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Review: Anubhav
Don’t let the poster fool you with its grim faces and intense expressions —this one’s howlarious. Right from its opening sequence, with a cheesy starlet splashing around in a bathtub — dressed in a bikini. Then we discover the guy she’s with is a gigolo named Anubhav Malhotra, writes Shashi Baliga.
Anubhav: An Actor’s Tale
Cast: Sanjay Suri, Gul Panag, Raj Zutshi
Direction: Rajeevnath
Rating: *
Don’t let the poster fool you with its grim faces and intense expressions —this one’s howlarious. Right from its opening sequence, with a cheesy starlet splashing around in a bathtub — dressed in a bikini. Then we discover the guy she’s with is a gigolo named Anubhav Malhotra (Sanjay Suri).
A rather sad one, though, because he’s had to do this to raise Rs 20 lakh to pay for his infant daughter’s operation, and he doesn’t enjoy it one bit. “All prostitutes are actors,” he tells a client grimly; to a friend he offers a profound insight: “Love that is bought stinks like rotten fish.”
In spite of this morose approach, we’re told Anubhav is one of the priciest performers in Mumbai. (We’re never told his rate, though.) Among his conquests are Sudha Chandran as a randy TV actress with grotesque makeup, Mita Vashist as a dipsomaniacal doctor and assorted desperate housewives in different stages of undress.
As he goes from melancholic success to success, Anubhav loses interest in his pretty wife Meera (Gul Panag). Which leads to the, er, climax, which in turn, turns out to be a complete howler. Gul Panag and Sanjay Suri try to be sincere, but with everything else stacked against them, it’s no go.
