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 Cast: Harman Baweja, Priyanka Chopra, Boman Irani, Archana Puran Singh

Director: Harry Baweja

Flying cars, talking droids, apartments which change colour according to the occupants’ mood, shell-shaped houses rising from the sea: if you go by the time-scale Harry Baweja sets up for his latest, this is what Mumbai will be like in 2050.

It will also have Priyanka Chopra in flaming red hair, playing a rockstar called Zeisha, performing on a stage high in the air. And debutant hero Harman Baweja, who’s come looking for the love of his life, accompanied by mad scientist uncle Boman Irani, whose time machine they travelled in. A pink-lipped curvaceous robot, QT, names the lovelorn guy Sexy, and a fluffier machine revels in the name of Boo. Only the villain is called Hoshi, a reassuringly ordinary name which doesn’t go with his Darth Vader-like figure. Darth Vader, did you say? Is this a throwback to THAT movie which had THAT bad guy in the mask, laser swords and star wars?

Yes, it is actually. Harry Baweja fashions a dated debut for his son, from bits and pieces of the iconic Lucas movie, tacking on it a tacky love story which starts in 2008. Karan (Harman) and Sana (Priyanka) splash in the rain, squelch in the mud (he thinks ‘phachak, phachak’ is the most romantic word on earth, we kid you not) , and swear janam janam ka saath.

Forty two years on, when they meet, the scarlet-haired Zeisha, who used to be Sana, stars in X-Box games which require her to squeal and screech. That’s all Priyanka, who’s capable of so much more, gets to do. Because this is a star vehicle for Harman, he is onscreen most of the time. But he does nothing to dispel the unfortunate fact that he looks like Hrithik, dances like Hrithik, even delivers dialogue like Hrithik. He seems pleasant enough, but he doesn’t have his lookalike’s presence: maybe he should have asked for a role which didn’t have him as a singing-dancing-romancing hero, in a film which looks like the leftovers of well-known sci-fi flicks.

If this is future, I’ll stick with the present, thank you very much.

shubhra.gupta@gmail.com