Musafir (2004) User Reviews

U-Turn remake and too flawed at times yet a decent watch

[silvan-desouza · 5/10 · 9 November 2014]

Sanjay Gupta after KAANTE turned a new leaf in his career, which was a remake of Usual Suspects+Reservior Dogs. Musafir is a remake of U-Turn(1997) The film like Kaante has lot of style,sex everything and also a twisted plot. The film keeps you guessing throughout which is a plus point, also there are several twists and turns which keeps you engrossed, the film does get slow paced a bit in second half, Also Sanjay Dutt's character is missing from second half, the climax too is flawed,

Direction is good, but the writing could be tighter even Sanjay Gupta overdoes in style department,too much of style in the film Dialogues by Milap Zaveri are too good

Anil Kapoor gets maximum footage and does a superb job, he looks too good and carries off his part superbly, Sanjay Dutt gets a small role but the best lines and he carries such roles with ease always Aditya Panscholi with a bald head and french beard suits the role and is superb, Sameera Reddy is good in her role,raw in some scenes Mahesh Manjerekar excels in a role which seems tailormade Shakti Kapoor has a brief role and is okay Koena Mitra doesn't impress much Ashwini Kalsekar is good in a brief role

Trippy stuff, if you watch it with the right(?) perspective

[kya_bakwaas · 6/10 · 6 September 2005]

Caveat Lector: May contain spoilers. The 2 Sanjays – Dutt and Gupta collaborate again. Even after a truckload of flops since Aatish, the 2 seem to seek for that one movie which will establish their supremacy. Well, most people may call Musafir the worst movie ever made. I will be kind. I would say – stop comparing Gupta with Orson Welles. Condition yourself to Gupta's movies. Be prepared to find rip-offs of other well known movies and/or scenes thereof. Be prepared to see unabashed corny plots and dialogs and vulgar dialogs. On the plus side, Gupta always manages to get the best technicians to work on his movies – cinematography, sound effects, the works – all world class. Is it Gupta's fault that he doesn't have enough money left to hire a decent scriptwriter after hiring all the technicians? Come on, give him a break.

Nuff said. Back to the review… The characters:- Lucky (Anil Kapoor) is a street-smart crook who always has a soft spot for sexy ladies romping around in negligees. During a con operation (after which he is supposed to quit), Lucky manages to run away with a bag load of cash only to be duped by his "girlfriend" (Koena Mitra) who runs away with the money. Soon, Lucky comes to know that the dough belongs to Billa(The Dutt) – the wackiest gangster in town. Lucky promises to make it up for the losses and after Lucky passes a "Zindagi ka Highway" (Highway of Life) test (which involves running across a busy freeway blindfolded), Billa dispatches him to Goa. Lucky's assignment is to drop a conspicuous looking leather bag at (LOL!) Wacko Jacko's (Shakti Kapoor, after a long gap) place and collect a similar bag full of dough on the way back.

Lucky barely enters Goa and his problems start. He meets the sadist Goan cop Tiger (Aditya Panscholi), who wastes one of Billa's men and worse – he holds a grudge against Lucky because Lucky refused a lift. At Wacko Jacko's Tattoo parlor in Anjuna, Lucky sees the ravishingly sun tanned Sam (Sameera Reddy) who is getting a tattoo done. Smitten by Sam, horny Lucky finally lands up at her place only to discover that she is married to a club owner, Luka (Mahesh Manjrekar). And surprise, Luka wants Sam dead (for whatever reasons). Luka offers to pay Lucky for the assassination. Meanwhile, Lucky finds himself being bugged by Tiger and the rest of Goa police force and ends up losing the dough he was supposed to take back home. So what does he do – he takes up Luka's offer, of course! Or does he? While Lucky is fooling around, Billa rides down to Goa on his Harley and all the hell breaks loose.

Did you just say this is the review of Oliver Stone's "U-Turn"? Well, Sanjay Gupta is a glutton for inspiration, you know. And he owns a DVD Player too. What did you expect – another Sholay? All said and done this is a helluva movie for those who this genre of spaced out corny movies. In fact, there are points in the movie where one is forced to think that the corny lines were written first and the situation was added later to script! LOL!

