Rating :*

The best part of Guddu Dhanoa's delayed eruption of exacerbated violence is the Sultan Khan-Zubin Garg music video played with the end titles.

But by then it's too late.

Assorted villains appear in various stages of this cut-n-paste bone-crusher. They represent various phases in the narrative's gasping, wheezing existence. They also try to cover up for the film's outdated pre-"Lage Raho Munna Bhai" thesis of social justice.

Sunny Deol still throws a mind-boggling punch. This is a film where Sunny's legendary punches go a lot deeper. Goons, who throw acid on hapless girls' faces, are buried alive in the sand with one punch.

Wanna one-way ticket to dhoom-filled doon? Check out the rapes, murders, lynching and looting in "Big Brother", you could fall over your chair just hearing the hyper-strung insistent and cacophonic soundtrack that qualifies the constant search for brute force.

The film has two seamless halves done as an ode to the spirit of the vigilante. The hero, ironically named Gandhi, believes in a high for a high and an uncouth for an uncouth.

The narrative is plastered with reporters pressing microphones into our hero's face until he doesn't know where to look. Certainly, not the mirror where Sunny would have seen two looks that the plot has given him - one with a dishevelled wig and the other with a more manageable hairpiece.

In both cases Sunny towers over the proceedings. Surprisingly, the second-most important character is mama Farida Jalal, whose one stern twitch drives Sunny boy into a wild orgy of revenge.

Priyanka, though hardly there, wears her middle class saris and coy glances with surprising aplomb and a look of respectful detachment. She has been better photographed here than in all her other recent films.

Among the villains Sayaji Shinde has the best lines. And he uses his cheesy character to butter up the dry script, giving us a kind of running commentary on the trite conventions of Hindi cinema, mocking them while using them to carry the creaking saga forward.

The noise level and the constant harping on violent means to get even with anti-socials makes you wonder which is worse - the malaise or the cure. Either way, "Big Brother" is only recommended for those who are die-hard fans of the Guddu Dhanoa-Sunny Deol pair.

The less said about the clamorous bhangra and other item songs, the better.