Koyelaanchal Hindi Movie

Flawed, half-hearted and half-baked. May 8, 2014 By Noyon Jyoti Parasara

As Koyelaanchal reaches interval point, the story is all set for Suniel Shetty to get into his 'Balwaan' mode and bash the goons out of their senses. But that's where the film scores some brownie points as it keeps the actor true to the character.

Another film set against the backdrop of the coal mafia, after the recent Gangs of Wasseypur and Gunday, Koyelaanchal has a few things that work for it. Primary among these are the characters. Though not as edgy and entertaining as Sardar Khan, Ramadhir Singh and Faisal Khan from Anurag Kashyap's GOW, these are far more rooted in reality than Bikram and Bala from Gunday.

The same goes with the dialogues as well. There is a fair amount of work done to keep it real even as attempt is made to keep the humour of the regional dialect.

Koyelaanchal is set in a village called Rajapur in Jharkhand - an epicenter of coal mining. The attempt is to show the corruption and resultant parallel government that a certain mining contractor Suryabhan Singh [Vinod Khanna] runs. When Niseeth Kumar [Suniel Shetty] arrives in the district as the new Collector, he figures he has a lot to do. However he is up against brute forces that will not stop from getting personal to ensure business is on track.

You only wish they used as much work on the screenplay. The film, with a close to one-and half hour second half after a relatively shorter first could have been much shorter if worked on with precision. This is where the director loses way and then there is no looking back.

Many directors develop their signature treatment to a film and Asshu Trikha seems to have his own. His is jarring loud music coupled with weird sound effects. So you have unbearable background music and some strange whiplash sound whenever the Suryabhan Singh is involved in a scene. Add to this some particularly amateurish VFX scenes of blasts and fire. And not to forget the gore that could have been done without.

All this is more than enough to overpower what could have been a decent film into a half-baked half-hearted affair. And some earnest performances by its lead actors don't help. Buy a ticket? No! Definitely not when there are infinitely better films releasing in the same week!