'Acid Factory' - stylish action, but loses the plot

Film: 'Acid Factory'
Cast: Irrfan Khan, Manoj Bajpai, Fardeen Khan, Dino Morea, Aftab Shivdasani, Danny Denzongpa, Dia Mirza
Director: Suparn Varma.
By the time the chemically-zonked characters trapped in a padlocked factory realise who they are and what they are up to, we couldn't care less about the outcome of their violently vivacious life. Our disdainful indifference for the characters of 'Acid Factory' comes from the enforced cool quotient. Everyone behaves he was born in a posh retreat and has spent the majority of their lives driving in swanky Porsches.
But the actors lack the charisma to carry off the posh characters with elan.
These, however, aren't the only reasons why we give up on these lost souls. Mainly, the game is up because the film turns out to be an almost frame-by-frame copy of a Colombian film, Simon Brand's 'Unknown'.
Like many of the films produced by Sanjay Gupta, 'Acid Factory' seeks direct inspiration from a foreign source and adds a sheen of extra-ruggedness to the original proceedings. After a point, it doesn't matter what the original reference point is. These are people who've lost their bearings.
But director Suparn Varma remains pretty much in control, specially when the chase sequences take over. That's when the narrative really lets its hair down. The skidding wheels, exploding cars and crashing dreams of characters, who are as amoral as they are adventurous, signify the complete takeover of the film's universe by forces that rule the realm of video games.
Long before they became fashionable, Sanjay Gupta has been making video games on celluloid. The background music by Amar Mohile totally supports the vibrant rugged and macho visuals.
Women are objects of classy but lustful adoration in Gupta's scheme of things. Dia Mirza makes her athletic entry mid-way through the film when the characters locked up in an acid factory have just begun to figure out their raison d'etre. By then we've begun to lose our bearing vis-a-vis the askew plot.
To their credit the actors seem to exude an energy beyond that provided by the adrenaline-motivated visuals. Each characters comes across as an individual. Manoj Bajpayee is wacky, Aftab Shivdasani is restrained. Dino Morea is wry and Fardeen tries hard to come to terms with his amnesiac character.
Danny Denzongpa and Irrfan Khan remain peripheral, never quite entering the domain of the damned, remaining above the pyrotechnics even while indulging in them.
Technical qualities of 'Acid Factory' deserve a special mention. Sahil Kapoor's camera captures the bends of Cape Town effectively.
'Acid Factory' is overall a stylish action film.

Awards don’t matter for Aftab Shivdasani

Mast boy Aftab Shivdasani has come a long way in the industry. He is through with the roller coaster ride of ten years in the meanest industry. He gets candid in an interview and talks about his journey so far, and shares his future plans.
Why do you want to turn producer?
One of the reasons is that I want to do films of my type and secondly I liked the script.
So will you be working with establishes directors or newcomers?
I would want to work with established directors like Rakyesh Mehra and Raju Hirani.
Are you satisfied with your graph so far?
Little more success was welcomed. All the films that released in 2008 irrespective of their box office results satisfy me as an actor, as each character is different from other. As far as the whole career is concerned, I agree I did make a few wrong choices of films. As wisdom dawn upon me little late, I now look for quality not quantity, in fact what I then thought was quality turned out to be quantity.
So what made you take up Daddy Cool?
I always wanted to do a crazy role. As that’s the part of my personality, I am very laid-back about my looks and attire. I got to do something that I can closely relate to so I grabbed it.
Are you disappointed for Aloo Chat not doing well?
It was a family centric film. I am glad that people are watching it on satellite and it is making money. But had it been watched in multiplexes when it released, it would have benefited actors too.
Anuj said once that you and Amna did not promote his film Aloo Chat well?
One has to point finger at someone so he must have told this. He will not take the blame on himself. Otherwise there are so many reasons for a film to not work.
Would you do any award winning film?
What is the definition of an award winning performance? Most of them who win according to me do not deserve. Awards are not important to me, but are just another feather in my cap.

