Virasat

Virasat -- Legacy

MAIN CAST

Anil Kapoor -- Shakti

Tabu -- Gehna

Pooja Batra -- Anita

Amrish Puri -- Raja

Govind Namdeo -- Birju

BRIEF PLOT OVERVIEW:

Shakti returns from America almost completely westernized, much to his father Raja's dismay. When Raja passes away, Shakti is left in charge of the farmers surrounding his land, with his vicious Uncle Birju and his equally evil cousins at his back.

FILM -- 3.5/5

The movie opens on a high note with the song "Ek Tha Raja" and some lovely photos of Amrish Puri. I had a bit of trouble seeing what was going on at certain points because of poor lighting, but I completely forgot about this fault when a bunch of white-clad men jumped out of the trees to greet Shakti. Such a cute scene! Sadly, the lighting doesn't get much better as the movie progresses, so even when you are temporarily distracted from it by well-written scenes and energetic choreography, you're still forced to squint from time to time. The action scenes are ridiculous, even by Bollywood standards, with the notable exception of the dam sequence. There are some really beautiful sequences, too, like the Anil/Tabu love scene in the beginning of "Payalay Chunmun."

CHARACTERS -- 4/5

The main cast is almost flawless. Anil Kapoor loses a lot cool points thanks to his mullet, but otherwise, he brings his trademark charm to Shakti. I didn't think I'd like Pooja Batra, and sure enough, her delivery of her English lines is stilted, but she's exquisitely beautiful and performs well enough. Tabu and Amrish Puri's talents are vastly underused. As for on-screen chemistry: Anil and Pooja look good together, and Tabu is so talented she could have convincing chemistry with a cow, so it's no surprise that Shakti and Gehna make a wonderful couple. The supporting cast is a bit lackluster; namely, Govind Namdeo is a great actor, but the writers decided to make Birju "evil" by giving him two wives, a disability, and a mosquito-laden home, so Namdeo's abilities have next to no room to shine through. It works on the surface, but I like my villains to have a little more meat or a little less stereotyping.

MUSIC -- 3/5

I usually don't care for Hari Haran's voice, but I love "Ek Tha Raja." "Dhol Bajne Laga" doesn't take any risks and therefore isn't anything special; it's just a mediocre song to whittle the minutes away. "Tare Hain Barati" does nothing for me. "Sun Mausa Sun" and "Payalay Chunmun" are great, though, and they give the soundtrack a major boost. "Payalay Chunmun" is actually one of my favorite Bollywood songs. Virasat suffers from a lot of track blending, so you may have to listen to the soundtrack half a dozen times before you can tell each tune apart.

OVERALL -- 4/5

I'm torn between giving this film an A- or a B+, but in the end, I have to choose the B+. While Virasat suffers from only a few flaws, they're huge ones, like the up-and-down soundtrack, the rather boring first half, and the poor lighting in roughly a quarter of the scenes, inducing headaches and eye strain. The second half of the movie is awesome and the first half just can't match up; I had to force myself to sit through the whole mess until the village committee scene rolled around. Virasat is decent and is certainly worth a rental, but I don't plan on buying it unless it's in a bargain bin, and I don't get where all of the rave reviews are coming from. There's a strong script, a great cast, and a fantastic second half, there's just not enough magic to make Virasat come to life as a whole.

TOTAL SCORE -- 14.5/20 (really good)