Table No. 21

Rating : 5/10
Release Date : 4th January, 2013
Time : 108 minutes
Director : Aditya Datt; Writer :Shantanu and Sheershak; Music: Gajendra Verma, Sachin Gupta
Starring : Rajeev Khandelwal, Tena Desae, Paresh Rawal

As they say, when its too good to be true, it usually is. In Table No 21, Rajeev Khandelwal and his wife, Tena Desae are in Fiji thanks to a win in a lucky draw. He is jobless, she supportive, emotionally and financially and both are enjoying the sun, sand and surf when they are pleasantly surprised to be invited to a exotic lunch on their anniversary. Paresh Rawal, the owner of the resort, now introduces them to a game. 8 questions about themselves, 8 tasks. All covered live via several cameras for a website. And the prize money is Rs 21 crore ! Only conditions are they don’t lie (checked by lie detectors) and they cannot leave the game midway or ask for external help.

As expected, the questions and tasks start off nice and easy but rapidly become uncomfortable and then move on to just plain nasty. Our young couple go through many a hoop, moral dilemma and life threatening situation. Paresh Rawal is clearly toying with them. But for what ? Will they escape the game with their love, sanity or life intact ?

I liked the core message at the end, and parts of the end itself, predictable though it was. It felt a little heavy handed and the entire movie a bit contrived (shades of Old Boy, the Korean film) but the scenery is good, the performances reasonable (Paresh excellent, Rajeev good, Tena average, though she makes up via more than one revealing dress flaunting her fine figure). The length drags a bit, the viewing awkward in parts and it definitely isn’t for the squeamish.

This is one of the first few releases of Hindi films shot in Fiji, with a literal stampede to the islands occurring in 2012, thanks to a Fijian subsidy being announced. The locales are lovely, every bit what you would expect from a Pacific paradise and I guess, if the subject matter doesn’t disagree with you, its worth a watch just for that reason alone.