STRIKER MOVIE REVIEW

Rating: 2.5/5

"Serious and hard hitting"



Movie Review : Striker
Rating : 2.5/5
Banner : Studio 18, Indian Films
Cast : Siddharth, Aditya Pancholi, Anupam Kher, Padmapriya, Nicollete Bird, Ankur Vikal, Vidya Malvade, Seema Biswas, Anoop Soni and Others
Music : Shailendra Barve, Amit Trivedi, Yuvan Shankar Raja, Swanand Kirkire, Vishal Bhardwaj Blaaze
Cinematography : P S Vinod
Producer: Chandan Arora
Director: Chandan Arora
Released Date: February 05, 2010
Review
Story

A gripping tale, the story is about Surya (siddharth) who grows in the ghetto of Mumbai along with his family and he develops a liking for carom. The area is controlled by a local don Jaleel (aditya) and due to Surya's brother Chandra (anoop), there are few old settlements to be made. Surya's dreams of going to Dubai fail when he is duped and he gets a blow when his affair with neighbour Noorie (Nicolette) also fails. Surya gets into the game, makes some money on carom gambling but soon comes out and gets back to a new life. However, the past comes back in the form of his childhood friend Zaid (ankur) who gets him back to the game and this time, Surya gets into some serious issues with Jaleel. What happens from there forms the rest of the story.

Presentation
The director has come up with an interesting subject but he failed to keep it intact due to diverse narration. The presentation was good though with decent dialogues, the script was alright but the screenplay was a letdown. Background score was too good and two songs can be taken home. Cinematography was perfect in its angles and lighting, editing was good. Costumes were typical and art department was awesome. Siddharth did a very good job in his role and despite his image, he has done justice. Padmapriya looked sexy and even her performance was confident. Anupam Kher was effective but his role could have been developed better, Aditya Pancholi is excellent and he impresses with his act, yet another top notch performance from Ankur Vikal and others like Anoop Soni (apt), Seema Biswas (excellent), Vidya Malvade (convincing) contributed in their own way.
Conclusion
The film takes off on a bright note with carom in the focus but eventually, it gets drifted into various issues. While the first half is neat and has clarity, the second half gets into something serious and at one point, there are multiple tracks running. The movie suffers due to the very serious subject and its intensity. Few scenes are quite brutal and hardcore. Though the subject and the presentation was nice, it is the content and the execution on a set path that failed. At the box office, this might find a very chosen group of audience so making good money is doubtful.