Awarapan

A foreign city. Characters with a dubious past. Vicious mobsters. Scowling gunmen. All wrapped in sufi music: this could be any of Mohit Suri8217;s movies. Only a handful of films old, the young director has fallen into the trap of creating sameness.

Our hero Emraan is a bad guy who goes about killing people on order. He keeps his eyes slitted, face grim, and his gun hand unflinching. And then one day, a girl begs him to spare her and her boy-friend. War ensues, between the bad guy who8217;s actually a good guy, and his bug-eyed mentor Ashutosh who is actually a kinky mobster.

Parts of the movie remind you too strongly of Suri8217;s earlier Kalyug: here again, women are helpless victims, men are merciless oppressors, and everything is shot in black and blue tones.

Emraan sports shoulder-length locks and doesn8217;t kiss either leading lady, though he is softer on Shriya, currently better known as Rajnikant8217;s love interest in Sivaji, people having forgotten her previous sad Hindi movie attempts.

Ultimately, Awarapan pans out in well-done swirls of sleaze and hurt and violence. Time for Suri, who has a decided gift for story-telling, to change gear.