‘Rush’ Review: The makers rushed to finish the film!

Shomini Sen

The world loves Emraan Hashmi. In spite of his ordinary looks, mediocre acting talent and lack of any quintessential Hindi film hero’s charisma, Hashmi is relatable and Hashmi’s films, time and again, have hit the bull’s eye. But I’d be surprised if ‘Rush’- Emraan’s latest offering, makes any sort of mark anywhere. The man, who rose from doing some poor remakes of Hollywood thrillers and surprised everyone around with smart and affable performances in ‘The Dirty Picture’ and ‘Shanghai’, fails to save this sinking ship. The story is of crime reporter Samar Grover (Emraan Hashmi), who is offered the job of Editor-in-chief in a rival channel by media tycoon Lisa Kapoor (Neha Dhupia). The channel, owned by India’s richest man Roger Khanna ( a lean and botoxed Aditya Pancholi), focuses solely on crime reports. Being belittled by his present boss, Samar, or Sam as everyone calls him, grabs the job and the perks that come along with it, even though his ‘cynical’ live-in girlfriend Ahana (Sagarika Ghatge) isn’t quite sure why he has been chosen for the job. Things initially look all gung-ho at the new place for Samar. He gets a BMW, a penthouse, takes his girlfriend on a vacation and even gets naughty with the office hottie on a drunken night. But on one night when a former colleague warns him about the misdeeds his channel is involved in, Sam finds himself miserably trapped in a web where he realises that in order to be in the race for breaking news, news is created and lives are jeopardized on a daily basis. Now, let’s be honest. The story of an ambitious young man getting trapped in a maze of criminal activities has been shown on silver screen many-a-times. Some have worked (‘Raju Ban Gaya Gentleman’) and some haven’t (‘Blood Money’); and ‘Rush’ clearly falls in the latter category. The plot is slack, with too many loose ends, and abstract editing makes the film appear distorted, almost like it was finished in a rush. Songs appear out of nowhere and don’t even leave an impact unlike other Emraan Hashmi films. The scenes are badly enacted and dialogues are equally badly written. Some of the scenes lack sense. Like the one when two cops come charging in a news room, threaten Sam in the office cafeteria and one of them kicks chairs and just leaves in a huff later on. In reality, when someone comes to visit a TV reporter at work, he is asked to wait in the reception area and not casually walk inside a busy newsroom. Emraan Haashmi tries to act, but with a bad script, one can’t hope much. His thrillers usually have good music and racy plots but this one lacks all of that and more. It is also surprising that he chose a film like ‘Rush’ after giving a memorable performance in Dibakar Banejee’s ‘Shanghai’. As one grows as an actor, one usually becomes selective and doesn’t exactly go back to the dungeons. But that clearly is not the case with Hashmi. Amongst the ladies, Neha Dhupia looks hot and that’s about it. She was never really known for her acting prowess and this film just reiterates that fact. Sagarika Ghatge also fails to make any kind of impact. The baddie of the film, Aditya Pancholi, mouths clichéd lines throughout. And did I mention he looks botoxed? Don’t rush to watch ‘Rush’. You’d do better without it.