Table No. 21

Cast: Paresh Rawal, Rajeev Khandelwal, Tena Desae, Hanif Hilal, Dhruv Ganesh

Director: Aditya Datt

This movie is a crossover between ‘Zinda’ and ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ but without the star cast (Sanjay, John, Lara) of the former and the director of the latter (Danny Boyle). The makers have tried to convey a social message in the shroud of a thriller but both of them fail to make any impact. Object of the movie becomes clear only towards the end. By that time you happen to loose all interest!

Paresh Rawal is an acting stalwart and he dons his hat good enough. Surprisingly, though Rajeev made great impact in his debut movie (Aamir), he is just average in this one. He needs to work a lot on his timing and camera shyness. Tina on the other hand seems to have worked hard in all the departments, but still lacks the X factor. Maybe she will achieve that in time. There is a sense of continuity in all her scenes and she deserves to be applauded for the same. Dhruv has acted very well. Such movies give you the clear idea that small budget multiplex movies by Rajat Kapoor, Ranvir Shorey, Konkona Sen Sharma, Vinay Pathak etc. were hit not just by chance or due to them being in new format, but only and only because of the aforesaid actors.

Social messages may differ in different movies, but it all boils down to the condemnation of exploitation and stripping one of his/her dignity without leaving any route of escape! Rightful and dignified existence is everyone’s birth right and we should be very much instrumental in availing the same for ourselves as well as others. And this implementation should start from home. Any prolonged scenario of injustice is bound to create havoc later and affect multiple lives. So why not curb it in the initial stage itself?