Fever's a thriller so awful that it's enjoyable

There was a time when amnesia or memory loss was a popular plot device in Bollywood films - mostly in romantic films and sometimes in action movies too (Mithun Chakraborty suffered from amnesia in some of his B-grade revenge films) - the most recent and memorable being Ghajini.

This week's release, Fever, directed by Rajeev Jhaveri, starring Rajeev Khandelwal as a desi wannabe amnesiac Jason Bourne, has him prance around with three sexy women.

Hardly anyone would remember a film called Prince, not even its leading man, Vivek Oberoi, even though it is not all that old - it was released in 2010; a film so awful that it was enjoyable - in which he loses his memory and prances about with three sexy women.

It's just bad luck for Oberoi that he got saddled with a film for which he is so clearly unsuited.

To pull off the non-stop nonsense that goes on in Kookie Gulati's Prince, a guy had to be cute like Matt 'Bourne' Damon, or sexy like Daniel 'Bond' Craig - Oberoi is neither.

He looked weird in black patent leather amid Batman-like gadgetry.

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He played a thief, who wakes up one morning with total memory loss.

All the fuss and bother is over a gold coin that has a chip embedded in it. This chip has memory-altering functions that can be used, as the villain says, to conquer the world.

It is used to erase the memory of Prince, and every time he is in a stressful situation, he clutches his head, twitches and faints.

Not much of a 'hero' - also too many 'duh' moments for his own good.

Seeking the coin is villain Sarang (Isaiah) with a bionic limb, the CBI represented by Khan (Sanjay Kapoor) and a top-secret government organisation called IGRIP - so secret that its gunmen wear jackets with the name embossed.

There are also three women called Maya trying (and failing) to sex up the proceedings - Neeru Singh, Nandana Dev Sen and Aruna Shields.

Prince, with a puzzled frown on his face, is hurtled from one misadventure to another - and all the action takes place in South Africa, with the local police not even batting an eyelid at the mayhem taking place in their backyard. (Fever is set in Switzerland).

The sad fact is that Bollywood may be able to copy Hollywood action (and stunt director Allan Amin did a lot more than all the actors and the director put together), but cannot come up with scripts to match the gizmos on screen.

Prince and now Fever just end up slipping out of the audience's mind.