If the much-delayed Rehguzar generates any interest, it is only for the fact that it was supposed to be the first Bollywood attempt to show expatriate life in the Gulf. Dubai-based producer Kesar Kothari and director Farukh Masudi have messed things so badly that even their honest and sincere efforts in a few scenes get diluted.
The film fails to capture the real hardships and emotional trauma of the expatriates in Dubai. In fact, audiences in India and Pakistan may get the wrong impression of the expatriate lifestyle, thanks to the umpteen goof-ups in the film.
Rahul (Jimmy Shergill), an ambitious expatriate in Dubai, wants to make it big overnight. He keeps switching jobs as he ends up having some problem or the other with his employers. But some of the scenes are very unrealistic. Rahul neither seems to get an employment ban nor needs a visa change. He can even start his business at any time with just a snap of the finger. Meanwhile, he falls in love with Neha (Saloni Aswani) and ends up working in her father Kapoor's (Rajiv Varma) company.
Kapoor is such a magnanimous man that he promotes Rahul from a sales representative to branch manager to the Middle East operations manager, every time he meets him in the office corridor.
But Rahul quits this lucrative job due to differences with Kapoor and sets up his own group of highly successful companies, all within the course of a few months (of course, we know it is far from realistic).
Just when things begin to settle down and Kapoor agrees to Neha and Rahul's wedding plans, CID officer Mohammad Al Amri (an Emarati actor) arrests Rahul for the possession of drugs leading to an insipid climax.
The movie starts with sincere efforts of showing the hardships of labourers, but the hope of seeing something meaningful is shattered as the movie loses track, thanks to a poor screenplay and shoddy direction.
The film takes a lot of cinematic liberties, thus evoking quite a bit of unintentional laughter.
Shergill puts in an honest performance, but his make-up and characterisation leaves a lot to be desired. Aswani is chirpy and bubbly. Varma lends decent support. The comic sequence with Rakesh Bedi the restaurant owner, Big B and Vrajesh Hirjee who plays Anwar, a Pakistani national, brings a smile to the face. The dubbing for Al Amri is very poor. A mention has to be made about the character who plays Shergill's first manager in the film: he has redefined the meaning of ham performance.
One has to see his performance to believe it. The music by Adesh Srivastav is another drawback, except for the title track. It's sad that the first Bollywood attempt on Dubai's expatriate lifestyle has failed to strike a chord with the local audiences. The only consolation is that this film may be the beginning of many more such films, and hopefully, they should turn out better.
Critic's advice: Suitable for family viewing
