Urban mindscape

Producer: Paul Parmar and Funky Buddha Media

Director: Atul Agnihotri

Writer: Chetan Bhagat

Stars: Salman Khan, Katrina Kaif, Sharman Joshi, Gul Panag, Sohail Khan, Isha Koppikar, Amrita Arora Rating: Two

Plot: Call centre group battling personal and professional issues.

Verdict: The narrative is too static, lacks excitement.

Box office prospects: This city centric film may find fractional patronage of urban youth.

Creative Quotient:

The very premise of Chetan Bhagat's novel One Night @ a Call Centre rustled with excitement as God made a call to the troubled characters of the story, has been marginalised to a brief cliff-hanger scene in the film. But on the whole the story mostly stays close to the original novel.

The story begins in a waiting lounge where rockstar Salman is stranded as his helicopter has broken down. In walks an ethereally beautiful Katrina walks with her lap top and announces that she would tell him a story provided he made a film based on it.

A well-coiffed Salman tells her to go ahead. The story is of a group of call centre workers comprising - a disgruntled Shyam (Sharman) trying to further his career with buddy Vroom(Sohail) whose parents are always at loggerheads with each other, Priyanka(Gul)'s mother is hell bent on arranging an NRI groom for her, Esha (Isha) whose modelling dreams have crashed , Radhika (Amrita) with a nagging saasand a husband working in another city and Military Uncle (Sharat Saxena) a retired military officer in a troubled relationship with his NRI son. Their bigoted boss Bakshi (Dalip Tahil) is a tyrant who will not stop at sacking them to further his own interests. Even as their professional and personal lives are on a derailed they take a break and drive out. Their car skids and gets suspended from the top of a under-construction building. Suspended between life and death, they receive a call from the God. How he shows them the way out of the mess is what Hello is about.

An innovative take on the urban mindscape where moods, temperaments and baser instincts like greed and deceit rear their ugly heads. The concept is interesting but the same cannot be said of the narrative which is not gripping at all times. This urbane subject also lacks universal appeal, it connects only to big city dwellers who are familiar with the call centre lives.

Technical Expertise:

Second time director (he debuted with Salman-Preity starrer Dil Ne Jise Apna Kaha) Atul Agnihotri makes a youth centric, urbane film which is woven well and flows effortlessly. But he fails to bring in the emotional tautenss required to keep the viewer rivetted. The permanent call centre backdrop of the film also gets boring after a while.

All the three heroines are low on glamour and the heroes just about suffice the need. Salman and Katrina's guest appearance cannot alleviate the static pace of the proceedings. Gul Panag's make-up needs drastic improvement. Isha Koppikar's sincere performance as a spaced out youth impresses and so does Sohail's comic strongman. He has a natural comic flair.

Cinematographer Sanjay F Gupta's montages are slick, Munish Sappel's art direction is authentic and editor Umesh Gupta's cuts are effective as he weaves in the multi-track narrative into one coherent story. Sajid Wajid's music is good but it doesn't add to the appeal of the film. On the whole, like the fabled Hollywood goat - 'the book was better than the film' - is the verdict.