These days, if a film does not batter your brains or offend your sensibilities it is a miracle. Rajiv Menon’s Sapnay is not a great film, but at least it makes you come out of the theatre humming.

It is shot well, has good performances, the songs are excellent and the dance numbers beautifully choreographed. The problems with it are that it is too long and except for the excessively melodramatic ending it is too flat.

You could sit through the film without getting bored, but without getting bored but without reacting too strongly to it either. At best it evokes a cackle or two.

Also the dubbing is defective (it is dubbed from Tamil Minsara Kanavu), so in crucial scenes the dialogue is indistinct. With digital sound of the many speakers go haywire (as they did on the premiere night ) the songs sound off key.

Priya (Kajol) is brought up in a convent after the death of her mother. Her father (Girish Karnad) has no time for her, the care and affection she gets is from the convent’s Mother Superior (Arundhati Nag ) which makes her decide to become a nun.(Though for a pious little brat, she is dressed is tight mini-dresses most of the time!)

The mother rightly ask her to experience life first before shutting herself up in a convent. By the time she is out, Thomas (Arvind Swamy ) the US returned son of her father’s former manager (and now rival) has fallen in love with her.

Since he can’t express himself without getting tied up in knots he requests a smart barber Deva (Prabhu Deva) to get the idea of becoming a nun out of her head and make her agree to marry him.

Deva lives in a shabby chummery with his blind buddy guru (Nasser and a group of youngsters who want to form a band.

Priya who is a good singer is coaxed into joining them because the music company requires a female vocalist).

Priya and Deva fall in love, but to keep his word with Thomas, Deva keeps quiet about it, and almost drives Priya back to the convent in a heart-broken state.

Unlike other films in which rich girls fall for street ruffians Priya’s had any interaction with men in the convent and falls in love with the first man whom she shares a common interest in music and an easy friendship free of class or sexual tension.

The audience’s sympathy tips towards Thomas because he’s such a nice guy and so perfectly suited for Priya.

That’s one feel-good factor about Sapnay- nobody is bad nobody does evil. There are no harsh words spoken and absolutely no violence.

Audiences in the north might find he Catholic milieu a little confusing- specially since most of the characters have Hindu names. But in Kerala and parts of Tamil Nadu, it is quite common for Christians to have Hindu names.

Also Hindi cinema usually has caricature minorities- like Aunty or the villains henchman "Raabert " with a cross on a chain prominently hung around their necks. So they are not used to Catholics who don’t add "maan" to every sentence.

Since you are so grateful for the complete absence of nastiness or crudity in Sapnay, you gladly overlook the few flaws.

Rajiv Menon is a director with urbane sensibility as he almost never (except for one song) stoops to cater to the lowest common denominator.

A city audience familiar with Hollywood musical traditions would identify with the film. Menon is a director who takes our language. His next film will be eagerly awaited.

- Deepa Gahlot in Sunday-Mid-day, 04 May `97.

Sponsors

CyberAds Studio The Difference is People Experienced consulting team assists to oursource your IT projects and Technical Support Help Desk. CyberAds Studio runs an Offshore Software Development Center (ODC) in India and China. Our strengths are in Content Management, Portal Development, Custom Software and application development, Wireless Application Development, Smart Card, Embedded System development, System Integration, Global Project Management and Offshore Software Development Center. Innovative and state-of-the-art website design offering technically-savvy perspectives on corporate communications and web marketing. See examples of our website design. Submit your Resume Apply online for an exciting career with CyberAds Studio in the US, Europe and Brazil and at our offshore software development centers in India and China. View Jobs and Submit Resume

Spear Art Museum Exclusive showcase of contemporary Indian Fine Art with famous paintings of M.F. Husain, Satish Gujral, Laxman Shreshtha, Deepak Shinde, S.H. Raza, Sanjay Bhattacharyya, Prabhakar Barwe, N.S. Bendre, and Anjolie Ela Menon. Visit the SPEAR Art Museum and Gallery.