I am getting a little sick of these semi-realistic, violent movies that are being served up by trendy, 'serious' directors. Satya, Shool and now Thakshak. Thakshak is an example of posturing at its worst; trying to be serious, and at the same time playing to the gallery. Govind Nihalini may have made Ardh Satya, but the only redeeming feature of this movie for him is that technically he doesn't seem to have lost his touch; story, editing, continuity and credibility can go to hell.

There is really only one reason to see Thakshak. Rahul Bose. Playing Sunny, the son of a mafia don, he portrays a manic, completely conscience-less character, who has no qualms about killing anyone who he thinks has crossed him or is in the way of his dream of total domination of the city. His accent, his abruptness of behavior and speech and the glint in his eyes work wonders for his character. The only time I have seen him earlier is in "A Mouthful of Sky", the first English soap on Doordarshan. I haven't caught English August or Bombay Boys, but one of these days I guess I will.

In that sense, Ajay Devgun playing Ishan or Eeshaan or Eeshan or Ishaan (why Hindi films never bother to give a list of cast and characters is beyond me) is a foil to Sunny. It is Rahul Bose who should be nominated for Best Actor and Ajay Devgun if at all for Best Supporting Actor. Tabu as Suman, plays a forthright, honest individual who still believes in the fact that the system can be changed and is thus willing to act as a witness against the mafia, in a multiple-murder case. This brings her in direct conflict with Sunny and coincidentally with Ishan, who falls in love with her.

The other interesting newcomer is Netra Raghuraman, who plays Nisha, a dancer/singer girl-friend of Sunny's, thus allowing the director to put in three songs and dances, with Netra flashing some parts of her body for the benefit of the 'char-anna' audience. She does have some potential and I just saw flashes of her in trailers for the "Bhopal Express", so maybe we will be seeing more of her in the days to come.

The music is by A R Rahman, but except for 'Rang de', none of the other songs stay with you.

Coming back to Govind Nihalini. I feel like throttling him. A man who makes movies like Ardh Satya, eventually comes down to making a film like Thakshak. Sure, Thakshak has some terrific scenes, some great dialogues, some really edge-of-the-seat episodes (like the time when Ishan goes after the Pakistani ISI agent, in the night-club where Nisha is singing, and the fight scenes and song are superbly interposed), but as I have said before, a patchwork quilt does not make a movie.

Why don't people like him realize that making a mainstream movie does not mean that you have to screw the script and logic and flow of the movie? Or is it that the hold of the distributors and financiers is so intense that unless you follow their dictates, you can't make a movie? I don't know.

This review is short, but there is nothing more to write about. I just wish the film had never been made and Nihalini hadn't gone through all this trouble.