Kal Kissne Dekha

Plots with people who have 'visions' of the future can mean many things nowadays. Among them is the fact that the script-writing team were on a holiday to the Bermudas while the movie was being made. So the film can get away with setting up any crime scene, and then have the special-visioned person to help out the cops in tracing the criminal. Which actually ought to mean the film would last for 25 minutes totally.

But since this is a star-son debut and all, it goes on for more than five times that number. Nihal (Jackky Bhagnani) is this small-town bloke who comes to Mumbai to study, and impresses his professor (Rishi Kapoor) with displays of scientific inquisitiveness and genius - like opening the window of a locked car with a ruler. There are other people that he floors - the snootiest girl in college, Misha (Vaishaali Desai), by introducing her to the word 'sorry', and a rude senior (Akshay Kapoor), by saving him from falling off a cliff.

Nihal has a special gift of having 'visions', which could mean anything from knowing whether his neighbour's baby will be a boy or a girl, to sensing every wired-up ready-to-blow-up spot in town. His bomb-sniffing abilities are discovered when he warns of a ticker during a mall outing, post which he becomes a superhero of sorts.

Apparently he hasn't seen just the bomb - he can also make out who the people behind it are. So the police (led by Dalip Tahil) take his help. Later, what complicates the plot further is that Misha has been kidnapped by the bad guy (Rahul Dev), whose gang has now planted bombs all over. And apparently, the brain behind the bombs is Nihal's professor who wants to take revenge against everyone because he was kicked out of where he worked earlier.

Kal Kissne Dekha has a script that would've been better suited to the '80s. They should have stuck to a checklist - the whole special-vision bit isn't working at all. And the film is greatly confused between 'intuition' and 'seeing the future' - Nihal isn't really seeing the future, but seems to actually have a heightened awareness of things around him, as the bomb alerts show. As for the campus proceedings, they've been done to death - the Archies style characters and the fights aren't even lending any style to the narration.

Jackky Bhagnani can remind you strongly of Uday Chopra, and is eager to look, feel and be a masala hero - which isn't a great ambition in these times of the refreshed new format of Bollywood movies. The heroine isn't any great shakes, either - and she reminds you strongly of several faces that appear in cosmetics ads.

Archana Puran Singh puts in the best performance of all. Satish Shah is grossly wasted in the role of the heroine's father, but Riteish Deshmukh is a roar as the don Kalicharan. And as for Rahul Dev, he does exactly what he does in Aa Dekhen Zara, and there's a scene that even looks like the makers of Kal Kissne Dekha visited him on the sets of the former. A few special appearances by Juhi, Sanjay Dutt and a couple of others manage to light up proceedings.

Sajid-Wajid's title theme sounds copied, but there's a song or two that sound fit enough for a launch - Bhagnani dances well, too. The production values are high, but the visuals are questionable at places - certain indoor shots have been passed off as the outdoors.

On the whole, it's nice to see the old formula back on the Hindi screen, but it's scary to think that gifted heroes might be easing their way into the checklist.