Samrat & Co Reviews

The summer vacations are finally here and so is the array of film releases which tend to redeem it during the holidays. Considering the scorching heat outside, one always feels safe and undisturbed sitting indoors and playing games like whodunit detective games or reading mysterious novels.

This week's release SAMRAT & CO, touted to be a mysterious whodunit thriller, seems to be a story plot just out of the storybooks. The film comes from the stable of Rajshri Productions Pvt Ltd, the same people who gave us the all time musical smash hits cum family dramas like MAINE PYAAR KIYA, HUM AAPKE HAIN KAUN, VIVAH etc. Does the movie live upto its promise of offering the viewers a 'dilchasp rahasya ride', and whether the Rajshris are able to live upto the audiences'' expectations, let's analyze.

The film starts off with the 'seventh sensed' STD aka Samrat Tilakdhari (played by Rajeev Khandelwal) and his part time-sidekick-cum-part time TV host CD aka Chakradhaari (Gopal Dutt) receiving a phone call from Dimpy Singh (Madalsa Sharma) seeking help to solve a strange case of their garden fading for no reason and also the sudden deteriorating health of her father Mahendra Pratap Singh (Girish Karnad). Despite the initial hesitations, Samrat and Chakradhaari finally make it to the palatial estate of Mahendra Pratap Singh. Right from the time they gain an entry into the mansion, they find the situations getting embroiled into one mystery after the other. As time begins to progress, they witness the murder of Girish Karnad under mysterious circumstances. Even while they go all out to solve this murder mystery, two more murders take place in quick succession, which further thickens the plot. How 'Samrat & Co' trail after the murders and nail the culprit is what which forms the rest of the story.

Director Kaushik Ghatak, who had earlier directed EK VIVAAH AISA BHI, fails to live upto the expectations' of being a 'Rajshri director'. Right from the time the film starts till the last frame of the film, the viewer is subjected to a roller coaster ride of their patience, courtesy the poor direction. Where on earth will one find a reputed and famous detective (whose success stories are published in leading newspapers), utter limericks in almost every second line of his conversation! Even though the director has infused multitude of characters in order to create confusion (read 'mystery') in the minds of the viewers, he fails miserably in establishing their individual identities. Many of the side actors land up looking like mere props in the film. As far as the film's cast is concerned, Rajeev Khandelwal, who is best known for his choice of unconventional roles, seems to be a bit out of place in this character. One cannot totally blame him for this as he only delivered what must have been told to him. Despite a convincing screen presence, what really brings down his character is the fact that he gets involved in a lot of creative wordplay, which once formed the USP of films like KYA SUPERKOOL HAIN HUM and likes. Adding more to the irritation is Chakradhaari (Gopal Dutt) and his constant hammering of "That's the point", which, after a certain point, gets translated into a migraine. Madalasa Sharma contributes her bit to the film in the form of beauty and grace, even though the film doesn't offer her a platform to exhibit her acting potentials. While a special mention to Bhaumik Sampat (Inspector Khalid) for playing his role with conviction, the other actors who feature in this film include the veteran actor Girish Karnad, Priyanshu Chatterjee, Indraneil Sengupta, and Barkha Bishit Sengupta, Shreya Narayan, Ravi Jhankal and Puja Gupta.

While the screenplay writers of this film (Kaushik Ghatak, Manish Srivastav) seems to have done a sloppy job, which otherwise could have turned the film into a watchable affair. The dialogue writer (Sanjay Masoom) does a 'creatively decent' job with his words. While the editor Nipun Gupta seemed to know what was expected of him, delivers his goods intact. But, the same cannot be said about the action (Kaushal and Moses), which is a letdown. What one fails to understand why would the hero and the villain get into a 'question and answer session' while fighting with each other! As far as the music is concerned (Ankit Tiwari) despite the inclusion of an item number, the film offers no memorable song which you can hum on your way back home. The only saving grace/ salvation/ redemption of the film seems to be Sandeep Shirodkar's background music that keeps the film at its pace.

All in all, SAMRAT AND CO is a major letdown, certain elements notwithstanding.

