indya Rating 2/5

Thrillers have not done too well at the box office off late. Johnny Gaddar and Manorama Six Feet Under got critical acclaim but did little to make the producers happy. Woodstock Villa is not likely to do well on either front.

Zara Kampani (Neha Uberoi) asks a stranger Samir (Sikandar) she meets in a pub in Mumbai to kidnap her so that she can find out how much her husband Jatin (Arbaaz Khan) loves her. Samir can’t say no because he is in desperate need of money. He hasn’t paid his rent to his landlord (Shakti Kapoor) for months and also has to return a huge sum of money to a bhai (Gulshan Grover). But in spite of being deep in debt, he spends a lot on designer clothes and accessories.

Zara and Samir plot the former’s kidnap at Woodstock Villa (Zara’s residence). Samir orders Jatin to hand over 50 lakhs to him at a certain location. But Samir has something else in his mind. A womaniser, he falls for Zara and lies to her husband that he has killed her since he brought the police along with him. But when he goes back to the Villa he finds Zara dead. An anonymous caller then threatens him that he has only 30 minutes to bury the body and clear up all the evidence. A shocked Samir somehow manages to do so.

Desperate to get away from the serious trouble he has got himself into, he calls up his friend and asks him to arrange a job for him in Bangalore. Samir arrives there but receives another jolt when he sees Zara performing in a video. He immediately heads back to Mumbai and begins his mission to find out the truth.

Unlike other Sanjay Gupta flicks, Hansal Mehta - directed Woodstock Villa has made a genuine effort to concentrate more on the script. But there are way too many twists and turns due to which the audience gets disinterested midway through the movie. The events leading up to the climax are interesting but it doesn’t do much to salvage the film.

It doesn’t help that the actors look totally out of place. Sikandar tries way too hard to show off a striking screen presence but fails. He doesn’t fall into the category of naturally talented actors and has al long way to go. There are also traces of a raw Abhishek Bachchan, his good friend. Neha Uberoi cannot be judged because she has precious little to do apart from flaunting her hot bod and gyrating to ultra-loud music. Arbaaz Khan’s struggle with acting continues while Gulshan Grover is getting irritatingly repetitive in his don avatar.

The music of Woodstock is high volume as expected but not in the same category of Gupta’s Kaante or Musafir. Sanjay Dutt rocks in the song featuring him and the Aryans.

One aspect where the makers have got it right is the running time which is a little under 2 hours so you aren’t subjected to too much torture.

At the end of the day Woodstock Villa isn’t a bad film and a less complicated script could have made it a more thrilling ride.