Showbiz

This has been a year in which the media has been seriously bashed in the movies. A few months ago, a film called, what else, Breaking News showed us how sting operations could ruin innocent lives. It was topical, but it was also very sleazy: a dirty cop films a hapless girl in the altogether, and then forces her into prostitution.

Mahesh-Mukesh Bhatt’s ‘Showbiz’ takes the whole deal several steps further. A popstar newly-emergent-from-a-talent-contest (Tushar) is the target of a super sleazoid masquerading as a media magnate (Gulshan Grover). Use, abuse, misuse, thunders the boss, but get me breaking news. His stooges, led by Sushant Singh, take his word for it, and turn into monsterazzi. Said popstar spills out, reeking of alcohol, from a skidding car, along with one number hooker: it’s flashed on TV screens, TRPs shoot up, and everyone’s happy. Except popstar and girlfriend (Mrinalini): the former roams around with a bruised face; the latter wraps a towel around herself, and sings songs..

When did you last see a TV reporter roaming around with a beer bottle ready to sling it at a windscreen in order to cause an accident? When was the last time a talent hunt winner became big enough to boost the TRPs of a news channel? Sure, the media can be heartless, but then film (aka Bollywood) is media too: showing the reporter pulling the zip of the hooker’s bustier down so that the camera can get a better view, and the blood-lust in Sushant Singh’s eyes, is beyond bad.

Nothing the unfortunate lead pair do — him with his pumped-up body, and her with inch-thick pancake layers — saves this film from doom. The theatre decided to screen the film only when this critic showed up: there were no takers for it.