What a waste of a wonderful opportunity to recreate the Jessica Lall case on celluloid!

Halla Bol had everything going for it — an intense performer like Ajay Devgan and The Legend Of Bhagat Singh director Rajkumar Santoshi at the helm. But the film, which has its heart in the right place, unfortunately has its screenplay nowhere near the brain. It’s all about this huge super star called Sameer Khan, as big as Shah Rukh Khan really is today. When his conscience comes a-tapping, Sameer Khan stands up as the sole eye witness to the murder of an innocent young girl by two highly-connected, coke-snorting upstarts.

Straightaway, one of the major problems with Halla Bol is that Santoshi’s protagonist is a blockbuster actor. Overfed on Hindi cinema by an over-the-top Farah Khan (Om Shanti Om), followed by Sudhir Mishra’s projection of the film world (Khoya Khoya Chand) just recently, the audience isn’t going to be greatly awed by, yawn, yet another release which uses Bollywood as its backdrop.

Even if the filmland drape is an unfortunate coincidence, Santoshi does not succeed in keeping you riveted with what started off as a hard-hitting story. First, when a celebrity of the magnitude of Shah Rukh Khan today (it is not SRK’s story but a super star called S. Khan, married to a Hindu, is not entirely coincidental), takes on a ruthless adversary like a minister and a liquor baron, he is not on the same footing as Santoshi’s powerless Damini was a decade ago. Damini worked because it was an unknown but upright daughter-in-law taking on her powerful in-laws. To show a super star of today being mercilessly targeted is to misuse cinematic licence, especially since Halla Bol claims to take the realistic route. For a moment, just imagine Shah Rukh Khan getting up to give evidence in an important murder trial today. It is inconceivable that such a huge star would go, unsupported, to the police station and make his statement. The media cameras which follow even a retired Madhuri Dixit to Siddhi Vinayak temple would’ve been by his side at every step.

Secondly, a celebrity of that stature ensures that he and his family are well-protected, 24/7, by their own private guards. He doesn’t look to the state to provide him with salaam-happy khakhiwale. Thirdly, the media today is so celebrity hungry that there is no way they’d hang on to only the minister’s one-sided story and not clamour for star bytes. Fourthly, there is a half-hearted attempt at an Aaj Tak interview with Prabhu Chawla where Sameer Khan is reduced to a wimp. In reality, catch our media-savvy super star being caught on the wrong foot on camera — a super star of today would be well prepared by his coterie to tell his story effectively, like an upright hero. To reiterate an earlier point, we are talking of a powerful super star in Halla Bol, not a wimpy non-entity, which makes the one-sided onslaught against Sameer Khan and his family utterly unreal.

If the media, led by Prabhu Chawla (whatever made a senior journalist like him agree to play the unjust, badgering TV host?) is completely unfair to Sameer Khan — an impossibility as we know the media today — Santoshi also stereotypes his own industry. The super star is arrogant, he is a hypocrite, he bitches about colleagues and beds every willing aspirant. The minute he is in trouble, he is completely isolated and friendless — untrue as every Salman and Sanjay Dutt will tell you.

In short, what a clichéd portrayal of a successful star!

Halla Bol ends suddenly with the media and the public inexplicably doing a volte face and rising in one voice in his support, asking for justice for the slain girl. Convenient, not convincing, Mr Santoshi.

Hey, psst!

Actor Darshan Jariwala, known all these years as telly star and Tulsi’s saas, Apara Mehta’s husband, has suddenly come into his own. He was still in the wilderness when Apara announced their separation. Within weeks, Darshan made an effective villain in Himesh Reshammiya’s Aap Ka Suroor, apart from playing the role of Gandhi in Anil Kapoor’s Gandhi My Father with aplomb. Here he is again, as the wicked minister in Halla Bol, once more perfect in his performance. While Apara has lately started claiming that they are getting together, the actor is clear that they’re definitely going different ways. The recent successes sure seem to suit his solo status.

Bharathi S. Pradhan is managing editor of Movie Mag International