Now for the performances. To my surprise, the movie had fairly decent performances (sparing the 2 ladies, both were atrocious). Anil Kapoor, with his new rugged getup and crazy hair looks quite the vagabond. Shakti Kapoor is wasted and is limited to a few corny lines. Panscholi, who excels in these angry guy roles (Mahasangram, Aatish) does all the shouting in the movie and is quite OK, IMHO. The guys who take the cake are Sanjay Dutt and Mahesh Manjrekar! Manjrekar is excellent as wife beating sex fiend who had allegedly raped his wife's young sister and does a wonderful job with his facial expressions and his set of corny, risqué lines. Watch him when Sam narrates her story of how he watched her swimming in the pool and also the scene in the van when Lucky drops Sam and Luka back to the place where Sam's car broke down. This guy was born to do such roles. And as for Dutt, IMHO this was one of his best performances ever. His Billa is one of the most spaced-out screen characters in recent Bollywood history. Imagine, a knife-wielding, cigar-smoking mafia don who is obsessed with Bollywood movies and with a great sense of humor – that's Billa for you. He is the chief anchor for this movie. Another plus point of the movie is the cinematography which is brilliant with a music video like look and feel. Fast track background music by Chowta and Vishal-Shekhar is quite effective. Bottom line:- Sanjay Gupta's latest attempt at making a film noir and establish himself as the Quentin Tarantino of Bollywood would have failed miserably BUT there are elements in the movie that one can enjoy just for the "trip value".

Money, Sex and a new look for Anil Kapoor

[Angelus2 · 7/10 · 23 June 2008]

Lucky is a con man who con's a local gangster and decides to celebrate his 'luck' with his girlfriend Lara, only she con's him and takes all the money, literally a second later Lucky gets a call and finds out the gangster he conned is a member of Billa's crew, a notorious gangster.

Lucky then meets Billa who vows to forget the incident if Lucky does him a favour.

The film has the classic songs that make a Bollywood film a Bollywood film. It has great scenery, Goa and fantastic songs that make you hum. The script is a bit of Hollywood movies here and there, too many to name. It has the Lock, Stock feeling. The cast was okay, especially with three veterans of Indian cinema, Anil Kapoor; Sanjay Dutt and Aditya Pancholi, (who looks really good.) One of the moments that I loved was the beginning, a different kind of start to a Bollywood movie, Lucky falls to the ground and confesses what death feels like and what you see before you die. The action scenes like all Bollywood films are a little over the top but its great to see Anil in different type of role, Sanjay is himself playing the gangster roles we have come to know of him.

A good Bollywood movie..... considering what Bollywood is coming up with right now.

Good entertainer for grown-ups

[avinashghosh · 5/10 · 8 June 2005]

Bearing a "resemblance" (or shall we say "inspiration" ?) with the Hollywood thriller "U-Turn", Musafir is a good entertainer. With veterans Sanju Baba and Anil Kapoor, one wouldn't expect any less.

Lucky(Anil Kapoor) is a conman, thief, small-time gangster all rolled into one, having had a orphaned and destitute childhood. He dreams to have a peaceful life and takes all short-cuts to achieve that. One fine morning he wakes up to find that his last con-job went against Billa(Sanju baba), a feared, knife-swinging Mafia Don who would stop at nothing to get his job done. Now, with his partners killed, he has to save himself by carrying out a drug-deal for Billa, in Goa. When he goes to Goa, he is torn between a couple who want to get each other killed and try to use him as the instrument. To rub more salt in his wounds, he accidentally crosses paths with Tiger(Aditya Pancholi) a corrupt, encounter-specialist cop. Throughout the movie, Anil Kapoor's expressions are enough to show his inner feelings.

