When a film promises to be acomic caper and is made bythe protégé of comedy king Govinda, you automatically raise the bar. Unfortunately, Rajnish Raj Thakur’s Loot is a disappointment. The director and his writers have done a tedious job, leaving you no choice but to call this venture a hoax.

Loot is the story of a bunch of crooks. Pandit (Govinda) and Akbar (Jaaved Jaaferi) are thieves who steal art andantiques for Baatliwala (Dalip Tahil). Fedup with their ineffectiveness, Baatliwala offers them one last job: to steal some jewels from Pattaya.

Baatliwala asks Builder (Suniel Shetty) and his henchman Wilson (Mahakshay Chakraborty) to accompany Pandit andAkbar in their mission. Things go awry and they end up robbing the wrong house– and a mafia don Lala (Mahesh Manjrekar), is now baying for blood. Meanwhile, a RAW agent (Ravi Kissen) and his girlfriend Tanya (Shweta Bhardwaj) have aplan of their own. They want to use these thugs totheir advantage. How the story unfolds forms the crux of the film.

Director Rajnish Raj Thakur fails to make this a real comedy. He also fails to tap into the full potential of his actors, leaving out monotonous actions and vague reactions from the ensemble cast. Also, there is a series of loopholes in the plot. There are too many loose ends and the sub-plots fail to connect. As for the gags and punches, we’ve seen them all, several times over, and it’s a mystery how the makers of this film can pretend to have made a comedy.

Though the basic premise looks promising, the way the film has been presented on paper (screenplay) and projected on screen is not quite as impressive. The film is good in parts but, for the most part, fails to impress.

The first half is lackluster and the dialogue vague and repetitive. It does pick up pace in the second half but the climax is a monumental disaster. Cinematography is average. Editing could have been sharp. Background score is decent.

Performance-wise, Govinda delivers a dominant performance. Mahakshay Chakraborty is irksome, and his body language bizarre. Suniel Shetty is good. Jaaved Jaaferi injects some much-needed life into the story. Prem Chopra does not have much to do but emotes eloquently. Mahesh Manjrekar is amusing and plays his part with panache. Mika Singh, who makes his debut with this film is good. The rest of the cast provides adequate support.

Verdict: There’s some hope for this movie in B and C class centers but that’s about it.