Movie Reviews : Issaq

Issaq  Rating: 1.5/5

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Issaq Movie Review

Ratings:1.5/5 Review By: Rajeev Masand Site:CNN IBN (IBNLive)

Issaq', directed by Manish Tiwary has texture, some interesting characters, and a premise ripe with potential. Yet all that is squandered away in this rather literal adaptation of Romeo and Juliet because of an incoherent screenplay and sloppy editing. At nearly two hours and thirty minutes, 'Issaq' is a plodding bore of a film that inspires neither empathy for its romantic leads, nor enough contempt for those who drove them to their tragic end. It's an exhausting and predictable exercise in futility. I'm going with one-and-a-half out of five for 'Issaq'. Shakespeare won't be thrilled. And neither will you.

Ratings:2/5 Review By: Taran Adarsh Site:Bollywood Hungama

ISSAQ banks heavily on guns and violence, as is the demand of the script. Even though the territory of the script is known to all, it's the screenplay that keeps the film moving frame by frame. The narrative does get lengthy and stretched at times, courtesy the loose editing at places. Had the editing been crisper, it would have left an indelible impression for sure. While the first half of the film is slow moving and uneven, the post-interval portions are a bit stretched.On the whole, ISSAQ is absorbing and convincing in parts, not in entirety. The final outcome could've been even more impactful had it not been stretched.

Ratings:1.5/5 Review By: Karan Anshuman Site:Mumbai Mirror

But it is a strange, heavy-handed film that staunchly refuses to entertain until the very end (and even here, you know exactly what's coming). Perhaps it comes at a wrong time when Bollywood is OD'ing (overdosing) on UP-based romances and the audience is tiring. Ishaqzaade is not entirely dissimilar and, even though it's a middling movie on its own, looks every bit a classic when compared to Issaq. Issaq requires tremendous effort and patience to get through (let alone like), and in the end, it is simply not worth it.

Ratings:-- Review By: Komal Nahata Site:ETC

The story, written by Manish Tiwary, Padmaja Thakore Tiwary and Pawan Sony, is oft-repeated and there is no novelty in it. A boy and a girl, from two warring families, falling in love and defying all obstacles to try and unite has been the subject matter of many earlier Hindi films and this one offers the same plot and story. On the whole, Issaq is a dull and dry drama in spite of abundant violence and action in it. It lacks in entertainment value and will, therefore, fail to deliver at the ticket windows.

Ratings:1.5/5 Review By: Madhureeta Mukherjee Site:Times Of India (TOI)

Manish Tiwary's 'Issaq' lacks vibe, soul or depth needed for a classic love story. With incoherent narrative, unsketched characters, wispy (sometimes embarrassing) dialogues, one good melody in the whole ditty (Issaq tera); pointless shooting (mostly in the dark), gold-plated bandooks and bombs galore - Tiwary misses every target. "Love is a smoke made with the fume of sighs ..." - Shakespeare. This love saga leaves us sighing ...

Ratings:1.5/5 Review By: Shubhra Gupta Site:Indian Express

After the recent Raanjhanaa, Varanasi is back in focus in this week's Issaq, as the setting for a love story based on Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. But neither the town nor the author would be grateful for this representation, which stays consistently high-pitched and doused in blood and bullets and melodrama. Issaq sounds like so many of the other recent UP-as-badlands films, without a singular voice of its own. Finally, it drowns in its own noise.

Ratings:1/5 Review By: Raja Sen Site:Rediff

It is a preposterously bad film, a shoddy wannabe that -- despite taking scraps from the table of Shakespearewallah Bhardwaj -- lacks ambition, soul, clarity. In case you were wondering, that title is pronounced iss-suck. And the film takes that last syllable far, far too seriously. This is a monstrosity, a shoddily put-together collection of weakly written scenes that don't even attempt to flow from one scene to the other. The editors may be the chief culprits here, but the leading man must be chastised first. Issaq is, then, an insultingly bad film.

Ratings:1.5/5 Review By: Saibal Chaterjee Site:NDTV

 Issaq, which runs for nearly two and a half hours, suffers from an overload of plots and sub-plots that are peopled with sketchily fleshed out characters that walk into the frame abruptly and vanish just as hastily. As a result, the film feels more like a vengeance saga than the emotionally charged tragedy that it is supposed to be. All that Issaq manages to be, despite all the sparkling compositions that the cinematographer strings together, is an unconvincing story of ill-fated love. It is not at all easy to sit through.

Ratings:-- Review By: Sneha May Francis Site:Emirates24by7

That said, director Manish Tiwary sets out with a safe story that banks on Shakespeare’s tragic romance ‘Romeo and Juliet’. However, he and his co-writers Pawan Sony and Padmaja Thakore Tiwary are unable to retain the simplicity of the classic and end up creating an incoherent love story that stretches over 150 minutes.There are plots and sub-plots, attacks and counter-attacks, and numerous characters that make this revenge saga rather bewildering. While the director might deny any Bollywood influences, it’s tough not to ignore glimpses of ‘Ishaqzaade’ and Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak’ in his canvas. With Bollywood inundated with glorious stories of love, this one just doesn’t make us skip a heartbeat.

Ratings:2/5 Review By: Mohar Basu Site:Koimoi

What’s Good: There is just one good thing in Issaq and that is its picturesque cinematography. What’s Bad: Everything Else. Everything! Watch or Not?: Issaq was indeed a thorough waste. With such a promising idea, the film’s pseudo-artistic style of narration is half baked and dishonest. Barring a few picturesque shots that encapsulate the fascinating charm of Benaras, the film has absolutely nothing more to boast of. Even if you have a lot of time to spare, avoid this; it comes with the price of aspirin.

Ratings:1/5 Review By: Martin D Souza Site:Glamsham

ISSAQ is being touted as the Indian adaption of William Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet. At least Manish Tiwary has been honest here in revealing the source of his story line. But adapting it to suit Bollywood cinematic sensibilities and the times we live in takes another level of creativity. What Tiwary does here is bring the level of Shakespeare's lovers to something akin to a joke.ISSAQ is a love story set in troubled times with troubled families. ISHAQZAADE was the same. Dig out a DVD of this Arjun Kapoor-Parineeti Chopra starrer instead.

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