Deewane   Producer: Paramjeet Baweja Director: Harry Baweja Starring: Ajay Devgun, Urmila Matondkar, Mahima Chaudhary, Jonny Lever, Reema Lagoo, Paresh Rawal, Gulshan Grover and Sivaji Satam Music: Sanjeev Darshan Lyrics: Sameer Genre: Drama Recommended Audience: General Approximate Running Time: 3 hrs 13 mins Film Released on: 11 August 2000 Reviewed by: Narbir Gosal  - Rating: 8.0 / 10   Let us know what you think about this review

Ajay Devgun´s first release for the new millenium is Deewane. This film marks Ajay´s third collaboration with Harry Baweja. His previous two films with Mr. Baweja, Dilwale and Diljale, were money makers at the box office, will they be able to complete a hat trick? For Mahima it is winning weekend with Dhadkan releasing at the same time, but will she succeed with Deewane or Dhadkan?

Vishal (Ajay Devgun) is one of the most feared cops in the police force. Criminal fear him, he has caught many of them, and is always successful. Vishal and Sapna (Urmila Matondkar) love each other very much, even though they can be annoyed with each other once in a while. Sapna is constantly bored by Vishal´s lack of romanticism, and his routine dance ball nights. Vishal has recently been working on a major case of some weapons smuggling at a local casino, and in the proccess has confiscated a tape showing the real culprits, butl he has not been able to view it. One fine afternoon while out on a boat with his boss (Sivaji Satam), Vishal is shot, leaving him in a coma. Enter Arun (Ajay Devgun again), a small time crook in Simla who steals jewels with the help of his friend, Okay (Johny Lever), and when he´s not stealing he´s singing songs with his friend Pooja (Mahima Chaudhary). The commissioner brings Arun to Mumbai and trains him to be Vishal. Arun does his job well and gets money for it too. But Arun has a bit of a problem, he´s falling for Sapna, and she´s enjoying this new ´Vishal´, who has apparently come back from a secret mission and completely changed for the better. He has been taking her to different bars, and has been more romantic. Why is this a problem for Arun? Well, Vishal has come out of coma and is ready to return to his family and his mehbooba who´s been spending all this time with his look alike. The rest of the film focuses on Sapna´s confused feelings for both men, and let´s not forget that Vishal still has to capture the people behind the casino weapons smuggling case.

Perfromance wise the film is sound. Ajay Devgun does a great job with both characters. Ajay gets to explore his acting spectrum. He is better as Arun, the dark and brooding lover, but still manages to impress as Vishal as well. He has plenty of scenes, especially the climax and some particular scenes with Mahima where he really excels. Overall, he is great. Urmila too does a good job (not all her histronics are on reserve for Ram Gopal Varma you know), her character is a little forward, but she turns in a convincing performance. Sapna is loveable and sweet, a typical filmi heroine role. Urmila gets into the character and gives a restrained performance, still it´s not really a role that offers a lot of dialouge bazi (Jungle still remains her best performance this year). She ge´s to really show off her acting skills in the second half. Mahima is also good, god knows why she has been given a special appearance billing. She is there throughout the film, and although she does her best, you get the feeling that she has been wasted in the role. After all we know that an actress of Mahima´s calibre can deliver great performances, so she really deserves better. All she does in the film is cry, but she still turns in a commendable performance and adds appeal to the film. Her most noteable scene is probably the climax, although she was good in the scene before the sad song. The rest of the cast is fine. Reema Lagoo does the usual, Johny Lever surprises, no loud screeching perfromance. He is actaully very funny and adds plenty of relief to the film, a delight to watch. Paresh Rawal and his gang of hooligans are unconvincing, they add little humour to the film, but they are not very convincing as criminals.

Techically the film is very good. Yogesh Jain´s cinematography is very good. New Zealand has been captured very well on screen, every frame is breath taking, especially in the ´Jogiya´ song. Harry´s direction is not up to par with his previous efforts, but that is not completely his fault. The screenplay is a little shaky in the first half. Is the film a thriller or a romance, Harry tries to strike a balance. Although the lead pair are already in love, it takes a bit of time to get the characters as well as the Arun-Sapna love story established. So the film goes about at an uneven pace for most of the first half, but picks up briskly in the second half, and from there on both the direction and screenplay are sound. The songs are fantastic, some of the years best and it´s great to see them come alive on screen, they are the highlight of the film. Dances are fine. Urmila does a usual good job, Ajay is passable, and Mahima has really improved. But it´s a realy treat to watch Urmila and Mahima who look great (as usual) against the New Zealand backdrop. Urmila looks particularily amazing in the ´Jogiya´ song. But then again I´m a self-confessed Urmila and Mahima fan, and I find them amazing no matter how bad they look. Still I can say with confidence that Manish Malhotra and Shabina Khan have dressed them well and made them look great.

Overall the film should succeed, it´s a typical masala film with a great treatment. The lead three stars give in some good perfromances, there is plenty of action, the film itself has been very well shot, the heroines look out of this world, great music, what more do you need? And the special effects are also well done although there is a certain glow to the screen whenever the two Ajay´s are featured together. It´s complete paisa vasool, you will come out of the theatre liking something about the film and go home happy.