FROM TRINETRA TO TEESRI AANKH - HARRY EYES SUCCESS
By Eye TV India Bureau - P Shukla
Critic's I-view
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Fifteen years down the line and a director still fails to keep grip on the audience pulse. The trauma of Hindi filmmaking is what the story of the latest offing from Bollywood 'Teesri Aankh' is all about. Director Harry Baweja took off as a director way back in 1991 with a film titled 'Trinetra'. That time Mithun Chakraborty was seeing a downfall in his career and even then Harry dared take him as a lead hero. A strong double role dashed with oomph of Shilpa Shetty Trinetra managed to grab some eyes at box office.
After that Harry made a habit to pick heroes from the sideline of limelight and throw them in such a peculiar situation that will automatically bring in some curiosity attached to their roles in the film. Harry played this trick in 'Dilwale', 'Diljale' and 'Deewane'. In between he also made films like 'Imtihaan', 'Karz --- The Burden of Truth' with Saif Ali Khan and Sunny Deol. Last time Harry tried and almost hit the bull's eye was his take on famous Hollywood film 'Rock's desi version 'Qayamat'. But, he could not carry on with its good vibes in his very next flick 'Main Aisa Hi Hoon' that was a great disaster.
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Harry returns this time with a stale film; stale because 'Teesri Aankh - The Hidden Camera', has been in news for the last few months for all wrong reasons. Amisha Patel pairs with Sunny Deol in 'Teesri Aankh'. After stupendous success of 'Gadar- Ek Prem Katha', Harry tried to cash on it in his promos but in between Sunny fired his ammo saying he is not there for a full-fledged role, but little did he know that Harry has manipulated his story in such a way as to present Sunny as lead hero of 'Teesri Aankh'.
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'Teesri Aankh' misses the success just by few months. Had this film come earlier than Mohit Suri's 'Kalyug', it could have fetched enough booty for its maker. Harry Baweja may have conceived a good idea on making a film about pornography. It was the Bhatt camp that clicked by a real life story of the same type and made a quickie in 'Kalyug' that raked in moolah for them. 'Teesri Aankh' follows almost the same track that 'Kalyug' marched on. It was Amrita Singh sitting in Zurich and running a worldwide porn racket there, in 'Teesri Aankh, Mukesh Rishi as Sudama runs the same kind of racket.
'Teesri Aankh' sets a clear agenda for the film that it is a take on the breach of privacy around the world. There may not have been many cases in India of someone getting filmed with the help of hidden cams. However, this isn't new now. But we wonder why the filmmakers try to find out a solution of every problem on foreign land. Why can't a racket of this kind be run from a hamlet? Harry Baweja has shown his capabilities in the past and has proved that he is a good technician when it comes to presenting a plot. But his score card as a writer has always been dwindling. Had he given the responsibility of writing the screenplay of 'Teesri Aankh' to some one else, the result could have been better.
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Harry also fails to weave interesting events of the story with gripping plot points. In his attempt to present Sunny as a hero, he also takes the help of flashbacks and that make the story line go haywire. If Chirrantan Das and Ayananka Bose have failed to carry on with steady cam most of the time in the film, action director P K Swain also does not succeed in keeping the adrenalin up. The music of the film is another major let down. Given the fact that Harry has managed to get music score with the help of three music directors; there is little that could be seen as an undercurrent in the music of this film.
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Among actors, people are coming to see 'Teesri Aankh' just because Sunny Deol is there. This reason has got it some respectable opening in few centers of Delhi, U.P. and Punjab, but the Sunny factor does not seem to work in its favor at other places. Sunny Deol has done these kinds of roles in several of his films and now only novelty scores. So, Sunny's oft-repeated acts fail to ignite any fire on screen this time. Neha Dhupia tries to do her best, but neither does she have any fan following nor do the viewers expect much from her besides a skin show.
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Amisha Patel on the other hand gives some powerful scenes but chemistry that people saw in 'Gadar' between her and Sunny Deol is missing in this movie. A bunch of villains fails to leave any kind of impression and Mukesh Rishi's acts sometimes are irritating. On the whole, 'Teesri Aankh' doesn't have much to offer to viewers and at box office it will find very tough to grab the attention of the regulars at multiplexes and also at single screen theaters.