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Victoria No. 203

Movie Victoria No. 203 Director Anant Mahadevan Producer Kamal Sadanah Music Viju Shah Cast Om Puri,Anupam Kher,Jimmy Shergill,Preeti Jhangiani,Sonia Mehra,Kamal Sadanah,Javed Jaffrey,Tora

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Remaking a yesteryear hit is considered an easy route for winning plaudits and paisa. With a readymade script at your disposal, all you need to do is cast the right set of actors, hire a director who's equally charged to remake the film and who'd do complete justice to the material, retain the popular songs from the original (if need be) and Presto, the new avatar is ready for public viewing! But the new avatar may not necessarily be as effectual as the original. That holds true for Victoria No 203, directed by Ananth Narayan Mahadevan. It's a great idea to remake a rollicking entertainer like Victoria No 203, but the 2007 interpretation lacks the heart and soul of the original. One of the prime reasons why the original worked was courtesy the fun element, besides packing every available ingredient in those 2 hours. The new version starts off brilliantly, but runs out of breath after the initial 20 minutes. And the graph only goes downhill thereafter. To sum up, this Victoria is hardly a fun ride. Not all diamonds sparkle! Victoria No 203 takes off with a display of diamonds worth Rs. 300 crores. Bobby (Javed Jaffrey), a rich industrialist and his moll Devyani (Preeti Jhangiani), are smitten by the diamonds. Bobby is willing to do anything to acquire them. When the diamond owner denies his offer to buy the diamonds, his ego is hurt. He hires the services of Ranjit (Kamal Sadanah), who in turn hires a burglar, Tora (Tora Khasgir), to steal the diamonds.