Sanjay Dutt's mafia-Don image seems to have stuck to him, right from "Vaastav" and "Kaante", but then he carries it so well that it seems nothing less than natural. Anil Kapoor does perfect justice to the character of Lucky, who is smart and rarely loses his cool. Sameera Reddy fails to deliver; I guess she is in it just for the skin-show. I don't know what Shakti Kapoor is doing in this movie ! Mahesh Manjrekar's psycho-type acting is quite good but it seems to be getting stereotyped, these days (remember Kaante and Plan ?) Overall, it doesn't stand-up to the standards of "U-Turn" but a movie worth watching, if U don't have anything else to do. For all Anil Kapoor and Sanju baba's fans, its a treat. The Saki-Saki and Ishq Kariyo Na numbers are simply awesome !

The Kaante team is back and 'Yes' again with a bang

[shehzada0 · 6 February 2005]

The banner white feather films are back with their third product after the successful KAANTE (directed by Sanjay Gupta) and box office dud PLAN (directed by Harish Shetty, once assistant of Sanjay Gupta). But again Sanjay Gupta is back on the directors seat.

Inspired by Oliver Stone's U-TURN (1997; Sean Penn, Nick Nolte, Jennifer Lopez, Billy Bob Thornton) but you can say that Musafir is 100 times better than the original.

Lucky (ANIL KAPOOR) wanted his own house, a wife, a family and starts a new life. Lucky is betrayed by his girlfriend, chased by a drug king Billa (Sanjay Dutt) and sent to Goa to do a drug deal to get his life back. Lucky meets many people in his life , who gives his life a new twist. After that what happens and will he be able to get his life back or death is waiting for him, you have to watch it by yourself.

Vishal-Shekhar's music is another portion that deserves strong marks. 'Ishq Kabhi Kariyo Na', 'Saaki Saaki' and 'Door Se Paas' are already popular and camera work is the best in the Koena Mitra track, ‘Saaki Saaki', which is one of the best erotic number in the Indian films. Cinematography is of first class.

After PUKAR, this is the best performance and award winning performance of ANIL KAPOOR. After MUNNABHAI M.B.B.S., this is again the award winning performance of SANJAY DUTT.

After a long long time, ADITYA PANCHOLI delivered something great though his role was small but still he manage to make his appearance felt and showed that he is one of the best performers of Indian film industry.

After KAANTE, MAHESH MANJREKAR delivered one more confident performance and one can say that he delivers his good only in SANJAY GUPTA movies.

The surprise in this film is SAMEERA REDDYS performance which everybody will agree that this movie should be the launch pad of SAMEERA REDDY instead of the box office dud MAINNE DIL TUJHKO DIYA. She was confident in front of the senior actors.

SHAKTI KAPOOR and KOENA MITRA performances were just about okay.

On the whole, MUSAFIR has style and substance. At the box-office, it will be a sure shot hit and will leave all the previous movies released back. 4 Out of 5 (same as KAANTE)

Not u-turn tho.

[ValleDk · 4/10 · 16 April 2023]

Saw this movie a few hrs ago. And i must say its not the worst movie ever, but at points its really bad.

Its a remake of Hollywood movie U-turn and Bollywood kindda ruined this version. Sanjay dutt was cool, and all that, but the flippin knife all the time gets annoying after a while.

They focused to much on style and less on doing a good job.

Male actors did Well. Females was plain bad, the Dark main Girl looked hot but nothing more, the ending was as expected and it was even worse when the bad guy just takes off, and not claiming what he came for all along.

I remember the songs even tho i didnt Watch the movie back then.

Bollywood never gets a Hollywood remake right.

The Road Less Traveled

[sumit_feb78-1 · 13 December 2004]

The basic plot of the film Musafir (literal translation: Traveler), revolves around Lucky (Kapoor), a small time conman who inadvertently steals a hefty sum from an underworld kingpin, Billa (Dutt), only to lose it to his thieving mistress. Billa has Lucky work off the debt by transporting his narcotics. Thus begins the story of Musafir (the Traveler). Unfortunately though Lucky, the womanizer, can't keep his eyes of luscious ladies and this is where the excitement begins.

