There are films made on con-men and there are films that try to con the viewers without any guilt or shame. Shockingly WELCOME TO NEW YORK is the one belonging to the second category, which in fact is not even a film, shrewdly made as a shameless endorsement of IIFA (International Indian Film Academy Awards) supported by many reputed names.
Giving you the actual picture, it seems they shot certain sequences during the IIFA Awards abroad when almost all the key names of Hindi cinema were on their 2-3 days sponsored visit attending the award function. And then compiled them all together with few other sequences featuring Diljit and Sonakshi in particular, resulting in a con-project titled WELCOME TO NEW YORK fooling the innocent viewers.
Including a lot of chroma-sequences and documentary kind of (original) shots of the IIFA Awards and its participants (on and off the screen), it really makes you wonder why they even thought of making such a senseless project promoting their own lobby or group taking the viewers for a ride. A tacky execution reveals the careless vision behind the film in the first 10 minutes itself and then it keeps testing your patience with a pathetic story progression for the next two hours (including the deliberately inserted songs).
Directed by the debutant Chakri Toleti, WTNY remains a complete mess throughout with a noisy background score and all loud, annoying performances especially of Karan Johar (in a double role) who forces you to recall the forgettable BOMBAY VELVET. No doubt Karan performs quite naturally enacting himself on the screen. But his mannerisms, conveying some kind of superiority over all the others, soon become annoying and unbearable post the initial scenes. Sonakshi Sinha yet again fails to add anything to the film (as an individual) and the same can be said by Boman Irani and Lara Dutta, who otherwise sincerely look like trying their best. Among all forcibly inserted cameos of Salman Khan, Katrina Kaif, Riteish Deshmukh, Sushant Singh Rajput, Aditya Roy Kapoor and more, only Rana Daggubati makes an impression accepting his BAHUBALI hangover.
Coming to the main attraction, the current youth icon Diljit Dosanjh – he does fine playing a funny boy from Punjab teasing Sonakshi all the time and remains the only saving grace in this tiring dud. But then, he is known for doing the same kind of roles in Punjabi Cinema since years giving some mega hits. In fact his role in WTNY is quite close to what he did in JATT & JULIET travelling along Neeru Bajwa.
Moreover, they actually roped in Diljit to play the lead role in this film, as they would have not been able to sell it with only the names of Sonakshi, Boman, Lara and even Karan Johar in the cast. Plus with Diljit, they could successfully cater both the audience in a particular territory in the country as well as abroad encashing his huge popularity.
But on the other hand, it was a wrong choice of Diljit Dosanjh to accept the film, which was nothing but a cleverly planned con in the name of cinema mainly exploiting his name and fame both within the country and abroad. Also, couldn’t understand what was the need to support a song saying ‘Meri Pant Mein Gun Hai’ reaching such a respectable stage in his rising career? Besides it was really shocking to see many big icons of the industry supporting the project bowing down to the game of power and money.
In the end, would like to add another fact which will clearly let you know how such films try to fool the innocent viewers or young die-hard fans.
Just think for a while, what a film or comedy like WELCOME TO NEW YORK has to do with the 3-D format? (The film has also been released in 3D)
The answer will easily make you aware of the clever con-games being played in the name of Hindi cinema.
Rating : 0.5 / 5
(The article was first published on UC News Mobile App in February 2018)
