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DASTAK (1996) ("Knock")
Producer: Mukesh Bhatt Music: Rajesh Roshan Starring: Sushmita Sen (Introduction), Mukul Dev (I), Sharad Kapoor (I), Bhavana Datta, Vishwajeet Pradhan, Tiku Talsania, Sunil Dhavan, Dayashankar Pandey, Akhil, Anupam Shyam Running Time: 166 Minutes
CineRating: 2 out of 10
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Just two years removed from bringing the 1994 Miss Universe crown to India, the lovely Sushmita Sen (Filhaal [2002]; Aankhen [2002]) was somehow convinced to make her starring debut in this tacky and unpleasant thriller from the notoriously derivative Bhatt clan. Scripted by Vikram (who later carried on a well-publicized affair with Sen) and directed on auto-pilot by the otherwise respectable Mahesh (Zakhm [1998]), Dastak is purportedly based on a real-life incident from Sen's past, although it's quite obvious early on that the movie's real inspiration is a well-known film from Kevin Costner's past.
Sushmita Sen stars as 1994 Miss Universe winner "Sushmita Sen" (how's that for type casting?), whose televised victory spawns an obsessive admirer named Sharad Sule (newcomer Sharad Kapoor). Two years after her stunning win, the now-famous Sushmita coldly rebuffs Sule's pleas to pen her signature upon his hand, not realizing that this same man will soon beat to death a stranger whom he witnesses defiling one of her posters. Although tiny alarm bells start to go off in Sushmita's head after Sule sticks his arm through the door of her hotel room and asks her to autograph his hand with a razor blade, it's not until her close friends start getting hacked to death one by one that Sushmita is forced to take the threat seriously.
Enter Inspector Rohit Malhotra (another newcomer, Mukul Dev), who puts a 24-hour protective watch over Sushmita. Naturally, the two develop more than just a professional relationship, especially after Rohit reveals that he was once a fellow dance student of Sushmita's. When the 'ol trace-that-phone-call routine fails to catch the crafty killer, Rohit hatches a plan to fly Sushmita to Seychelles in hopes of luring the killer into the police's well-oiled trap. Unfortunately, Sule manages to outwit the inept policemen once again; he kidnaps Sushmita and takes her to a deserted island, where he believes that his single-minded devotion to her will convince her to fall in love with him.
While it generously borrows plot twists from Costner's The Bodyguard and William Wyler's The Collector, as well as previous Hindi stalker movies like Darr [1993], Dastak also has an inauspicious forerunner in the American made-for-TV movie Miss America: Behind the Crown [1992], which featured then-Miss America Carolyn Sapp portraying herself (unconvincingly) in the autobiographical tale of her lengthy ordeal with an abusive boyfriend. Despite unflattering lighting, make-up, and clothes, Sushmita Sen's triumph as Miss Universe is about the only believable aspect of this exceedingly lackluster thriller. Vikram Bhatt's ragged script (which the credits indicate was "script doctored" by Sachin Bhaumik) staggers from one predictable sequence to the next, with the stalker's increasingly deranged behavior overshadowed by the enormous stupidity of the authorities. One is greatly relieved to see the intense character actor Manoj Bajpai (Satya; Aks) pop up in the film's second half as a Seychelles' policeman, but even he comes off as utterly indifferent to the cornball proceedings at hand.
Sushmita Sen is little more than a life-sized Barbie Doll in the film's first half, but rallies for some effectively dramatic scenes when she deglamorizes herself in the film's latter half. Sharad Kapoor (Josh [2000]) makes for an intermittently creepy psycho, but Mukul Dev is a dull stiff as the lovestruck police officer. Ronnie Monsorate's stock background music only accentuates the film's tawdriness, but Rajesh Roshan does come up with a couple of catchy tunes, including the technopop-ish dance track "Piya Piya" (which has more imaginative visual effects than the rest of the movie combined) and the bouncy "Pal Beet Gaya" -- one of those memorable Bollywood musical interludes in which the hero and heroine suddenly break out in romantic song and dance in order to celebrate the killer's gruesome demise.
Another subpar effort from Eros: numerous speckles, over-saturated colors, poor contrast, and English subtitles that are occasionally out of sync. The songs menu doesn't even display the song titles. If you really must have this film, the out-of-print DEI version is undoubtedly a better choice.
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DVD Specs:
Eros DVD
All Regions
Removable English Subs (songs included)
Trailers for International Khiladi; Lal Badshaah
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