Romeo is handsome and Juliet is pretty but that’s simply not enough to recreate the Shakespeare’s classic. The writing department needs to be every strong to get the flavor right. And that is where ‘Issaq’ miserably fails, with hardly any sequences which will hold the attention of the viewer. The movie’s attempt to recreates the classic story artificially. There are some scenes which try very hard to look cute, but fail. Some scenes try to be funny and fail in doing so. Some sequences are supposed to create an atmosphere of sympathy and they fail too. Issaq has plenty of factors going against it. There are only some handful scenes which might impress, but the flawed writing and screenplay overshadows the very few good parts of the flick. The movie shows enough lip-locks, and unfortunately the director presumes that it is more than enough to create a great chemistry.
Talking about performances, Issaq is the epitome of biggest irony. The good performers were given poorly written roles and the bad ones became the leads. Prateik Babbar fails in every frame, he gets. He is a total misfit to the role and barely creates any empathy. Amyra Dastur was OK, and relatively much better performer than her co-star. Prashant Narayanan, who is the most brilliant actor in this whole ensemble, gets a very limited and bland role. Ravi Kishan gets a good amount of screen time relatively, but again it’s the writing that doesn’t show him so effectively. Vineet Kumar also has an important
role, but is wasted. Neena Gupta was over the top. Rajeshwari Sachdev was good as the revenge-seeking widow. Markhand Deshpande was good, and with such a loosely written character, it was a cake-walk for him.
Coming to the technical aspects, cinematography is decent and captures the backdrop well. Background music was good in parts, and bad in some places. Couple of tracks is melodious, and ‘Issaq Tera’ stands out.
Issaq which boasts itself as the Romeo and Juliet set in Banaras is an insult to the Shakespeare’s classic. Beware, this torturous tale whose intent is to sweep our foot off with its love story might makes your feet run away from the seat.
Reviewed by Rag Mayur
