Movie Review: David (2013)

Release date: 1st Feb 2013
Director: Bejoy Nambiar
Rating: 2.5/5


So, David. With not one, not two, but three Davids. Three stories set apart in time and place. Do the stories marvelously intertwine through a surprising turn of events? No. Does the scriptwriter force them into each other anyway? Hell, yes.

Having talked about the desperate juxtaposition of events to justify the movie’s title, perhaps the only part of the movie which is a definite no-go, I shall move to a lot of good things the movie has to offer. Firstly, the movie has an unassuming, yet effective lead cast. Vikram (haven’t seen much of his movies but have heard of his reputation down south), one of the Davids, comes through as a very believable and likable character. Vinay Virmani, of ‘Speedy Singhs’ fame (playing one of the other Davids) gets another chance, and takes it up well. He was put in scenes where he had little to speak, and bring out the intensity on his face. And with the benefit of doubt for being a newcomer, he does deserve a pat on the back.

And that brings us to our good old friend, Neil Nitin Mukesh. Now there are only a few Indian male leads who can carry off an onscreen name like David. The director had no misconceptions about Neil’s acting and dialogue delivery talents. And this is where the scriptwriter plays a masterstroke. He builds up a lead character with really little to talk and/or emote. Frankly, there was precious little to screw up in that role. Talking of screwing up little roles, the ravishing Monica Dogra comes close to doing just that. Her character’s relevance to the plot is as much as that of Javed Akhtar to the Indian Cricket team’s pace bowling attack. She is pretty convincing till she is looking right at you from that giant screen and giving you that enticing look. But woman, don’t talk.

Which is precisely what our other leading lady Isha Sharvani does. She looks stunning, and plays a deaf and mute girl – the muse of two Goan fisherman, who have little else to do apart from getting horribly drunk. Save the completely avoidable and insensitive jibes dished out at Roma (Isha), this was my favourite story from the movie. Saurabh Shukla plays David’s (Vikram) dead father whose ghost talks to his son, and doles out meaningful advice from time to time, sometimes as this apparition visible merely to him, and at times, by entering the life forms of people around. Yes, it sounds ridiculous when I describe it here, but adds for some much needed comic moments. Also, the Goan melodies bring life to a movie where half of the sequences (well, one of the three stories) is in black and white. And did I mention, Isha Sharvani looks delectably pretty. Oh! And not to forget Tabu, managing to look wonderful after all these years, who has a well-scripted role as a massage parlour owner and go-to friend for Vikram, and pulls it off with her usual aplomb. Much love.

Another eye-catching part of the movie is the number of well known (and mostly jobless) faces it manages to bring together. Sample this- we have Lara Dutta playing a ridiculously inconsequential role, we have yesteryear’s beauty Sarika appearing for a song. We are surprised by Milind Soman playing a vile businessman…wait for it…’s henchman. Nikhil Chinappa appears in a blink-and-you-miss-it cage fight sequence (which again seemed to be there for no apparent reason. “It seems to be a symbolic ‘David’ beats Goliath sequence”, I quipped to my friend in the audience when Nikhil manages to vanquish a much heftier opponent, although I was probably making sense out of nothing.)

All in all, if one can get over the first half hour of randomness, and ignore the disappointing end, the remaining one and a half odd hours offers a good entertainment package. However, considering the empty rows of seats that greeted us, I am not sure if the audience is too keen to give this one a try.

Two-and-a-half stars for the movie. Another half for the pretty ladies.