DVD Rush

RUSH is a film which starts revealing the unfortunate truths behind its making in its first 10 minutes itself. The disconnect and the lack of right timing between its various sequences clearly give you an indication that there is something peculiar going on here which is not allowing the film to come out strongly. And that one unfortunate fact is that RUSH was actually the directorial venture of Late Shamin Desai who sadly couldn't complete the film and passed away in early 2011. The project was earlier called "24×7 Raftaar" which was later completed by Shamin's wife Priyanka Desai after that shattering untimely incident.

Reportedly, its leading hero Emraan Hashmi too helped in the completion of the film going out of the way which enabled Percept Pictures to finally release it after a lot of re-work and post production. Now whether the film was mostly complete or not at the time of its director's death is not known. But looking at the final product before us, it can easily be said that the film has suffered a lot due to the mixed visions coming in from more than one person during its completion process without any doubt.

As a result for a common viewer, who is not aware of the actual story behind its making, RUSH turns out to be an entirely uninteresting or hollow kind of attempt made without any basic vision. It remains dull throughout mainly due to its slow pace and unwanted, mediocre songs thrown in without any purpose, out of which only "Fukre" sounds the best. With an average cinematography & background score, its storyline revolves around money, power, media and crime but does not even start till its Interval. And post that, RUSH completely fails to exploit its fine basic plot revealing the dark side of today's news media, which is fast moving towards more sensationalism and less journalism.

Moreover, while watching it you can easily recall many recent movies made on similar subjects where the hero is offered an exciting well-paid job with a hidden criminal backdrop which gets disclosed later. Along with the film, its cast too suffers a lot due to the mixed vision mentioned above. The performances never rise above the average, except the gorgeous looking Neha Dhupia, sporting a new sensual look. Both Emraan Hashmi & Aditya Pancholi deliver the usual seen before kind of acts and Sagarika Ghatge looks tense in most of her scenes.

But honestly, I do feel that considering the project as an unfortunate victim of fate, there is no use criticizing the final product any further, just for the sake of it.

However taking a clue from RUSH's actual plot which remains under- utilized in the film in a very questionable manner, I would like to suggest all friends here, a lesser known classic of the past, if you are really interested in witnessing something extraordinary made around media and crime in Hindi Cinema.

The film is called "New Delhi" directed by Joshi which was released in 1987 featuring Jeetendra in the lead role of bold journalist. It's a well directed and superbly enacted film which brilliantly showcases the innovative idea literally ruined in RUSH. Though the plot was first used in "Surkhiyan" which came in 1985 but the way director Joshi visualized it in his NEW DELHI was simply incomparable with a haunting background score & some great worth watching performances,

Hence if you really want to see how media & journalism can be secretly used to fool both people and the government together, then do watch "New Delhi" at the earliest by giving RUSH and easy skip.

When a film gets delayed it looses it's sheen, this is true in case of RUSH which was started in 2010 but due to the death of director Shamin Desai was completed by his wife and released now. The film releases when Emraan is going through his best phase with critical acclaim(Shanghai) and BO successes(TDP, Jannat 2, Raaz 3). Rush which was initially titled Raftaar 24/7 sadly comes too late, the story seems similar to the recently released Bhatt Production Blood Money which too didn't work. The film tries to show the power of news channels and how they get their news which however isn't shown in a realistic manner, which is not a big problem as we don't expect realism from such films, but the film sadly is damn predictable and there isn't anything we haven't watched yet. Few scenes are well handled and the film does engage you at times sadly it cant salvage the script.

Direction by Shamin Desai is okay but it's unfair to say anything much as the film was started by him and completed by his wife Music by Pritam is deja-vu, the songs are placed in the most wrong places, in fact 2 songs come back to back in first half perhaps one of them was shot recently.

Emraan Hashmi with a goatee does a great job but it's nothing out of the world from him, this role he has done several times Aditya Panscholi similarly does his job well but his role too doesn't seem new. Sagarika seen after a long time, is passable Neha Dhupia does her part well Murli Sharma is funny in his role, rest are okay