Issaq (2013) User Reviews

Issaq : An exhausting affair

[ahwaan_padhee · 2/10 · 30 July 2013]

Touted as the Desi interpretation of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, Manish Tewary's (of the critically acclaimed Dil Dosti etc,2007)Issaq evidently seems to be an ambitious project but is punctured by haphazard screenplay and shoddy editing. Banaras, in all its seductive and photogenic glory, is currently the hot-spot of our Indie filmmakers and Tewary sets the love story in the hinterland with the backdrop of two warring families – The Kashyaps and the Mishras ,whose quest for supremacy in the sand business proves fatal for the lives of the lovers , Rahul Misra(Prateek Babbar) and Bachhi Kashyap(Amyra Dastur).

Issaq has an interesting assortment of characters with potentially intriguing sub-plots but unfortunately none of them are exploited or explored with dedication. For instance, the lustful episode between Bacchi's trigger-happy uncle,Teetas(Ravi Kissan,with the only convincing chops) and her step-mom(Rajeshwari Sachdeva, equally vigorous) is not given due depth or the Naxalite intervention(Prashanth Narayanan , shouting 'laal salaam' to cheer his followers) which looks awfully forced into the narrative.The dynamics between the protagonists doesn't evoke the much-required emotions or empathy and lacks passion to abysmal levels.The dialogues and the diction sometime appear too incoherent and contrived in the semi-rural milieu. Tewary seems to compromise on the uniformity of the storyline with his obsession for stunning visuals and portraying the earthiness of the plot(Makrand Deshpande playing a caricatured Baba, high on the 'herbal' dope).Agree, that violence and gunshots are the need of the hour but they don't traverse through the celluloid passage to our psyche.

Both the lovebirds lack the mettle to carry off the serious scenes in the film. Prateek just doesn't fit into the bill. His diction is bad, acting is awful and he overdoes his love-struck act. Amyra is a damsel in distress,she looks pretty but has to improve substantially if she has to stay in the showbiz. Talented actors like Ravi Kissan, Rajeshwari,Prashanth and Sudhir Pandey don't get to sustain their hamming abilities.

While the editors of the film seemingly had a lazy outing, I just wished the 2 and hours to pass as swiftly as possible. It's such a tedious bore of a film – Stay away from this Issaq. Only the title track,Issaq tera(beautifully rendered by Mohit Chauhan and Smita Jain)deserves repeated listening – that's the only saving grace!

Love!!!!!.......Where???

[dineshprakash · 2/10 · 26 July 2013]

The main plot of film that is love story, which is not well established . One can fall in love at first sight but other person should have some strong reason to respond, if that person knows that the other belongs to rival family. Story is typical stereotype, two rival family but kids are in love. Screenplay and dialogues are not able to make it something different. You won't relate or sympathize with the love story. Script is full of idiotic metaphors. Rather making a scene more expressive it confuses or irritates. A serious conversation is going between father and daughter but father is scratching his back with radish. You would be confused that should you laugh or feel the intensity. A person is shot dead and a fire balloon goes in the sky to the symbol of departing soul but this balloon comes abruptly, it was not shown in a single frame earlier. A person is shot and they show blood stains in fish bowl and on the sculpture. They can take the liberty by saying that it is film then I can also take the liberty to saying all this idiotic. A Police Officer shoots a person very closely and even on his back but he misses the target!! Because the target is Hero!!! Performance wise Prateik Babber is almost blank. Amyra Dastur has only one plus point that is her charming smile. She speaks Hindi with English accent and English with forcefully stuffed local Hindi dialect. Ravi Kissan as Teeta, Prashant Narayan as Naxal Leader and Vineet Kumar Singh as Bihata are good. Music is very good. Title track is very melodious. One song "Bhgan ke rekhan.." suddenly transforms you.

Not even ten percent of what was shown in its promising promos.

