Out of Focus

CAST: Prateik,Kalki Koechlin,Arjun Mathur,Shruti Seth,Makarand Deshpande,Divya Dutta,Raj Zutshi,Haji Amin

Rating: *1/2

A simpleton let loose in a big bad city is one of those eternal movie plots which keep raising its head every now and then. This is then,with Prateik as the bumbling,fresh-off-the-boat fellow from Goa,losing and finding himself on Mumbai streets on a New Year’s eve. The only way this kind of film can work is if the director can weave in a fable-like quality. The trouble with this one is that it takes so long to get to the point where it starts to feel like a film,that you almost give up. This gives Prateik too much time to be the smiley bumpkin who puts a brave face on his hurts,the clumsy oaf who breaks things in his best friend-and-his-wife’s (Mathur,Seth) home,who gets locked out onto the balcony,and then is catapulted into a night of crazy adventure,full of the doings of a lovelorn don (Deshpande),his failed actress girl friend (Dutta),his inept henchmen (Zutshi,Amin),a pretty,lost girl (Koechlin),and a pup. Prateik veers between hamming and some nice moves.And the end is energetic,making up,somewhat,for the random,chaotic air the film has worn till it gets there.But the rest is strictly amateursville .