Crook - It's Good To Be Bad movie review. Once again we get to see Emraan Hashmi playing a guy high on ambition and low on morals. Once again we see the Bhatts tackling a topic that’s taken straight from recent newspaper headlines. Racist attacks against Indians in Australia is the subject of director Mohit Suri’s film Crook: It's Good To Be Bad, but the movie takes its own sweet time to come to the point. It keeps zig-zagging into the romantic and sex life of the amoral protagonist who’s desperate for Australian residency, but also unfaithful to the girl who can ensure it for him.
Jai (Emraan) has a troubled past in India. To get rid of it he lands in Melbourne, illegally though, with the hope of starting life afresh. At the airport only, he sees his ticket to his OZ dream. Suhani (Neha Sharma), an Indian living in Australia. She is the host of a radio show that aims to bring the Indians and Aussies together. Her hot-headed brother Samarth (Arjan Bajwa), however, is opinionated against every Aussie.
For a good part of the first half of Crook, Jai, pretending as Suraj, weaves a love story with Suhani but beds an Aussie stripper. The two-faced rogue is exposed when he is embroiled in a racist attack.
Jai’s dilemma now is whether he should join the Indian camp, headed by Samarth, against the Aussie gang, or be a neutral party and bring about reconciliation between the two warring gangs. Or still better, should he remain indifferent to all that’s going around and just chill out.
Director Mohit Suri’s intention may have been noble but the off-handed way in which he has treated a sensitive subject like racism makes Crook look like a farce. The first half focuses mostly on Emraan’s romantic escapades. The humour that comes now and then is purely of pedestrian quality, and the songs by Pritam are average at best.
The plot thickens in the second half, but then again, the convenient but hard-to-digest climax (the sudden change of hearts in both Aussie and Indian gangs) and the built-up to it hardly merit a serious thought from a viewer.
Emraan Hashmi replays the character he’s played in many films before - the unscrupulous liar who beds one woman and makes promises to another, who cares a hoot for the problems of the world, who’s driven towards big bucks and bodily pleasures. It’s a role Emraan can sleepwalk through. Neha Sharma makes a notable debut but delivers nothing stellar in terms of acting. Arjan Bajwa is left frowning, frothing and fuming for most part of his role. Shella, playing the Aussie stripper, does leave a mark in a small role. Gulshan Grover, as Emraan’s uncle is reduced to the margins.
All in all, ‘Crook’ is neither good nor bad. It’s tackily made, but gives out a pertinent message - that Indians are no less racist than Australians.
Rating: 2 stars out of 5
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