Add to this, Sam (Reddy), the damsel in distress; Tiger (Panscholi), the corrupt police officer; Luka (Manjrekar) the domineering husband; and, Whacko Jacko (Shakti) a small time drug dealer; and you have a tinned spaghetti western.

A poor copy of Sean Penn's U-Turn, this movie however does have a few good action sequences, especially from, The Man, Dutt himself and a bunch of corny dialogues. Be sure to check out the sizzling Sameera Reddy and newbie Koena Mitra as Kapoor's mistress.

Superb and Marvellous

[fotrinc · 16 February 2005]

i don't understand how some people criticized this movie..I've seen U-turn last year and b4 i started watching this bollywood fare i had imagined that this must be another crap 4m bollywood...But it really surprised me..Sanjay dutt again lend his unique style to the movie and the flashbak version told by Manjrekar and Sameera had me wondering whats going on...only to realise both of them had their own versions of storytelling...that was uNique!! i watch a lot of Hollywood movies and i always make fun f bollywood movies but this one shut me up!!! every time my step kids picks up a knife they do the Tej Dhaar action...They just love Sanjay dutt..Imagine they don't even know /understand Hindi and they loved this film so much .. That must tell something to those who criticize!!so SHUT UP AND ENJOY ..

Bollywood Goes "Single White Female" on Hollywood !

[elshikh4 · 22 October 2008]

Remember the American movie (Single White Female - 1992)? When (Jennifer Jason Leigh) was psychologically unstable, and went to imitate her roommate (Bridget Fonda) in nearly EVERYTHING! Well, I did remember it while watching (Musafir), whereas it imitates ridiculously American ANYTHING!

Director (Sanjay Gupta), who directed (Musafir) and co-wrote it, ensures whatever you may demand out of a purely commercial movie from the contemporary Indian cinema. And in the same time, his movie represents the majority of Bollywood production in the 2000s, as an ideal example for the shinny bottom that this cinema can reach!

First off, despite any onslaught you may do against (Gupta), you must admit that; with intensive technique, the man delivered what he promised. And what exactly did he promise? "Blood. Money. Sex. Tears. Murder. Betrayal.". Just like the tagline said it frankly.. So "Get the picture?!". But could ripping-off American movies, as well as imitating blindly their atmosphere and style, be a "style" in itself? I think: Yes. However, what a shameful proof of lack that could be!

I liked the old Indian movies. Surely they got their own problems, but at least were more original and more Indian. Now, and especially in (Musafir), it's nothing but American movies, American video clips, American style, and American music. Here, (Sanjay Gupta) made a mix of: A stolen American movie; Oliver Stone's (U Turn - 1997) this time + A gangsta rap singer's music video; overloaded with many girls, golden teeth, undulate smoke, rich limos, loud music, hostile lyrics, and - let's not forget - ice cubes in a glass of wine! + Some of Robert Rodriguez's style (in one sequence it seemed like a Desi Desperado!) + Possible plot concerning an angry Indian Don, filled with enough flying bullets and various corpses. All of that in a colorful, prurient, and psychedelic world that lengthens for - if you can stand - 151 minutes. It's hot, big, and in your face mix that embodies the crime Indian movie as pure American as it could be!

So, what this entertaining movie from the east could say? That the American pop became the pop?! It was like watching an overlapping of broadcasts that included the MTV channel, an American movie channel, and some Indian movie channel; all at once. So if you used to call the flashy pastime flicks a cotton candy, then this is the dope. Seriously, I felt that somebody gave (U Turn) a cheap Indian narcotic to hallucinate all what we watched!

Maybe it says that Bollywood has gone bankrupt. It has thick flamboyant surface and nothing else. For what it is, this is natural. For instance, James Bond movies have thick flamboyant surface and nothing else. But you know what?, Bond movies don't endeavor to be Indian! They have a script of their own, and a world of nonsense of their own. Therefore the numerous references here to Indian classics like (Zanjeer - 1973), or else, weren't only a source of pride, or a homage from movie to another, it was also a kind of desperate affirmation that this is India anyway, or what's left to define it!

