Dangerous Ishq (2012) Movie Review | Storyline | Plot
After making a series of horror films, Vikram Bhatt enters a new zone with DANGEROUS ISHHQ. This one’s about Past Life Regression.
For those not conversant with it, Past Life Regression is one’s expedition, through meditation or hypnosis, into your previous birth. An unsolved past life experience could be distressing in one’s current life. Past Life Regression or Therapy can significantly aid the person in understanding these problems and help them reclaim the quality of life by understanding and altering the root causes of these symptoms. In DANGEROUS ISHHQ, Karisma Kapoor attempts to unravel, through Past Life Regression, the mystery adjoining her past lives.
But this isn’t the first Indian film on this topic. SONAR KELLA aka THE GOLDEN FORTRESS, helmed by the master storyteller Satyajit Ray, was, to my knowledge, the first film to tackle this issue on celluloid. It narrated the story of a small boy who remembered events of his past life. He even mentioned precious jewels in a golden fortress, drawing sketches of battles he had seen.
The strength of DANGEROUS ISHHQ lies is its attention-grabbing plot, which the Indian masses can relate to instantaneously. With Vikram Bhatt at the helm of affairs, who specializes in narrating taut thrillers, you can be assured of a riveting plot with several heart-in-the-mouth moments. But, alas, it’s the screenplay that throws a spanner, with the over-stretched second hour and a formulaic conclusion ruining what Vikram had meticulously put together in the first half.
Supermodel Sanjana [Karisma Kapoor] and Rohan [Rajneish Duggal], son of a business tycoon, are one of the most popular couples on the social circuit. When Sanjana decides against flying to Paris at the last minute for a lucrative modeling assignment, she does so not just because she cannot bear to stay away from her boyfriend Rohan, but because her instincts push her against going. But what her instincts cannot do is stop Rohan from getting kidnapped.
The high-profile kidnapping creates chaos in Sanjana’s life. The kidnappers demand INR 50 crores. Time is of utmost essence. Death stares Rohan in the eye. It is in this extreme trauma that Sanjana discovers something extraordinary. She sees visions of them together — sometime in the past — in different eras.
She is confused initially, but in her visions lies definitive clues that could lead her to save the love of her life. As she follows clue after clue, she gets closer and sometimes further away from the love that has been eluding her through the ages. Would she be able to unravel the past to save her future? Would she be able to rescue her love and expose his true captors?
DANGEROUS ISHHQ has an intriguing plotline and writer Amin Hajee ensures that he keeps the viewer’s interest alive by incorporating episodes that keep you captivated. The sequence at the hospital — Karisma spots a badly injured Rajneish and the portions that follow subsequently — set the ball rolling. The shifts between the past and present, nightmare and actuality are well done. The plot becomes more and more stirring as the reels unfurl, with the portions in the first hour so perfectly executed that one buys into it each stride of the way.
But the movie plummets in the post-interval portions. It’s not the execution of the material that’s faulty, but the screenplay that gets taxing and boring after a point. The Rajasthani episode in this hour has brilliant moments, but at the same time the Meerabai track [portrayed by Gracy Singh] is least convincing. The graph actually goes downhill during the concluding portions, when Vikram Bhatt and writer Amin Hajee decide to unravel the mystery and zero in on the person responsible for the kidnapping. It’s at this point that the film falls like a pack of cards.
Since different eras are being explored, it is imperative that Vikram Bhatt captures the spirit of each period appropriately and though he makes a sincere effort, the writing gives away after a point. Besides, what baffles me is the usage of 3D here. Believe me, there’s not much justification for opting for 3D in DANGEROUS ISHHQ and barring a scene or two, the 3D enthusiasts are sure to be disappointed.
Himesh Reshammiya’s music in DANGEROUS ISHHQ is strictly okay. Barring ‘Tu Hi Rab Tu Hi Dua’, none of the songs have the lasting power to linger in your memory. Girish Dhamija’s dialogue are functional.
Karisma Kapoor puts forth her best efforts, getting to deliver lines in varied dialects. She gets the dialects right, especially Urdu and Rajasthani, but there’s not much scope for her to display her acting prowess. Rajniesh Duggal gets some scope initially, but is sidelined completely in the second hour. Jimmy Shergill impresses as the cop. Divya Dutta does very well, but, again, gets no scope after a point. Ruslaan Mumtaz, Aarya Babbar and Samir Kochhar have bit roles. Ravi Kishan leaves an impression, while Natasha Sinha is perfect. Gracy Singh appears incredibly phony as Meerabai.
On the whole, DANGEROUS ISHHQ is no patch on Vikram Bhatt’s earlier achievements. This fantasy-driven film is an epic disappointment!
