Priyadarshan returns with his old bunch of buddies and same old tricks which by now should be registered under the name of the director as his unique trademark. Putting together few good comedy sequences and then relating them to the corrupt administrative and political system without any basic storyline is a gist of this latest flick offered to us by the veteran. Remaking his own 1988 Malayalam movie, "Vellanakalude Naadu", it seems that the director and his writing team think that they are purely invincible and can go on delivering mediocre products like these to the Hindi Film viewers at frequent intervals.
So, once again we are made to witness a directionless film which is supposed to be a comic satire featuring the famous icon Akshay Kumar. And in all possibilities Akshay will be the only person who will have to face the unfavourable consequences of this weak flick placed on his broad shoulders in this crucial time of his career.
Interestingly the initial half an hour of the movie is pretty good which introduces every character in a fine way and you start liking the new background of government contractors and builders. Akshay completely transforms himself into the role of 'A Munshi' type of character holding his money bag, files and umbrella together. Along with him, both Asrani and Rajpal Yadav come up with few enjoyable sequences in the first half which are able to generate some laughter in the theater.
But after this, what happens can easily be described as a dish whose smell was delicious but the taste was bad. Post its first hour, the movie starts revolving in a circle with confrontation scenes and dialogues repeating themselves and several unwanted plots being added into the narration carrying no entertainment value. In its later part the film actually falls flat due to three main weak points which are both written and directed very casually.
Firstly it's the lifeless love-hate relationship angle between Akshay (the unsuccessful contractor) and Trisha (the Municipal Officer). There is neither any chemistry nor any feel in their story of the past or the present. Moreover the dress designer of Trisha remains pretty confused between her Office get up and the glamorous one. Hence the movie completely fails in its romance part.
Secondly, Priyadarshan's handling of Akshay's sister's character is simply below standards and insensitive. The whole plot of her getting married to the most corrupt politician and then sexually exploited and even killed by her husband is treated in a very hasty manner without any emotional touch. The writers simply move on after her death to the other sub-plots of the script as they were to catch some train in order to reach their homes in time.
And lastly it's the concluding part of the movie in which everything falls in place just like that and Akshay emerges as the good son of the family as expected. In fact Priyadarshan ends the movie like he was forced to do it by the producers in a given length and time.
Besides these, there are songs jumping in from no-where, having nothing to do with the script as usual and actor of the caliber of Johny Lever called in only for one particular scene to add some face value. Pritam's music doesn't rise above the routine and both Cinematography & Art- Direction remind you of many previous movies of the director.
On the performance scale, Akshay is good but its time he should look at his projects half way down the lane to know how they are shaping up. Now he cannot go on relying on the directors alone and will have to put in his own creative inputs to save his huge image. Trisha is just there and not at all impressive in her confusing get ups and acting. The film also wastes a lot of talent in minor roles like Aruna Irani, Makrand Deshpande, Tinnu Anand, Neeraj Vora, Milling Gunaji and Johny Lever. Manoj Joshi keeps shouting as seen many times before in all Priyadarshan comedies. Urvashi in the role of Akshay's sister is OK but the actor playing her corrupt husband shows talent.
In all the film keeps hanging between two different genres of comedy and drama. And there are only three people in it, who give you something to enjoy along with Akshay Kumar namely, Rajpal Yadav, Johny Lever and the one & only Asrani. So you can easily wait for its Home Video release and then simply fast forward the rest of the movie to see all the funny sequences featuring these three actors in "Khatta Meetha". That's all the movie has to offer to the fans of Akshay and his comedy genre.
In the end, I would sincerely like to request Mr. Priyadarshan to please take a break for some time and try to give us another VIRAASAT or HERA PHERI soon.
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