Ho-humbug!

Komal Nahta

Suffering from gang war withdrawalosis?

Watch Megha Arts' Hadh.

Oh, and to cut the monotony, there is the additional subplot of an illegitimate child deserted by his mother after she gets married to a topnotch police officer. The child grows up hating his mother.

He becomes an underworld don being tracked by the same police officer. The don puts an end to the gang wars by killing the rival don, after which he surrenders to the police.

Before that, he also forgives his mother, who acknowledges in front of everybody that he is her child.

The film is a hopeless exercise which boasts of shoddy writing (Shyam Soni) and slipshod direction (Thampy Kannamthanam). The emotions fail to touch the heart for the simple reason that the pain of separation of the mother and child is sought to be established through dialogues more than by scenes.

The romantic track of the don's ward, whom he treats like a brother, is dull and dreary, and the climax extremely routine.

The dialogues are as poor as the screenplay. And continuity is conspicuous by its absence -- there are jerks galore.

Jackie Shroff tries to infuse life in some scenes with a spirited performance, and does well. Sharad Kapoor makes a weak hero. Watching him dance is sheer tragedy. Suman Ranganathan does precious little other than expose herself. And Ayesha Julka has no role worth a mention.

Her death in the climax is established by a mere dialogue even though she plays the hero, Jackie Shroff's wife, in the film!

Vikram Gokhale is effective as the police officer. Kiran Kumar plays the rival don in a routine manner, though with a lot of gusto. His Bhendi ka beej dialogue appeals for a while but then it gets so repetitive that the same reference gets on the viewers' nerves.

The direction is listless. Viju Shah's music is too ordinary to deserve a mention. A couple of romantic songs picturised on Sharad Kapoor and Suman Ranganathan could have been easily trimmed if not chopped off completely.

Action (Rambo Rajkumar and Ilyas Shaikh) is routine. Cinematography is ordinary.

On the whole, Hadh inflicts limitless boredom on the viewer and will, therefore, meet with a disastrous fate at the ticket windows.