[bobbysing · 2/10 · 31 July 2013]

In the recent years, one department in which Hindi films have really shown their professional mastery & ability to impress the viewers right away is their promotional department, with excellence achieved in making a film's theatrical trailers and TV promos. Coming straight to the point, there have been so many instances in the last decade when the promo of a film was so good in its overall appeal and content, but the film was simply nowhere in comparison to the expectations raised from its trailers. In fact most of the times, the film had nothing more than what was already shown in the promos, resulting in a quite disappointing movie in the end, wasting both our money & time together.

Unfortunately, the latest adaptation of Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet" titled ISSAQalso falls in the same category mentioned above (God knows when they will stop making these similar films repeatedly, last one being ISHAQZADEY) which gives you nothing as promised in its well designed promos. The film is a pretty weak product, with an inconsistent story progression wherein you are not able to find any kind of emotional connect with its lead pair or other characters. It begins well with some well shot scenes but then an erratic kind of editing gives you a series of unimpressive sequences with no proper linking at all indicating a bad film ahead. Contradicting its own genre, this is a love story which completely fails to deliver any likable romance to the viewers and has a few childish and weird romantic scenes too missing that must have on- screen chemistry between the two lovers.

Actually as I felt, ISSAQ is a kind of over-confident film in which every sequence, song or action scene has been shot as if they are making a big path breaking film in Bollywood. Its several untimely inserted scenes, give you a strong feeling that they must have edited it, considering it a major epic in the making for sure (with such irregular cuts). The height of its uncanny creative imagination can be easily guessed from the fact that the film also has a fake Sadhu (Makrand Deshpande) who can lift himself from the ground in air and further when these Sadhus start smoking, there comes a text written on the screen saying, "Character Smoking Herbs not Tobacco". A few boys sitting in the row behind mine literally had a good laugh reading that (along with myself) and I was really stunned to see the way we viewers were considered mere fools by this single line written on the screen (by both the makers and the censors).

Smartly promoted as a highly tense love drama full of guns & murders, ISSAQ has simply got nothing to offer before the interval and it continues moving ahead without any specific direction in its second half too. Such is the impact of its many unconvincing scenes that at a few times I really remembered a line from a comedy serial of 80s (Yeh Jo Hai Zindagi) in which Tiku Talsania used to say in anger…….."Yeh Kya Ho Raha Hai?" And probably that should give you a clear idea about the film and its content without any doubts left.

The soundtrack of ISSAQ doesn't add much to the romantic feel of the subject with only one soothing title song and background score tries it too hard (like all other departments) by using more than the required ethnic instruments to give a raw & earthy feel to the film. At times the music becomes a bit over too but the camera-work mostly manages to make its colourful scenes watchable. Still the local warmth and feel of all those Indian locations (Banaras) is strangely not there.

Regarding the performances, ISSAQ can rightly be called an impressive debut movie of Amyra who looks sweet and acts fine in her given role. The girl has got the confidence and spark too which might be visible more brightly in her next ventures. But Prateik is not upto the mark here and needs to make much more efforts to put in some good performances in his coming films. He is not able to win your heart facing all the hardships in the film and thus fails to make an instant connect with the audience playing a spirited lover boy. In the supporting cast, Rajeshwari Sachdeva, Neena Gupta and Ravi Kishan are fine but Prashant Narayan is surprisingly wasted in a very questionable manner. Makrand Deshpande looks silly due to his badly written character but Vineet Kumar Singh & Sudhir Pandey perform well in their few scenes.

In all ISSAQ can easily be called an unexpectedly mediocre product which had a well designed promo, much better than the complete movie itself and there was only one question in my mind as the film got over that, What kind of attempt was this? So consider it strictly avoidable even if you loved its theatrical trailer and title track a lot.

Romeo Juliet died many times with this adaptation

[Punter_Hunter · 2/10 · 1 March 2015]

This movie is supposedly an adaptation of Romeo & Juliet - an eternal love story but here in the movie neither the chemistry and love between the two lead actors - Prateik Babbar and Amyra Dastur has been developed properly nor i think they are competent enough to bring to life an eternal love/Romance. Since one never gets the feeling of a strong bond of love between the lead actor, the whole journey appears pointless.

