Awara Paagal Deewana

"Awara Paagal Deewana" is a fast-moving thriller killer romantic comedy film (the fast-moving: part is provided by a Chinese troop; the thriller part by Akshay Kumar; the killer part by Rahul Dev; the romantic part by Aftab and Preethi and the comedy part by everybody else). At least that is what we suppose Vikram Bhatt expected it to be.

The movie begins with an astonishing revelation made by a gangland don (Om Puri) on his death bed - it's about how to get hold of the diamonds worth zillions that were set aside by him in an American bank locker, and how they are to be equally divided between his son-in-law Guru Gulab Khatri (Akshay Kumar), his daughter Preeti (Preeti) and his son Vikrant (Rahul Dev).

Vikrant, not wanting to carve up the diamonds with anybody else, starts the bad-ball rolling to render Guru as an assassin. Begin… the parody of a scene in Matrix, where Guru assassinates the home minister and manages to get away. Only a frame later, we know that it was in fact Vikrant in disguise, trying to set Guru up. To step on the gas, Vikrant also announces a lump sum amount as a recompense to whoever provides any information about Guru. Despite all that, Guru survives the situation and lands up in America.

Begin… the caricature of the whole "whole nine yards". Enter Anmol Acharya (Aftab Shivdasani), a mild-mannered American dentist married to an Indian-settled-in-America shrew (Amrita Arora), and whose new next-door neighbor just happens to be the Guru Gulab Khatri under cover. Anmol's wife, catching the whiff of easy money and probably just hoping to put hubby in harm's way, orders her henpecked schmuck to rat out Guru to Vikrant in India, who is having loads of compelling reasons (namely diamonds) to want him dead. Needless to say, complications… and plenty of them ensue.

With run-of-the-mill performances from everyone, Awara Paagal Deewana can probably be pitched as a farce comedy amalgamated into some shoddy action and cut-rate romance. A little patience with this agreeably convoluted caper, and towards the end you'll find it a self-effacingly entertaining yarn. But forbearance is a must because, truthfully, most of the movie promises a train wreck of epic proportions.

Recommended if all you care for is to bump off sometime, or if you're a hard-boiled fan of Akshay Kumar (who else's fan could you be in this movie?). We rate it two stars and three pachaks (rotten tomatoes).