Garv   Producer: Cinevistaas Director: Puneet Issar Starring: Salman Khan, Shilpa Shetty, Arbaaz Khan, Farida Jalal, Amrish Puri, Akanksha, Mohan Joshi, Govind Namdev, Mukesh Rishi, Shivaji Satam, Vijayendra Ghatge, Reshma Bombaywala , Rajpal Yadav Music: Sajid Wajid , Anu Malik Lyrics: Jalees Sherwani Genre: Action Recommended Audience: Parental Guidance Reviewed by: Abid  - Rating: 6.0 / 10   Let us know what you think about this review Music Review

Cinevistaas Ltd´s ´Garv -Pride & Honour´ was initially conceptualised as a 15 crore project eventually went over-budget by 3 crore and finally ended up being an 18 crore project. The film however is pretty ordinary.

´Garv-Pride & Honour´ is a run of the mill 70´s action-revenge drama that we have witnessed countless times during Amitabh Bachchan´s heydeys, the only difference is in the presentation, where it is the revenge first and the motive is revealed in the flashback.

´Garv´ revolves around Mumbai police officers Arjun Ranavat (Salman Khan), Samar Singh (Amrish Puri) and Hyder Ali (Arbaaz Khan). Under the supervision of Samar Singh special task officers Arjun and Hyder Ali are assigned a mission to clean up the monarchy of the Dubai based underworld don Zafar Supari (Mukesh Rishi) and the mission has the blessings of the chief minister (Vijayendra Ghatge).

However, as the mission is just about succeeding the underworld politicians nexus manipulates the situation in such a way that their man (Govind Namdev) becomes the chief minister and the honest Samar Singh is transferred and the whole mission runs into a roadblock. To compound matters, don Zafar Supari lands up in Bombay with a truckload of RDX and succeeds in eliminating Arjun´s right hand man Hyder and end up creating havoc in Arjun´s personal life and the rest of the story(in flashback) shows the supercop´s revenge and fight back in addittion to the obvious final outcome.

´Garv´ is a movie from the times when the director, Puneet Issar, was a hero. The story is pre-historic, the support cast ordinary, the music by Sajid-Wajid/Anu Malik, except for ´Hum Tumko Nigahon Mein´ and ´Soniye´ being ordinary and to compound matters the heroine Jannat (Shilpa Shetty) is over the hill. When compared to some of the recent cop action drama, ´Garv- Pride & Honour´ is not even up to the standard of ´Aan- Men At Work´ let alone the classy ´Khakee´.

Even the action by Mahendra Verma looks ordinary especially when Bollywood is going in for "Matrix" styled action. Cinematography by Stephen Fernandes and Kishore Kapadia is alright and editing by D.N. Malik could have been better.

Salman Khan gives a mind blowing performance that is truly award winning and the USP is the restrained acting in a loud movie. Arbaaz is good though aided by a few clap-worthy dialogues by Anirudh Dhapokar. Anupam Kher is loud as is Govind Namdev and Mukesh Rishi.

Shilpa Shetty tries to look sexy in the 3 songs and 10 minutes she has but alas age is not on her side anymore. In fact even in the item numbers Reshma Bombaywala steals the show from her in ´Marhaba Narhaba´. Akanksha as Salman´s sister is very ordinary. Kulbhushan Kharbanda and Farida Jalal are good in their respective roles. Amrish Puri is excellent in the few scenes that he gets and the same can be said for Rajpal Yadav.

´Garv´ had only one thing to back on that is Salman´s box-office power and this time, unlike ´Tere Naam´ there was no national holiday (15th August)and chart topping music but it had the most important propellent - Salman and his star power which was enough to lift the pedestrian attempt by director Puneet Issar.

Once again Salman Khan shows that he is back to where he belongs - the top league. His detractor´s who had dubbed ´Tere Naam' as a fluke hit are still recovering from the after-shock´s and the Bollywood is baffled as ´Garv-Pride & Honour´ moves on to atleast an above average or semi-hit status from here, despite the film being so very average.