What’s up, ‘dock’? You have to salute the Urmila-Dutt dinner on the dock in the second-half of this socially relevant in parts, emotionally elevating morality…tale where Sanjay Dutt, gloriously goofy uncertain and endearing, proposes to the object of his adoration.

The sequence shows great emotional control, comic timing and dramatic subtlety…It builds up splendidly into a spiral of implosive romance.

And Urmila skillfully weaves coquettishness into contrivance to show how a lady can manipulate a man without meaning any harm. The above sequence shows the debutant director Saurabh Kadra’s control of the medium. Alas, this control isn’t evident everywhere. Often times, this valid tale about loan recovery scampers all over the place, quite like those poor debtors being chased by the loan sharks.

At a time when the world faces severe economic recession, EMI sounds a topical alarm bell. Don’t spread your legs further than your blanket. Tragically, the narration doesn’t follow the golden rule of survival. It stumbles at times in trying to over-reach, moving the body of the plot into positions that causes sprained limbs and damaged nerves to the narration. Miraculously every time the four set of characters stumble, director Kadra catches them and puts them back into place. You only wish the characters, lived-in and feeling rather than faking the emotions, would have been located into a more virile and vibrant environment.

Quite clearly Sanjay Dutt’s role, personality and performance are a carryover from the Munnabhai films. Dammit, this till-debt-do-us-pout Munnabhai of the money milieu even has his own Circuit, played by that brilliant actor Dilip Joshi, who, in one or two scenes makes a discernibly prominent impact.

The postures assumed by the plot don’t quite match the sincerity of the actors, all of whom perform with gusto. Arjun Rampal and, surprisingly, Ashish Chaudhary lend a contagious verve to their parts without converting their characters into clownish caricatures. And a word for the seasoned Kulbhushan Kharbanda.

Does he ever disappoint?

While the guys take over the show, Urmila (simply attired and largely natural) and Malaika Arora (hot in the plot) provide the glamour. Malaika’s item songs are forced into the plot, as bonuses for for the creditors? The sense of segmented satirical momentum is kept afloat through the performances.

The dialogues (Nitin Raikwar, T Govind Rajan) capture the desperate energy and the underlining humour of a generation that’s rapidly losing the plot.

Blessedly the film manages to stay on the right track. Never overwhelming in its social message on middleclass extravagance. But managing to make the ends meet from beginning to last without creating the noisy impact of a blast.