Apart from that what kind of characters has director developed ? - Father of the heroine , Cousins of hero, the Sadhu baba all appear caricatures and unintentionally funny.Already the movie in first half is so slow that story doesn't seem to move at all and we have boring songs added to make the movie more tiresome.Screenplay is lousy and editing worst.The scenes where the lead visualize were shot in front of green screen looked really cheap and bad.

The only decent act of the movie comes from Ravi Kissen and i mean JUST DECENT. The title song Issaq was also good.

ONE AND ONLY ONE GOOD THING about movie is AMYRA DASTUR who look ravishing that one cant get eyes off her( her acting chops aside). The rating of 2 i am giving is Just for seeing BEAUTIFUL AMYRA , else Movie Deserves ZERO rating.

A Love-Story with a Pinch of Craziness!

[namashi_1 · 6/10 · 4 August 2013]

Manish Tiwary Adapts Shakespeare's Ever-Appealing Romeo & Juliet, with his latest directorial film 'Issaq'. Fortunately, despite its flaws, this Love-Story appeals in parts. The madness as well as the violence in the narrative, leave a mark.

'Issaq' Synopsis: A contemporary adaptation of Romeo and Juliet set in the backdrop of Varanasi in the UP heartland, complete with naxalism, sand mining mafia and of course the timeless love story.

'Issaq' isn't impressive entirely, but some parts of the film, are genuinely interesting. Note the portions when our desi Romeo & Juliet meet & fall in love, or even the violent scenes, where the warring families go head to head with each-other. These portions stand out!

But, there are flaws. The Writing isn't solid, it does engage, but it lacks sharpness in the second-hour, specifically. Also, the excessive running time over a 140-minutes, acts as a deterrent.

Tiwary's Screenplay needed a tougher attitude, but he induces craziness in the Love-Story, which appealed to me. His Direction, on the other-hand, is satisfactory. Cinematography captures the rustic mood of the film well. Editing needed to be crispier. Music by Various Artists, is excellent.

Performance-Wise: Prateik delivers earnestly, but he can work on his expressions & styling. Debutant Amyra Dastur is extremely photogenic & confident. Given the right roles, she can go places. Ravi Kishan, Sudhir Pandey, Amit Sial & Makarand Deshpande are marvelous in supporting roles. Rajeshwari Sachdev enacts the Grey shaded character with brilliance.

On the whole, 'Issaq' holds some appeal.

the best adaptation of Romeo & Juliet in any language

[abhinavsekawari · 10/10 · 11 August 2013]

I have seen Issaq twice. Issaq is a fine follow up to Manish Tiwary's college drama Dil Dosti ETC. I am a big fan of that film. I greatly enjoyed this follow up which takes a regular story and treats it completely differently from any other love stories you will ever seen from Bollywood. The lovers are not doe-eyed. The villains are not without their shades of grey. The mileu is bang on and the scale is huge. The film could easily have revolved around two lovers but the film is full of colourful characters played by important actors of the film industry which raises the bar by several notches. The lead pair Amyra Dastur and Prateik give their all, even if they are ill-placed in a couple of UP scenes. It is clear they do not belong to the place. But that is made up by characters who are around them by dozen. There are friends, Murari and Bihata played superbly by Vineet Kumar and Amit Sial, who bring plateful of humour and male bonding. There is Evelyin Sharma who brings another definition of love before our hero falls in true love.And there are half a dozen villains from macho Teeta Singh, played by Ravi Kissen, his love, Rajeshwari, the naxal leader, Prashant Narayanan and a new actor who is from the UP police force. The most colourful is Baba played with super liveliness by Makrand Despande.

What I loved the most was the humor in the film. Humor not only in humoros scenes but in what are serious scenes. There is always more than meets the eye. You appreciate these elements more in your second viewing as I did. I don't know how good the film is as an adaptation but read that Issaq is the best adaptation of Romeo and Juliet in any language.

I believe it whole-heartedly.