Barah Aana

After Bas Yun Hi, Barah Aana is Raja Menon’s second movie. It is one of those movies with a lot of potential that has not been exploited fully. The story’s a good one, so is the cast but the narration is unimpressive, until the second half when it actually takes off.

The opening scene has Shukla (Naseeruddin Shah)  running through some woods huffing and puffing, with three thugs chasing him and we find out he’s actually dead, atleast on paper.  Then the story begins.

Shukla (Naseeruddin Shah), a chauffeur; Aman (Arjun Mathur), a waiter and Yadav (Vijay Raaz), a watchman are all roommates in Dharavi. Shukla and Yadav are abused by their employers while Aman is in love with a drug peddler Kate (Violante Palcido) and fends off advances by Rani (Tanishta Chatterjee).  So what separates them from getting respect? Money. So they extort money for a kidnapping they never planned and this leads to more kidnappings and more money. And like all good plans it goes all wrong. So, how is it fixed? Money.

Naseeruddin Shah is the stoic types who never says a word, but still manages to say it all, as he puts up with all the insults by his employer and finally loses it. Vijay Raaz is fabulous. His transition from a watchman to a kidnapper with money to burn is natural and convincing. Arjun Mathur is so-so.