Of course it says something about sheer technique just to amuse heavily. But the American movies are already there, so what exactly the Indian filmmakers have to offer?! Actually it looked like an Indian movie written and directed by Americans, or an American movie with Indian language and stars!

Speaking of which, It was scary to see (Anil Kapoor) knocked over by an American coolness storm like this; as if a vengeance of mad stylist hit him badly. (Sanjay Dutt) was the circus's silly clown. I only liked (Sameera Reddy), she was the sole true thing, however put there for just being exploited to the max. The drama was an excuse for too bright, too much, sizzle. And it's, as a whole, a cross between being a cinematic show and a bad joke.

Fairly, if you look at (Musafir), you'll find how it's amusing. But if you look closer, you'll find how it's totally poor also. So Bollywood wants to be Hollywood? Why not being yourself?! It was tragic that (Jennifer Jason Leigh) in (Single White Female) hated her own character, and went to live as another person. And the situation in (Musafir), or rather nowadays' Bollywood, isn't less tragic.

The most Stylized? Maybe! A good movie? Definitely Not!

[sasherwani2 · 29 January 2005]

I am no critic. I watch movies just to have a good time. I don't get paid to criticize or praise a movie. I will not praise a movie just because it has one of my favorite actors, Sanjay Dutt. Sanjay Dutt is one of the top five actors in India on my list ( Others are Naseeruddin Shah, Amir Khan, Irfan and Om Puri). But its sad to see him doing movies like Rudraksh, Plan, Kaante and all these new formula movies. The only purpose of these new movies is to make the viewers believe we are getting closer to Hollywood but in reality we are giving up our originality and wasting talents like Sanjay Dutt with movies like Musafir. Cleavages, Guns, Leather, Silver, Gold, Drugs can look good in a movie if the movies actually has a storyline, a theme, a SCRIPT! Musafir is nothing but a Suzuki engine inside the body of a Lamborghini. Its all looks but no torque. If you liked Kaante then you will probably like this movie because both those movies have something in common, they're both "kool" but have no substance.

total waste of time !

[smaruti · 24 December 2004]

Musafir is a glamorized underworld movie that in summary is simply a waste of time.

It tries to sell on the lewd dances and pseudo-sex scenes, but even there it fails.

If I have to watch a soft porn I will flip on Cinemax but this mindless 150 minute fare is best avoided since there are no other strengths in the flick.

What a waste of time, money and resources. A bunch of washed up actors and desperate actresses thinking they will feed of the uneducated and Riksha Wala Indian audience. Embarrassing stuff coming out of Bollywood !! Boom

Some good - some bad

[moushu · 25 December 2004]

Musafir makes you wonder what is going on?

Some reasons why NOT to watch the movie Filled with absolutely unnecessary songs throughout.

Drug lord singing songs in Limousines?

Unconvincing plot - the whole movie revolves around Bila(Sanjay Dutt) wanting his money - that he gives away at the end??

The movie had a famous 'item bomb' search - which song was the actual item number was difficult to identify - all looked like item numbers to me.(Later realized that the song in the limo - 'Tez dhaar' was the one)

Dead bodies dropping like flies - an no law enforcement agencies searching for the culprits - except Aditya Pancholi - a corrupt cop himself who drops a few bodies left and right.

Story drags in the first half.

Some reasons TO Watch the movie

Brilliant individual performances by all cast - specially Anil Kapoor and Mahesh Manjrekar. Sameera Reddy impresses too.

Wonderful presentation - specially the handling of Lucky(Anil Kapoor ) as he hears both sides of the story from Looka (Mahesh Manjrekar) and Sam (Sameera Reddy)

Humorous in places - specially the satire on Hindi movies - References to Zanjeer, Muqaddar ka sikandar ,Sholay and 'Cops always arrive late - weather real or fake ones' are hilarious.

So go watch it! you will enjoy the popcorn if nothing else!!!