History:
Puneet Issar was the man whose punch into Amitabh Bachchan’s solar plexus, landed the Big B in hospital and plunged the entire nation into sorrow, till Bachchan fought to come back alive over two decades ago. Issar then went to television and acted as Duryodhan in the popular television series Mahabharat. Then he went on to direct a few television serials till the time, producers Cinevista decided to give him a break with Garv.

Synopsis:
Inspector Arjun Ranawat (Salman Khan) is the ideal cop you all know. He is a man of principles and considers the anti-social elements as his enemy (Shades of Amitabh Bachchan’s character in Zanjeer). Along with Samar Singh (Amrish Puri) and Hyder Ali (Arbaaz Khan) he wants to eliminate these elements.

Little wonder that Amitabh Bachchan refused the character that Amrish Puri plays of Samar Singh in the movie. Hyder Ali and Arjun are best friends and under the guidance of Samar Singh crack the underworld and prevent them from carrying out illegal activities. Hyder and Arjun also employ unconventional methods invoking the ire of the men in power. This leads to the traditional ploy of the villains – target the family of the hero. Ideally every hero has a sister (Akanksha – daughter of the producer Prem Kishen) and mother (Farida Jalal) who fall prey to the villains.

Arjun is angry … he wants revenge… And he decides to take the law into his own hands… unfortunately it is too early for the climax and he falls into trouble as the system is too corrupt for him.

So a traumatic experience later… there are lots of action and drama… which tends to get too heavy and seems like television stuff that Puneet Issar is known for. And before we forget… giving shades of the Zohrabai character from Muqaddar Ka Sikander who falls in love with Amitabh Bachchan… Shilpa Shetty plays the role of a bar dancer Jannat who loves Arjun and is ready to lay down herself and her life for him. Arjun finds love in her sexy midriff and prefers to take his shirt off and dance in the rain with her finding time in between his heavy schedule as a cop.

Critique:
The film loses ground soon after it takes off. Salman Khan is impressive. All Salman Fans must see this movie for his performance. One must admit that the man has matured as an actor after his break up with Aishwarya Rai. It has taught him so many things, including acting. He has copied his Tere Naam brand of brooding acting which has helped a lot in the development of the character during troubled times. The pain and depth in his feeling is seen clearly.

Puneet Issar makes a good television director and he should stay at that. He shows signs of promise, but that’s all. There is nothing innovative in the movie as the film itself is based on an old premise with a script that suited that mid seventies when the fight was between the hero of the film (usually played by Amitabh Bachchan) who fought against the system and used to break the law to break even with the gangsters- a ploy that he sued much better in Akayla. But Salman Khan is not Amitabh Bachchan… and the audiences have seen too many films in this genre.

Arbaaz Khan is good and so is Amrish Puri. They play their roles with élan. In fact the Arbaaz-Salman Khan combo comes good a third time after Pyar Kiya To Darna Kya and Hello Brother.

Shilpa and Salman have been paired earlier… but didn’t look good on screen together. This time they do… something to do with all the camaraderie that they share in their personal lives. Shilpa Shetty is attractive and makes for fabulous dancing. One wonders why a Reshma Bombaywala was required to do an item number when the wonderful Shilpa can gyrate so energetically. Salman also makes for a cute dancer at times after having two left feet at one time in his career.

Songs however disappoint. The music is not up to the mark and the difference between an Anu Malik and a Sajid-Wajid combination is not much. Both are bad. Anu Malik was sacked from the film by Salman and replaced with equally bad music directors. Energetic songs like Dum Mast Mast and Soniye needed to have more punch… and only the Sonu Nigam sung Fariyaad and the Udit Narayan-Shreya Ghoshal number Hum Tumko Nigahon Mein has punch. Almost every song seems copied.

Choreography is tolerable, but nothing else is. There has been no proper research on costumes. There are different kinds of stars and medals attached to different kinds of police officers and that rule hasn’t been followed by the costume department to begin with.