Sparkles and fades

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The Film Emotional Atyachar (TFEA) is a sometimes gripping, sometimes amusing fast-paced thriller based on that desi Murphy’s Law — dana-dane pe likha hai khane waale ka naam. Inspired by the films of Quentin Tarantino and Guy Ritchie, TFEA borrows quirky twists for its plot from Snatch, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, and Reservoir Dogs, and attempts to create Pulp Fiction style of bizarre scenes with inept gun-wielding cooks and zany providence. A couple of times the result is hilarious.
Lock, Stock had a pair of antique double-barrelled shotguns, Snatch had a glittering diamond, and TFEA has a bag full of `20 crores.

Somewhere on the Goa-Mumbai highway, Gujarati lad Hiten (Anand Tiwari) is driving back home after spending a few good days with three ladies in Goa. He stops to pee and turns to find a wounded man, Vikram (Mohit Ahlawat), flopped on his car’s bonnet. Vikram is bleeding and Hiten agrees to drop him to a hospital. Hiten figures that Vikram has a gunshot wound, so he asks what happened. Vikram mumbles something as his mind drifts off to the day he met Khanna... and the film, through brief, episodic scenes, shows us what actually led to this and the various freaks and monsters who were involved, but are now dead.

Cops Vincent (Ranvir Shorey) and Leslie (Vinay Pathak) have been engaged by Baba Kamte to collect his money that casino-owner Bosco had borrowed but hasn’t yet returned. They arrive at Bosco’s Nine Queens casino, win several rounds at the roulette, Vincent letches at Bosco’s squeeze Sophie (Kalki Koechlin) and they give Bosco three days to return the money.

Somewhere else Junior Bhai (Ravi Kishen) snatches a polybag full of cocaine and gets into Goti’s taxi. The cocaine will serve a purpose. Junior uses it to extract information about a bada deal that is to take place soon. Junior gets Goti, a large and hopeless wanna-be goonda, and his equally dumb friend Pichkoo to help him pull off this heist – he dispatched them to arrange guns and a get-away car.

Back to the casino where Bosco tells Sophie that Khanna will invest in his casino and he will hand over that money to the two pesky cops. But before he can do that, Vincent and Leslie return, take Sophie hostage and leave Bosco on a bed full of crabs.

Bosco’s meeting is arranged with Khanna and the large leather bag is just about to be handed over to him when he excuses himself to go pee. Junior Bhai, Goti and Pichkoo barge in pointing guns, but just as they are about to take the bag and leave, Bosco walks in. Goti shoots, other shoot, Bosco dies, Junior Bhai shoots, Khanna dies... Junior, Goti and Pichkoo take the bag and are escaping in their van, on the Goa-Mumbai highway, when one of them dies and someone steals their bag.

First Vikram gets the bag, then Vincent and Leslie, then Sophie... and so this madness goes on, on the highway, in the dark of the night. Every time the bag changes hand, the body count rises...

The Film Emotional Atyachar, by debutant director Akshay Shere, sparkles and fades according to the calibre of the actor on screen. Unfortunately, the outages are longer.
The film shines brightest when Ranvir Shorey and Vinay Pathak are together on screen. Their timing and chemistry is fabulous. Anand Tiwari, as the flashy Guju-bhai fretting and fidgeting, is excellent and hugely entertaining. Kalki Koechlin has a fascinating chameleon-like charm which she uses to her advantage here. Her item number is decidedly dull but otherwise she is efficient. The weakest link in this whole affair, strangely, is Ravi Kissen.

TFEA’s plot and narrative don’t follow a linear path and this keeps the interest in the film going. The dialogues, laden with C-words, try to be whimsical but are mediocre. The Film Emotional Atyachar’s actors talk less and quip more. The film’s background score is from the thriller genre and is nice. S.S.