While buying the ticket for Samrat & Co, a request for a corner seat yielded the answer, "Madam kahin bhi beth jaaiye, pura hall khali hai." There is a lesson for all of us moviegoers in there - always listen to the guy at the ticket window.
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I didn't and I ended up wasting up two hours of my life which I will never get back. Samrat & Co is a poor man's version of Sherlock, and Robert Downey Jr's eponymous films. There are also nods to Agatha Christie, Enid Blyton and other brilliant authors. There's nothing brilliant about this Rajshri Production, what you have is Rajeev Khandelwal as detective Samrat Tilakdhari, or STD (I kid you not) as he is lovingly called by his trusted sidekick What son' (their joke, not mine).
Just so that you don't miss the similarities, he also wears a trenchcoat and delivers deductions about people he has just met in true Benedict Cumberbatch fashion. Only in Khandelwal's case, they are said so fast that you can't catch half of them (you mostly do not care also).
The brilliant Khandelwal of Shaitan and Aamir is missing in action and the actor here will make you cringe with his performance. Probably he knew what he had signed in for and just went with the spirit of things! And he is not the only actor sleepwalking, veteran actor Girish Karnad looks like he had something really bad for lunch and is now suffering from acidity.
Or maybe it had to do with the utterly stupid dialogues they were made to spout. Here are a few gems: heart is fragile, handle it with care', come and get ready for dilchasp rehasya', here's a mistress in distress (mistress, really?)', sach woh roshni hai jo subah hone se pehle hi ho jaati hai'. These are a very few examples, the film is up to its ears in them.
Now let's take a stab at the story: STD is a star detective who has boxing bouts when he is not solving cases which make it to the front page. He is waiting for an interesting case when in walks a pretty lady (Madalsa Sharma, utterly underwhelming) whose father's garden is dying because of a maali's shraap. That is making her dad scared and unwell. He and Watson (Gopal Dutt as Chakradher who is a Sansani-type of anchor in his free time) head off to Shimla and people start dying. The first one to go is the girl's dad (Karnad).
The screenplay leaves a lot to be desired and the pace is excruciatingly slow. The look reminds you of 70s films where the stars danced in front of the camera and scenery made up the backdrop. The music is utterly forgettable and the placement of songs is forced. The film, directed by Kaushik Ghatak, looks like amateur dramatics where the operative word is amateur.
You start sensing something is very wrong when Ganesh Acharya fills in for the item number slot. By the time you meet a baba who seems to spend a lot of time in Belgium (he likes chocolates? he wants to flee from this hilarious whodunnit?) you are focusing on your mobile and when they are playing Planchette to solve the murders, you wish you had walked out when you still had chance.
You may laugh at the unintentional gaffes during the film but after the climax, you are afraid. STD says he'll be back with a sequel. When that happens, I will be watching the re-runs of Sherlock. I advice you to do the same.
- See more at: http://www.hindustantimes.com/entertainment/reviews/movie-review-samrat-amp-co-is-poor-man-s-sherlock/article1-1212291.aspx#sthash.037OKyDi.dpuf

Samrat & Co review: Rajeev Khandelwal plays STD at an unintentionally funny full tilt

When the chief sleuth in the movie goes by the unlovely handle of STD, you know what you are in for. The full name is Samrat Tilakdhari, just in case you were wondering. And no, it doesn't get any better.
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There's a tribute paid upfront to Sherlock Holmes, but the filmmakers are also fans of Robert Downey Jr's playing of the great detective. Rajeev Khandelwal, who plays STD, is to be found in a ring, just the way Downey Jr did, pulping an opponent, and then making a young lady's jaw drop by his rapid-fire deductions about where she is from, and how long she has travelled to get to him.
Turns out that the pretty Dimpy ( Madalsa) is here to ferry the detective back to Shimla where her wealthy father Mahendra Pratap Singh( Karnad) is being menaced by strange things. STD and his dear Watson, called Chakradhar Pandey aka CD ( Dutt) reach the estate, and a series of mysterious deaths begin, starting with the dad.
Khandelwal plays STD at an unintentionally funny full tilt. Which means he wears a trenchcoat ( all tecs have to wear trenchcoats), but thankfully no trilby. He leaps about and speaks very fast, but cannot help the molasses-slow pace of Samrat & Co', which takes two-and-a-half hours to solve what should have been done in a 40 min episode.
The script allows for lots of silliness, and clueless characters, and sad clues. The combination would have been just right for a parody, but here everyone Is dead serious. Dead bodies tumble out of outhouses, bombs get placed in cars, girls strum guitars, and it is all meant to be suspenseful and shivery, as loud background music swells every now and then.
I'm all for murder mysteries and brainy sleuths, but this one made me slump in my chair. The biggest mystery remains : when will we get a great one?

'Samrat and Co' review: Rajeev Khandelwal as Indian Sherlock Holmes fails to solve this mystery - what is the point of the film?



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'Samrat and Co' review: Rajeev Khandelwal as Indian Sherlock Holmes fails to solve this mystery - what is the point of the film?
Prajakta Hebbar IBNLive.com | 26-Apr-2014 15:01 PM
Film: 'Samrat & Co'
Cast: Rajeev Khandelwal, Madalasa Sharma, Gopal Datt
Director: Kaushik Ghatak
Before we plunge into the review, we would like to share a line spouted by Rajeev Khandelwal in the very last scene of the film: "Asaan case ek tuti hui pencil ki tarha hoti hai -- there is no point." (An easy case is like a broken pencil -- there is no point.)
They say imitation is the best form of flattery. By that parameter, 'Samrat & Co' flatters the hell out of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Guy Ritchie, Robert Downy Jr, Benedict Cumberbatch, Jeremy Brett, Agatha Christie, and even Enid Blyton, in some bits. But if these personalities ever saw the film, they would probably head to Lacuna Inc (from 'Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind') to erase the memory of ever having watched it.

