Film Review: Ishq Junoon

If the tagline of the film ‘One girl, two guys — the heat is on’ and promo posters of the film are to be taken as gospel, the filmmakers have attempted to rewrite a basic English idiom into ‘Two’s a crowd, three’s company’. Fortunately or unfortunately (depending on your preference), that’s not the case.

In director Sanjay Sharma’s (brother of filmmaker Anil Sharma) fifth outing, we have Pakshi (debutante Divya Singh) defying her parents and wanting to be an air-hostess. Coming down to Mumbai and being interviewed by a Naresh Goyal lookalike, the impudent Pakshi walks out on the prurient interviewer.

Sharma would have done well to have abided by the casting couch hypothesis. Instead, the nearly two-hour film dwells on a licentious female who’s prepared to go to any (horizontal) length to achieve her objective. And it’s love at second sight when she hops into Raj’s (Rajbeer Singh) car — well, the first time she didn’t have a clue to his wealth. From here, the film goes downhill and predictable (apart from the couple of twists and turns — literally and figuratively).  To say that Rajbeer Singh’s laboured dialogue delivery and his contrived laughter accompanied by ‘I got you’ are a pain, would be stating the obvious. And with some formulaic and tawdry dialogues, ‘I don’t know horse riding, but all other riding I know’, the film proceeds along expected lines. The viewer is shown the owners of a 3000 acre estate gorging on the lowly Red Label — guess the newbie actors didn’t deserve better.

Ishq Junoon is infused with characters who have more brawn than morals.  The saving grace is scenic Kulu Manali where the film is largely shot.