‘Daddy Cool’ - this farcical funeral is deadly uncool

Film: Daddy Cool
Cast: Suniel Shetty, Aftab Shivdasani, Javed Jaffry, Rajpal Yadav, Prem Chopra, Aarti Chabria, Kim Sharma, Sophie Chowdhary
Director: K. Murali Mohan Rao
Why remake a shoddy, tasteless British comedy? Why be so fixated on Western entertainment when we’ve so much literary and pulp talent out here?
Just leave aside these vital questions and focus on the ensemble cast of “Daddy Cool” that sparkles with borrowed wit. The Goan setting and the quaint rooms housing distraught emotions keep us smiling.
The setting is a Christian funeral. But at times the funeral jokes have us coughing in embarrassment. The dead man has two sons - a responsible, young bespectacled householder (Suniel Shetty) and a carefree cassanova novelist (Ashish Chowdhary) who flies in jetlagged just in time for daddy’s funeral.
And Sharad Saxena is deadly in his stillness as the dead man.
Interestingly, daddy has a secret in his closet. And that’s Rajpal Yadav, his gay lover.
“Isska matlab tum dono gay ke bete ho!” squeals Aarti Chabria to her screen-husband Suniel Shetty and his brother Ashish.
Ironically after copying everything in sight in the original - from the characters to the dialogues - the desi adaptors get cold feet and decide the gay lover was an imposter.
To be fair to this feisty farce, “Daddy Cool” makes you smile, specially Aftab Shivdasani as a drugged-out goofy lover-boy. He is better than the actor who played the role originally.
Shetty as the responsible son, who is a little tired of shouldering family responsibilitie but nonetheless determined to see the show through, is controlled and comically karmic. His climactic speech in praise of his father is rousing. Rajpal Yadav as the gay lover is superbly restrained.
And then there’s Sophie Chowdhary as the suitably sexy airhead.
Blessedly this farce doesn’t opt for desperate measures. It keeps it cool most of the way.

Dia Mirza turns bad in 'Acid Factory'

Actress Dia Mirza, who has shed her girl next door image to don a glam diva look in her upcoming film 'Acid Factory' said she trained with action director Tinnu Verma to develop the agility her character required.

"An actor's body needs agility to carry off the action or stunt sequence convincingly. The body needs to be in optimum form. I trained to develop it before the film went on floors," Dia, whose character has shades of grey in the movie, told reporters here, unveiling the film's "first look" .

"Besides, it's good to be bad," she said adding her's is the only female character in the film which stars Danny, Fardeen Khan, Irrfan Khan, Aftab Shivdasani, Manoj Bajpayee and Dino Morea.

The film directed by Supran Verma and produced by Sanjay Gupta of White Feather Films will release worldwide on September 3.

Fardeen said he earlier worked with Supran in 'Ek Khiladi Ek Haseena' also produced by Sanjay Gupta.

"The film did not do well, but I feel actors, directors make a mature transition since the time they make their debuts," he said.

"In 'Acid Factory' actors needed to be in a certain frame of mind. They don't trust each other, but are still part of the same gang," he said.

The special bond shared by all the actors during the course of shooting in Ramoji Rao Film city in Hyderabad and South Africa is a testament of onscreen chemistry, he said.

We discovered each other as friends and people," the actor, looking dapper in a grey suit, said.

On repeating Supran after his failed box office debut, producer Sanjay said he does not look at the director's body of work but the energy level he possesses before signing them on for his banner.

"I like to do films which defy formula and does not go down the beaten path," he said.

Actor Irrfan Khan, fresh from the success of 'NewYork' seemed to be in a jovial mood when many wondered what he was doing in such a stylised Bollywood action flick.

"Supran told me that I will be holding guns and romancing Dia. I said I am in. But then, what about acting ?, and the director told me forget it for once," Irrfan joked.

Gulshan Grover was however, miffed with the producer that despite being an integral part of the film, he was missing from the promos and trailers.

"I would like to believe that it is part of marketing strategy," he said, to which Sanjay Gupta said Gulshan was a surprise package in the film.