Makes you wonder what happened to films like Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam, Khamoshi, Rangeela, Ghulam and Satya.

2002 was disastrous for Hindi cinema. And while the film industry hems and haws on the reasons why the fact is no filmmaker today will admit to the fact that audiences have simply been treated to substandard, recycled fare.

After Taal, Subhash Ghai redid the ‘sacrifice for love' in Yaadein. David Dhawan fell back on his Hero No 1 formula with Govinda and came up with the trashy Waah! Tera Kya Kehna. Mahesh Manjrekar got so carried away with Vaastav that he made its sequel Hathyar.

Suneel Darshan follows suit with Talaash, hoping to repeat the magic with Akshay Kumar (the duo worked in Jaanwar and Ek Rishtaa – Ek Bond Of Love).

If you measure the film by regular Bollywood standards -- action, lots of songs, beautiful locales and curvy heroine -- Talaash ranks right there at the top.

View it as a film, and you realise it ranks right there with the worst films ever made.

The performances are terrible. Raakhee, Dalip Tahil and Ashish Vidyarthi are wasted. Akshay Kumar is sincere. But since when was flexing muscles a standard for good acting? 

In a recent interview, Darshan said he was proud of Kareena's performance in the film. I wonder what exactly he was proud of. That she showed a lot of skin? Or that she pouted and preened enough? Her contribution is just what the posters indicate: decorating Akshay's arms.

The songs, besides being boring, pop up at the wrong places and slacken the film's already tepid pace. Sanjeev-Darshan would do better to stop imitating their father Shravan (one-half of Nadeem-Shravan) and compose something original.

2003's first big release was looked on by the industry as a prospective hit. For me, it is an unqualified flop.