 With the success of Abbas Mustan’s Race, thrillers are gaining momentum. Woodstock Villa by Hansal Mehta is another shocking story that has the capability to raise the goose bumps of the audience. The director has incorporated every masala and techniques of a murder mystery but if every angle of the film is judged, it will fall below expectation. It is a well known fact that song in Hindi film is an inseparable ingredient but in Woodstock Villa, it failed drastically as it does went along the script. The panning and tilting of the camera is praise worthy and shows the director’s capabilty in handling thrillers.
The director has dealt with both experienced actors like Arbaaz Khan, Boman Irani and Shakti Kapoor and newcomers like Sikander Kher and Neha Oberoi. He has been able to extract the positive points of the newcomers in a fine way. The story seems like a transformation from love story to thriller. It is a story of Samir (Sikander Kher) whose pocket is empty and totally drowned in debt but he has a strong obsession for beautiful object and falls for Zara (Neha Oberoi) in the first sight. Neha who is a wife of businessman Jatin (Arbaaz Khan) too inclined towards him and lured him to play a tricky game. Neha wants to measure her husband love for her and with this aim in mind; she hires Samir with high price money to work for her. The story takes a different turn when Neha one day urged Samir to kidnap her and which ultimately followed by her murder. With Neha’s murder, Samir has fallen in a serious trap. Then starts his roller-coaster journey, goes into the depth of the Neha’s murder to proof his innocence. Some sequences seem new and unique while some scenes falls below average. Now coming to the performances, Sikander Kher, son of versatile actors Anupam Kher and Kiron Kher had proved himself a good debutante but still there is some rawness in his acting and requires some polishing which can be done in his future projects. He has the capability to compete in the race of debutantes and to get his name announced in the best debutante nominees for the year 2008. Speaking about the female lead, Neha Oberoi, she has shown a naïve performance. Her expression is horrible and most of her scenes involve dancing and singing. She has been given little scope of enacting. Gulshan Grover did a good job but Shakti Kapoor is wasted. Anupama Varma is just ok. The screenplay by Sanjay Gupta, Rajiv Gopal and S. Farhan are appreciable. Dialogues by Milap Zaveri are not up to the mark. Vikash Nowlakha's cinematography is superior. Amar Mohile's background score is top-notch. On the whole, Woodstock Villa is an average film to watch. In the long race of thrillers, it is expected to lose in the darkness. The unnecessary and heavy loaded songs has pushed the film much behind. In spite of all the ingredients of a murder mystery, the film will fail to collect maximum tickets at the box-office. We can just say Hansal Mehta and Sikander Kher, better try next time.
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