The story revolves around Samrat Tilakdhari or STD as he is fondly known. No, he does not see anything wrong with the nickname. He also wears a trench coat, has curly hair, deduces stuff fast, talks even faster, and indulges in recreational boxing. And he has an an assistant-cum-friend called Chakradhar Pandey or CD. This part-time sansani-type television news anchor introduces himself as 'what son' (we kid you not) to the damsel in distress Dimpy Singh (underwhelmingly played by Madalsa Sharma) within first 15 minutes of the film.

After dazzling Dimpy with his "7th sense" (his words, not ours), Samrat goes to her picturesque, yet eerie house in Shimla which looks like it has dropped straight into 2014 out of a 'Hum Aapke Hain Koun' world. Here, the lady's garden has been perishing because of her former gardener's shraap (curse), and that has affected her father's health. The father, Mahendra Pratap Singh, portrayed by brilliant actor and writer Girish Karnad (why oh why?!) has been feeling jumpy because of it all.
As Samrat and Chakradhar arrive, things start happening and dead bodies begin to pop up -- first one to go is daddy dearest.
After several cloak-and-dagger scenes and an item number by Ganesh Acharya (we wish we were kidding, we really do) Samrat finds out a little background dirt on the family, their neighbours and even random employees. But what was painfully obvious to all of the 5 people sitting in the dark theatre, Samrat takes over two-and-a-half hours to figure it out.

The script is full of cheesy and unintentionally hilarious dialogues, such as, "Come and get ready for dilchasp rahasya", or "Here's a mistress in distress". The fringe characters remind us of the motley group in 'Maine Pyaar Kiya' or 'Hum Aapke Hain Koun'. For example, the maid-in-chief Shanti (Puja Gupta), tries very hard to be like the late actor Lakshmikant Berde, the mimicking Hari (Navin Prabhakar) is a mere caricature that can be found in any one of the background cast from a saas-bahu drama. We were fully convinced that the Barjatya favourite Pomeranian dog 'Tuffy' might make an entrance. Thankfully, he didn't.
A very blah plot, amateurish twists, and tacky 90s-inspired look and feel make the film a boring affair.
Why so many good actors like Rajeev Khandelwal, Girish Karnad, Smita Jaykar and Indranil Sengupta agreed to do this film is the one mystery we were unable to solve.
Rating: 1/5

Review: Don't watch this Samrat & Co
Samrat & Co might be about an extraordinarily observational man's fight against crime but as far as cinema goes, this film is a crime against the genre, writes Paloma Sharma.

Every 1990's schoolgirl's once heartthrob, Rajeev Khandelwal plays detective/Robert Downey Jr/Benedict Cumberbatch in Kaushik Ghatak's Samrat & Co. and though he has graduated to the big screen, Khandelwal stays true to his alma mater by launching into a soliloquy every five minutes.
All that's missing is 'Tan, tana na na, Kamolikaaa' playing in the background.
Samrat & Co. follows the classic whodunit formula, set in a mansion on the seemingly remote and isolated outskirts of Shimla -- except that the imagery seems more Middle Earth than Himachal Pradesh.
A beautiful heiress arrives at Samrat's doorstep one day -- in a yellow convertible and a short matching dress, because how else will we know that she is pampered and rich? -- and pleads with him to take up her case. It is a matter of life and death for her father.
But Samrat's assistant, Chakradhar or CD of the Sansani-inspired Chakradhar ka Chakravyu fame, declines upon hearing that the prime suspect is a tormented spirit that haunts the house. Instead, he offers to give her the number of a famous 'Bengali baba'.
But Samrat Tilakdhari, whom CD loves to call STD (yes fellow teenagers, you may giggle now), is intrigued by the challenge and sets off to solve what could be the toughest case of his life.
Along the way, Samrat encounters his fair share of heroes, villians and people who don't really have a life.
Revenge is sought for the most childish of reasons. Love is cheesier than a pizza; and Samrat transforms from Downey Jr in the Sherlock series to Keanu Reeves in Speed and Batman from Batman begins.
Characters seem to be created more out of demand of the financer than that of the script itself and too many of them, with mostly underdeveloped backgrounds, spoil the plot.
The film is fun when it starts off, albiet a little silly, and manages to build up an impatience in the viewer. You can wait for the plot to unravel. But the moment the interval ends, you end up wishing you had walked out.
Samrat & Co looks like it has completely been shot in chroma. Real locations are few and far between. Shimla's dropping temperature seems to have no effect on heroines who prance around in frocks befitting 10 year olds while CD's nose turns as red as that of Rudolph's.
I honestly wish I had performances to praise but at the risk of sounding snobbish and cynical, I can only advise you to watch this if you're a fan of the Dolly Bindra school of acting.
An exceptionally awkward romance angle has been forced into the mix, possibly to add a song.
What is a romantic song doing in a mystery movie, you ask? Good question. Let's see if STD can figure that one out.
A blatant, unashamed and at times, scene-by-scene copy of films like Sherlock Holmes, Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows and Bhool Bhulaiya, Samrat & Co might have a good enough screenplay buried somewhere beneath all the trash but none of it shows in the execution.
Samrat & Co might be about an extraordinarily observational man's fight against crime but as far as cinema goes, this film is a crime against the genre.

Rating : half star