Bobby Deol is a genius cancer specialist named Duke Chawla. That itself should give you some idea what Vada Raha has in store for you. I'm not sure where Duke lives-the action cuts from Grecian ruins to snazzy yachts in dazzling blue seas to a Sardar neighbour.

But Duke is successful, in love and seriously happy. Of course it can't last. One rainy night, Duke has an accident and ends up in a hospital bed with neck-down paralysis. His love interest, played by Kangana Ranaut, promptly dumps him and Duke becomes a bitter man, who in one unintentionally hilarious scene, tries to commit suicide by chewing on his IV tubes.

A precocious child, played by Dwij Yadav, brings the light back into Duke's life by teaching him the importance of hope and love. In case you still haven't got the point, the kid is called Roshan.

The film, which is inspired by a Russian fable, could have been a reasonably moving hospital drama. But director Sameer Karnik, who also co-wrote the screenplay and dialogue, creates a dim-witted, staggeringly tedious soap opera. Duke's supine condition is an endurance test, not just for him but also for us.

To begin with, the medical situations in Vada Raha are comically disconnected from reality. At one point, Duke, still paralysed, supervises a heart operation from his hospital bed, because there are no heart surgeons available at the hospital. He gives instructions like: position the valve, make the incision. And if that isn't enough--Duke then begins to do research on bone marrow cancer, again from the bed.

He stares hard at the computer screens and says: Eureka I've done it. Yes, Duke has found the cure for cancer. The actors can't shore up the story much. I think Kangana decided to make up for the brevity of her role by applying as much eye make-up as is humanely possible. Bobby works hard to be convincing but the outlandish plot outdoes him.

The role also requires him to weep copiously on screen. Some men can pull off full-frontal crying but Bobby isn't one of them. Vada Raha has little to offer. I'm going with two stars.