Cigarette Ki Tarah Review

Five years back when 'Om Shanti Om' had released, the film hadn't marked the Bollywood debut of only girl Deepika Padukone, it had also acted as a stepping stone for another good looking and promising girl Yuvika Chaudhry. At that time, director Farah Khan had famously commented that despite being seen in a much shorter role, if Yuvika played her cards well, she had it in her to be better placed in the world of Bollywood.

Alas, but from sharing screen space opposite Shahrukh Khan, she is now being paired with a rank debutant Bhoop Yaduvanshi who doesn't boast of even an iota of acting skills. Now that pretty much reminds one of Hrishita Bhatt who too started off with Shahrukh Khan in 'Asoka' and is now struggling to find her bearings on the big screen.

Nevertheless, 'Cigarette Ki Tarah' is not as much about Yuvika as it is about Bhoop Yaduvanshi who arrives out of nowhere and is presented as a 'hero' in the film's promotional material. While this can still be passed, considering the fact there were not many hopes that even Rahul Roy ignited before his 'Aashiqui' turned him into an overnight star, let the fact be stated that the film in question doesn't quite turn out to be the moment of reckoning for the debutant. Instead, it makes one wonder all over again that why such films are still made and no one objects to funding at the script level itself.

So Yuvika does love our hero from Kanpur but he instead falls in love with a girl in Goa (played by Madhurima Tuli). Even as the love story just about starts building up, a murder brings a (so-called) twist in the take. There is an attempt to build drama & suspense and once the cop (Prashant Narayanan) comes on screen, you expect the film to take a thrilling recourse.

Unfortunately none of that happens as the film ends up being a boring, pointless and disengaging exercise with a few songs thrown in as diversions. Oh yes, there are disclaimers thrown around 'cigarette smoking being injurious to health' at regular intervals as well, perhaps as a guilty measure to account for the rather innovative (but meaningless) title.

Apparently the first time director Akashaditya Lama was not quite happy with the final cut and had a disagreement with the producers around what was released on screen. One wonders that with a subject, poor performances, shoddy production values and an overall badly made film like this, whether a different cut would have been any better!

Rating: *