Table No. 21

Directed by, Aditya Datt.
 
The film's name alludes to Article 21 of the Indian Constitution; ''Right to life.''

Plot 

Beautiful, materialistic but poor married couple Vivaan (Rajeev Khandelwal) and Siya (Tena Desai) are celebrating their anniversary on the beautiful island of Fiji when they are invited, seemingly by chance, to take part in a ''game'' by mysterious restaurant owner Mr. Khan(Paresh Rawal).  The game is to be telecast live to 8 million viewers via the internet earning Mr. Khan millions of hits and our couple an opportunity to be millionaires. 

But there are rules;  ''you cannot quit'' and ''if you lie, you die.'' Does that sound a little suspicious to you? ...
 
The game as you have probably surmised takes a turn for the worst and becomes increasingly violent and humiliating. Slowly through the use of flashbacks we begin to discover that Mr. Khan may have a vendetta against the couple (Mwahaha).

Subject matter.
The film is anti-ragging; ragging is a practice in Indian university's and schools (and in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Pakistan) where existing students bully or rag on freshers.

Review
Overall; The film works well as an anti-ragging treatise, and certainly the audience is left in no doubt about the seriousness of the practice and the danger of dismissing or trivializing the problem ''as just a game'' or ''the right'' of senior students.

In more detail; the film begins promisingly with a thrilling and intriguing if somewhat bloody suicide attempt reminiscent of Hollywood rather than Bollywood. Tensions rise further when we first meet the intriguingly sly Mr. Khan (a charismatic performance by Rawal), and the game begins. But the build up flat lines soon after and audiences will quickly figure out the slippery Mr. Kahn knows more than he is letting on.

Sympathy for Vivaan and Siya wains early due to their shallowness and materialism, more sympathy would highlight the complexity of ragging and heightened the drama at the end of the film, but both actors give very good and believable performances.

It's a low budget film but feels big budget; helicopter shots, speed boats and luxury hotels and the location of Figi (which looks truly spectacular). The photography really is beautiful and the colours are overwhelmingly vivid this is coupled unending sunshine.  Unfortunately this works against the dark nature of the film arresting the impact and the shocking nature of the subject matter. The muted palette of the flashbacks work better in this respect. The Director also uses some inventive angles for shots some work, some don't.

Summary
The film highlights a difficult problem but fails in areas of suspense and thrills.  However, if you live in Scotland (like me,) and it's winter go and see the film. It may be the only sunshine you will see for 6 months.


Budget: low budget, subsidized by Fijian government

2 stars out of 5.