WantedThe leader of the opposition,waiting for ten years to become the CM,appoints a contract killer Raja to shoot at him enough to get injured and win sympathy votes,but not to kill. But the hit is fatal. The police get hot on the killers chase. He escapes into a compartment of a moving train and befriends Shibu,who is returning to his village after 12 years. The police aim at the killer but the bullet hits Shibu instead. Raja goes to Shibus village to give the family the sad news. But the family members take him to be their long-lost son. Pooja,engaged to be married to Shibu,is waiting for him. Raja is caught between the love of a family he never had and is trying to go back to his old and insecure life,reduced to an endless chase. Technical ExpertiseThe storyline had thrilling possibilities,most of which have been well exploited by Kinagi. It falters when the killer gets involved in the K-serial family scenario with syrupy young daughters whose husbands are shameless ghar-jamais of a very rich father-in-law. He tries to keep his distance because he knows they are taking him for Shibu,who he is not. Pooja,unlike the stereotype mainstream heroine,has a taunting and teasing relationship with Raja that adds punch to the drama but only just.The excitement picks up when the CBI officer Selim Ali (Sharad Kapoor) with his lecherous ways,comes looking for Raja. There is the usual dose of song-and-dance numbers shot in exotic locales like Bangkok added for their USP. But they are dwarfed in front of Jeet as Raja,who does it all. It is a completely deconstructed Jeet, one gets to watch in Wanted. He does everything with his eyes,his body,his strong and confident gait,his black leather outfit and his hands that he uses to good effect to bash up anyone who tries to do something wrong to Shibus kind-hearted grandfather (Biswajeet Chakraborty) or to get fresh with Pooja. Dialogue is sparse adding electric moments to his performance. Srabonti as Pooja with her naughty ways is a perfect foil barring her ethnic costumes that belong to Hindi television soaps and not to Bengali films. Sharad Kapoor is very good too. But his long drawl gives away his unfamiliarity with Bangla. Indrajeet as Rajas ally Joy does a very good cameo. Biplab as the double-crossing politician is tolerable. The song picturisations in the beginning are okay. Rajesh Roys musical score is good. The wilful suspension of disbelief a filmmaker demands from his audience cannot explain the sudden change in the mindset and ideology of a contract killer. The honest grandfather does not bat an eye when Raja hands him a cheque for Rs.10 lakh for Shibus cousins marriage. He does not once ask him from where he got all that money. One never knew that contract killers held bank accounts in their own names! The bank manager does not even look at the signature on a cheque or ask for the PAN number and allows the cheque to be encashed just because it is the much-respected grandfather who presented the cheque! And no contract killer on the run will keep on staying with a family for long.Wanted offers value for money with finished action,stylised direction and a mind-blowing performance by Jeet.Rating:One star is for Jeet,one is for the action scenes and one is for the total entertainment value of the film.
