Probably this project got approved getting convinced by an exciting narration talking about the famous, lively as well as dubious ambience of the narrow lanes of Paharganj, located just opposite the New Delhi Railway Station. The place is famous as a cost friendly hub for foreign tourists coming from all over the world looking for a cheap hotel/lodge for their long stays. And it has a great market too, selling everything you can think of both in terms of legal and suspicious stuff mostly searched by the foreign visitors.
Interestingly, you must have seen the location in many Hindi films since last decade like in DEV-D and more. The specific area is often used as a backdrop representing hideouts of terrorists, sex and drug rackets, crime and other mischevious activities, which is exactly the way it has been portrayed in the film titled PAHARGANJ, but in the crudest and most over the top manner till date.
Having said that, what’s even more bizarre about the film is the fact that though the makers used the plot of a foreigner searching for her lover and getting raped as their basic premise for all kinds of promotions, the plot is not even the film’s key subject which actually moves around a murder of an upcoming politician. Moreover, the writer-director use the reference of rape in such an insensitive, careless and pointless way that you wonder what were they thinking while promoting the film with the title PAHARGANJ and what was their purpose portraying the locale with such kind of sick and filthy visuals.
Narrated from the viewpoint of a foreign tourist Laura (Lorena Franco), who gets raped by a fake God-man in his den located in the region, PAHARGANJ begins with sequences simply unrelated to the title and then moves into the area introducing Laura who is looking for her missing boy-friend. Sadly, despite having an interesting lead character and an intriguing basic plot, the film never turns out to be any taut thriller lacking a focused narrative and never pulls you in as any impactful suspense driven drama. The logic remains missing in its too many plots woven together and the characters never turn out to be convincing enough mainly due to the poor handling of a crucial subject of a foreigner getting raped in the country’s capital.
To be honest, the writing as well as the direction remains utterly confused and you don’t get what they really wished to convey through this kind of narration in a film titled PAHARGANJ. Besides the performances give you nothing to write about remaining strictly bearable and the music fails to establish any kind of connect because of a tiresome story progression you never become interested in.
In short, PAHARGANJ has got nothing you might have thought watching its interesting trailers. It had a potential idea and has some eye-catching visuals too but is sure going to be a tough watch even if you decide to go for it without making any extra effort on an online portal.
Rating : 1 / 5
Tags :
PAHARGANJ Review By Bobby Sing at bobbytalkscinema.com, New Hindi Films Reviews by Bobby Sing, New Bollywood Movies Reviews by Bobby Sing, The depiction of Paharganj in Hindi cinema.
