Cash [2007]

Anubhav Sinha has a great resume to boast of, including films like Tum Bin [fantastic emotional drama], Aapko Pehle Bhi Kahin Dekha Hai [sweet love story] and Dus [classy and stylish action]. The director has not only proved his fantastic capabilities as a filmmaker, but has also assured the audience that he will not be typecast in a particular genre of filmmaking. After making 2 family entertainers [Tum Bin, Aapko Pehle Bhi…] the director took on the challenge of an action-adventure movie [Dus], which went on to achieving a lot of commercial success, before exploring a completely different style of filmmaking with Tathastu and then reverting back to the action genre with the film in question – Cash!

So, is Cash yet another milestone in Anubhav’s journey, or does it take him 10 steps backwards? In terms of success, the film was not really appreciated by either the critics or the audience!

The story of the film revolves around the typical chor [thief] and heera [diamonds] business. It’s not as novel as one would expect and yet it still has potential to make a decent action thriller. Although the story disappoints initially, the major downfall of Cash lies in it’s weak and patchy screenplay. The film seems rushed at some parts and at other parts it feels it is going at the pace of a snail! The entire first half seems without purpose and leaves the audience feeling bored and highly irritated. It’s the second half of the film where the action begins to take off and the film becomes tolerable and entertaining.

A major turn-off in the film is the cheesy and highly pathetic animation! It’s absolutely ridiculous when the actors keep being animated every other second (and the worst thing is that the animation is so terrible)! The locations of Cape Town are breathtaking and the action sequences are incredibly well illustrated.

The soundtrack by Vishal-Shekhar is impressive. All the songs are catchy, though they really don’t find place in the films screenplay! The most strangely placed one being ‘Mind-blowing Mahiya’.

Ajay Devgan seems uninterested and bored (and to be honest, I don’t blame him!), you can tell he felt forced to do the film and his heart wasn’t in it. The energy was missing. However, being the fantastic and natural actor he is, he still manages to churn out a natural performance and completely justifies his character. Some of his scenes were absolutely fantastic [like when he’s teaching Shamita to get her car starting again… “koo-kiri-ooo-kirich” LOL] and he didn’t even have to put in any effort to steal the scenes he was in!

Zayed Khan does well and looks very sweet, however he does tend to go overboard at times. Ritesh Deshmukh is easily the show-stealer! His natural performance makes you want to stand up and applaud him. As always he’s simply a revelation! This is yet another fantastic performance from him, and this time in a very different avatar.

Watching Suniel Shetty in Cash gives a deja-vous feeling, how many times have we seen him play absolutely identical roles in the past couple of years? He does well, but he needs to refresh himself.

Esha Deol easily wins the race amongst the actresses in the film. She looks beautiful and gives a strong performance. Shamita Shetty is adorable. Dia Mirza looks pretty but disappoints with her mediocre performance. Ayesha Takia is a beautiful surprise and looks absolutely gorgeous, while performing as naturally as ever even in such a short appearance.

All in all, let’s put it simply… I had earlier planned on buying the original DVD of Cash (without having seen it) and boy am I glad I did not make that mistake! I’d advise everyone who’s bored, and has nothing better to do, to give Cash a watch, it’s worth that one watch when you have nothing better to do…but don’t spend £20 buying it – just rent it for £2 instead, like I did. Do not under any circumstance bother spending too much cash on it because though it has it’s moments, Cash really isn’t worth your Cash!!