Anamika 2008 Movie Reviews

Director Anant Mahadevan returns this weekend with Anamika to complete the €˜A€™ series trilogy after movies such as €˜Aksar€™ and €˜Agar€™. This time around not much has been said about the music of the film done by Anu Malik. Unlike Anant€™s previous ventures the music played a key role in drawing the audiences to the cinema halls; but in this case does the movie survive without such mesmerizing music?

Here goes the synopsis€¦

When Jia Rao(Minisha Lamba), received a call for being an escort to Vikram Singh Sisodiya(Dino Morea) from the palatial Gajner of Bikaner, she hadn€™t imagined that life would take a total turnabout. Her rendezevous with Vikram who had come to the city of Mumbai for a convention to turn his home into an international resort actually ended with Vikram proposing to her .She found herself hopelessly in love with him, despite the fact that Vikram was married and his first wife Anamika had died under mysterious circumstances.

Her arrival in Gajner wasn€™t uneventful either. Mahajan the manager who seemed to know more than he should, Shekhar Rajput(Gulshan Grover) , Vikram€™s brother in law a cop with an acidic tongue, Vikram€™s doting sister, and Malini(Koena Mitra) the ever efficient governess were some of the characters who strangely influenced her stay in a place that hit her with its expanse, beauty and mystery.

And the biggest enigma was Anamika. Everyone seemed to be talking about her and how Jia could never step into the shoes of the charismatic socialite that Anamika was. Her efforts to live up to the foreboding image of Anamika ended up in creating a rift between Vikram and Jia .And the crunch comes when Jia is faced with the prospect of unraveling the secret of Anamika€™s death€¦accident..suicide or murder?

Anant Mahadevan gets it entirely wrong this time. Firstly, €˜Anamika€™ isn€™t an untold story and is very much predictable. To add to all of that, there seems to be huge similarities between €˜ Anamika€™ and Alfred Hitchcock€™s €˜Rebecca€™.

The flow of events in the movie are so dull and the pace just gets you annoyed. At the cost of being a so called suspense film, the events of the film are simply dragged on and on.

No doubt the film has been shot at splendid locales of Bikaner, Bangkok etc but all of it falls flat as these beautiful locales don€™t come in as a saving grace for your storytelling.

On the acting front, Dino Morea isn€™t at his best and delivers a weak performance. Minisha Lamba seems to be struggling with her Hindi and is a complete let down from her performance in €˜Shaurya€™. Koena Mitra is a complete waste in the film. Her role offers no substance and she just hops in and out at any point in the film. Bunty Grewal is irrelevant. The only person who does his bit with ease and conviction is Gulshan Grover. He delivers the punch as the cop and carries the desired aura.

The music of the film by Anu Malik is such a let down. The only track worth listening to is €˜Shagufta Dil€™. The tracks though shot in Bangkok etc are very poorly placed and composed which is the biggest drawback for an Anant Mahadevan film whose €˜Aksar€™ and €˜Agar€™ are still remembered for their music.

On the whole ,€™Anamika€™ is a poor one from director Anant Mahadevan and the movie is further going to be affected by the ongoing IPL cricket. Looks like the bollywood draught won€™t end anytime soon.