EMI – Movie Review

EMI Bhai log. Better save your sweat money for this month’s actual EMI, than to waste it on this boring film.

EMI is loosely inspired from the films of Munnabhai series. The only difference is that here the protagonist Sattarbhai ( Sanjay Dutt ) is not the focus of the story. The story rather revolves around five different characters.

There’s a disc jockey named Ryan ( Arjun Rampal ) who thrives on credit money and credit cards. He falls for a sexy gold-digger ( Malaika Arora who leaves him with huge debts running into lakhs.

There’s a young couple ( Ashish Choudhary and Neha Oberoi ) who take loans to start their married life but end up divorcing and, consequently, defaulting on their easy monthly installments.

There’s a young widow ( Urmila Matondkar ) trying to prove her husband’s suicide as a murder to get the whopping insurance money.

And there’s a dad ( Kulbhushan Kharbanda ) struggling in his old days to repay the loans he took for the education of his son.

Enters Sattarbhai (Sanjay Dutt) – a loan recovery agent with political ambitions. Sattarbhai is a reformed man. Instead of using his muscle power, he helps all the defaulters in repaying their loans. In the process, he mends their broken lives and also falls in love.

The premise of ‘EMI’ is pretty sound. The trouble lies in its telling. Director Saurabh Kabra tries to put together a film from half-baked plots. For instance, you never get to know what caused the newly married couple to divorce. Nor are you shown the DJ’s girlfriend (Malaika) squandering the credit card money. Neither is believable the overnight transformation of Sattarbhai from a muscle-flexing recovery agent to a kind-hearted man out to reform others’ lives. It’s all told in a superficial way and at a fleeting pace. And that’s precisely why the movie unspools reel after reel on the big screen without gripping you for more than a few scattered moments. The worst part is the way the story sums up in the end. It’s as if the director wanted to wrap things up hurriedly.

Having said that, credit must be given where it’s due. Sanjay Dutt – though he repeats his Munnabhai act – is pretty much the soul of EMI. The sad thing is his role is smaller than you expect. Aashish Chowdhary is very likeable playing a gutless husband who watches porn even though he has a snooty wife at home. Urmila Matondkar looks visibly uninterested in playing her role (perhaps being unhappy over being given the part of a widow with a five-year-old daughter). Arjun Rampal is pretty much forgettable in a brief role. Neha Oberoi shows a few fine flashes of acting.

Producer Sunil Shetty really needs to review his production policies. After Mission Istanbul , this movie too turns out to be an utter disappointment.

The most shocking thing about ‘EMI’ is its end. It comes so abruptly and unexpectedly that I overheard a couple next to me exclaiming with surprise: “Oye! Khatam Ho Gayi!”

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