The film starts with Jackie Shroff (playing farmer Dayal Singh) working the fields with his two cherubs, singing a song the way farmers do in our films with words like dharti maa, dharm and that sort of thing.

The next scene has an illiterate villager who is ruined for borrowing money (his daughter's marriage, naturally) from the evil moneylender.

Frightened of the repercussions of illiteracy, Dayal Singh decides to send one of his sons to the city to study law.

Fifteen years later, Jigar (Sohail) is the 'Jo Bole Pappaji' farmer son who chops off a man’s hand for slapping his father.

On the other hand is Aman (Arbaaz) who is a lawyer and comes to the village with his girlfriend (Dia Mirza) and a bunch of friends. They sing a song comparing villagers to sheher-wallahs, and drink and dance.

Trouble starts when determined businessman Sohan Seth (Dalip Tahil) wants the villagers to sell off their land, and Dayal Singh is against this idea.

While Jigar stands by his father's side, Sohan manages to seduce Aman with job promotions and foreign holidays.

Suddenly, from a family drama, Kisaan u-turns to a maar-dhaad film with the most unpalatable footage. You have to endure seeing a person tossed into flames, a burnt face, slit throats, blood-stained weapons, and deaths-by-dozen.

In fact, most of the last half has this group of men – Dayal Singh, Jigar, and two others – open-haired without turbans striking out at one villain after the other.

Each murder follows the predictable pattern of the group stalking the person, attacking, the struggle and finally the killing. This goes on till the main baddie remains -- The prodigal son returns to finish him off.

Kisaan is full of manipulative tricks even a novice can see through. You have Dayal Singh in the hospital, in contrast to Aman's glitzy party painting him out as the uncaring son.

Plus it's strange that Aman isn't able to smell Sohan Seth’s extravagance in courting him for the obvious reason. The ending is unintentionally hilarious as a character gets shot but behaves like a mosquito bit him, even as the happy family reunion continues.

One wonders if the audience is in the mood to buy a moralistic take on how farmers (frankly, here they are portrayed as crazy, aggressive people who believe in the eye-for-an eye philosophy) are far more valuable than educated professionals.

Plus the storytelling leaves you famished for a reasonable amount of complexity. Among the cast, Sohail Khan appears earnest but his character is one you hardly warm up to.

Jackie Shroff is remarkably good. Arbaaz survives the film with two expressions. Dia Mirza is sprightly and sunny, as is Nauheed Cyrusi who’s quite likeable. Songs are all right.

Seeing the amount of bloodshed in Kisaan, one suspects the makers have titled the film after a ketchup brand, and not after the sons of the soil as the promos proclaim.

Verdict: One-and-a-half stars