Santoshi shelves Sanjay Dutt starrer, moves on with Sunny Deol

Rajkumar Santoshi has put his partition film “Jis Lahore Nahin Dekhia Woh Jamia Hi Nahin” with Sanjay Dutt on hold and moving ahead with an action movie with his favourite actor Sunny Deol.

Santoshi and Sunny are teaming up after 13 years.

“Yes, Sunny and I are working together after so many years. He still packs the same punch,” Santoshi, whose last film with Sunny was “Ghatak” in 1996, said.

Ask Santoshi about the rough patch that Sunny’s career is going through, and the director jumps to his old favourite’s defence.

“It’s unfortunate that some of Sunny’s recent films haven’t worked. That doesn’t mean Sunny didn’t work. He’s still our best action hero. And we’ll prove it. We gave a new definition to action cinema in ‘Ghayal’. Again we hope to do the kind of action that audiences haven’t seen before.

“Sunny doesn’t need to flash six packs to be an action hero. One look from him is enough to defeat an army of enemies,” he said.

Talking about “Jis Lahore Nahin Dekhia Woh Jamia Hi Nahin”, he said: “I’d love to work with Sanjay Dutt. But the historical requires a whole lot more research and a huge budget which we can’t afford at this time.

“I’m at the moment making the film with Sunny Deol. It is written by me and Sridhar Ragahavan and I will produce it as well.”

The director is right now readying for the release of Ranbir Kapoor and Katrina Kaif starrer “Ajab Prem Ki Ghajab Kahani”, which is scheduled to hit the screens Nov 6.

‘Fox’ - this thriller lacks suspense

Film: “Fox”; Cast: Sunny Deol, Arjun Rampal, Udita Goswami, Sagarika Ghatge, Vipul Gupta; Director: Deepak Tijori;

It isn’t too tough to crack ‘Fox’. You end up realising the identity of the culprit in this suspense thriller 15 minutes after the interval.

If only the whodunit factor could have been held on for a little longer, “Fox” would have turned out to be as exciting as it seemed in the first half. No, Tijori doesn’t bring the culprit on screen in the middle of the film but leaves a couple of clues, unintentionally though, in the first hour itself.

A person aiming a shot at Arjun in the dead of the night and a few minutes later an old man suddenly meeting him in Goa - both these incidents, if studied carefully, throw enough pointers for audiences to ponder over the film’s plot.

At the same time, Arjun, a top lawyer, publishes a novel titled “Fix The Fox”, which goes on to become a best-seller.

The novel includes graphic details of five gruesome murders in the past and this detailing leads Arjun to Sunny Deol, a senior cop at the Crime Branch. It’s this build-up till the interval that keeps the thrilling quotient intact for “Fox”.

But the turn of events does keep you watching - whether it is the lawyer who only fights for criminals, a sense of guilt leading to a break-up with his rapist-cum-murderer friend Vipul Gupta, a momentary break from his legal partner and girlfriend Sagarika Ghatge, a fortunate encounter with publishing house owner Udita Goswami or his debut novel “Fix The Fox” gaining world wide popularity.

What mars the narrative though is that the production values are below average for a project that has stars like Sunny and Arjun.

The frames don’t boast of a rich look to them, the set design is tacky, songs are poor and Goan villas appears to be cardboard sets in Mumbai. Tijori has made quite a few thrillers on television before and watching “Fox” gives an impression that the script may well have been originally designed as a TV thriller.

A film like “Fox” doesn’t quite warrant histrionics and Arjun Rampal does well in keeping his act subtle. It’s a nice change to see Sunny Deol not really talking through his fists though one expected him to be a little more energetic.

Sagarika gets good footage for herself after her “Chak De! India” role. Udita is required to look good in her first few scenes and she does well there. Beyond that she hardly has a role to play in “Fox”.

Even though you start solving the jigsaw puzzle before the characters are able to do so in “Fox”, you don’t really mind the storytelling. The only trouble is that there isn’t any needle of suspicion that points towards various characters. That’s because there isn’t any needle at all here due to a clear black and white picture emerging quite soon. From a suspense thriller, the film ends up being mainly a thriller.