RUSH Review

RUSH Percept Picture Company and Showman International’s Rush (UA) is the story of an honest television news reporter, Samar Grover (Emraan Hashmi), who works for Pulse 365 channel. One day, he interviews a sharpshooter who has committed a number of murders. No sooner is the interview aired than his boss, Ashok Mehra (Shishir Sharma), changes his stand because of pressure from the main financier of his channel. Samar leaves his job but is lucky to get a far more lucrative job offer. Lisa Kapoor (Neha Dhupia), who works for Crime 24 news channel, offers Samar, on behalf of her boss, Roger Khanna (Aditya Pancholi), the post of the channel’s editor-in-chief. At first hesitant, Samar finally accepts the offer and joins the channel. He gets a fantastic pay packet which includes excellent perquisites. Samar and his live-in girlfriend, Aahana Sharma (Sagarika Ghatge), shift into a new swanky apartment provided by the Crime 24 channel. However, Samar soon realises that the channel owner, Roger Khanna, is not a clean guy and that he has committed a grave mistake by taking up the job. He also encounters Kujo (Rahul Singh) who works for Roger. But before Samar can rectify his mistake, Aahana is kidnapped. Who has kippnapped Aahana and why? What is it that Samar learns about Roger Khanna that he wants to quit the channel? Does he actually quit or does he have a change of heart? Is Samar able to save Aahana? What happens to Roger Khanna, Lisa Kapoor and Kujo? Shamin Desai’s story is quite clichéd and does not have much of excitement. The screenplay, also penned by Shamin Desai, is routine and compri­ses predictable scenes. The entire drama is so slow and long-drawn that it fails to involve the viewer. By its very nature, the story about journalists, journalism, news channels and their TRPs holds sectional appeal only. To add to that is the rather dull and unexciting drama which has been woven around it. None of the characters has been established well enough for the audience to even expect that there would be content to revel in, making the drama that much more unexciting. The film has long been in the making, and that shows. Scenes seem to have been cut abruptly, giving the impression of inept handling. Dialogues (Shamin Desai and Sanjay Masoom) are commonplace at times and fair at other times. Viewed differently, the film has almost no romance, meek comedy, lacklustre drama and zero emotions. Even the climax is hurried. Emraan Hashmi approaches the role of a journalist like he would, any other role. Although his charisma is likeable, his performance is just fair. Sagarika Ghatge is quite alright in a role that gives her limited scope. Neha Dhupia is earnest. Aditya Pancholi gives a routine account of himself, adding nothing to the character, which the audience can carry home. Rahul Singh is okay. Murali Sharma is very natural. Alekh Sangal does a fair job in a very brief role as Rikin. Ashok Banthia is alright. Shivani Tengsale Kamyani (as Samar’s co-worker at Pulse 365) leaves a mark. Anuj Tikku, Digvijay Purohit, Kevin and Alka Verma lend fair support. Shamin Desai’s direction and nar­rative style do nothing to add to the ordinary drama. Instead of providing edge-of-the-seat thrills, the drama seems too laidback to be true. Pritam Chakraborty’s music comprises some well-tuned songs but they haven’t been popularised well enough. ‘Mumkin nahin’, ‘Fukra’, ‘Pehle kabhi’ and ‘O re khuda’ are well-tuned numbers but the absence of hit music, which the audience has come to expect in an Emraan Hashmi starrer, will be felt. Lyrics (Kumaar, Saeed Quadri and Ashish Pandit) are appropriate. Song picturisations (Sandip Soparkar, Raju Khan, Uma, Geiti) are nothing to shout about. Tanuj Tiku’s background music is ordinary. Gary Shaw and Shiraz Bhattacharya’s camerawork is quite nice. Action scenes (Jimmy Lowe) are routine. Sets (Ajay Jadhav) are commonplace. Editing (Aarif Shaikh) should’ve been sharper. On the whole, Rush is too routine a fare to make its mark at the box-office. It is only Emraan Hashmi’s stardom which will prevent it from going completely unnoticed. Flop!