Double Whammy

CAST: Vinay Pathak,Saurabh Shukla,

Mona Singh,Mahie Gill,Sanjay Mishra

rating: *

Gangsta rap seems to the flavour of the week. This one is another Trying-Very-Hard-To-Be-Tarantino — with a simple guy,a dodgy detective,a spiffy hood who spouts French,a good girl who leaves home,a bad girl who wants to leave town,and assorted others,all after a bag bulging with cash.

Vinay Pathak does a double: the simpleton act,which we’ve seen several times before,and the bad guy,which he flubs,not because he wants to,but because he wasn’t reined in. He also,just in case we miss the point,has black-and-white posters of French classics on the walls of his den. Saurabh Shukla is some kind of a sleuth,but it makes no difference what he plays because he’s been coming off the same for some time now. Mona Singh,who was last seen playing the hapless woman who had a baby hosed out of her in 3 Idiots,could have gone somewhere with her lost-in-this-big-bad-city part,but this is not a film that takes anyone anywhere. And Mahie Gill,terrific in Dev.D,is practically unwatchable in her badly articulated,ultra-tightly sheathed,chest-spilling-out role: she can’t even smoke properly.