scheme is awful.
On the technical side, the flashy MTV style camerawork
with jerky shots in tele, whip pans etc, and obvious
flashy editing again used extensively in the original,
actually tends to irritate the viewer and at times
distract and take you out of the story when you
should be involved in it. We see this happening
a lot in Hindi Cinema today - excessive use of
flashy technique thinking it’s being funky
and cool but instead not realizing how much of
it to use and where and not understanding how
wrong use of it takes away from effective storytelling.
And yes, as is usually the case with Indian Cinema,
Background Music is hammered and overdone. The
film could easily have been kept tighter and a
good half hour needs to go.
All in all, just, just about average but in a
week of this and the horrendous Neal n Nikki
(positively the worst film made by the Yashraj
banner) perhaps you could watch Ek Ajnabee
if you have to see a Hindi film from the
new releases - at least for the performances of
Big B and Rucha Vaidya.
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