Dear MSians,
As I had mentioned in a comment on my friend, Fenil’s views on the movie before release, I caught the film on Friday, @ Rs.450/ticket, with the family. Needless to state, the movie was a plain rip off at the expense incurred to watch it as it was plain balderdash. The saving grace was some breath taking visuals of places unknown. The songs are few, but hummable and the background score is good.
Deepika looks like a million bucks, but her so called ‘Tamil’ accent, jars on the ears. Since when have people from Tamil Nadu spoken Hindi with an Arab accent eg. Using the female gender to refer to a male like ‘Tum kidhar ko jatee?’ ‘Tum kya kartee?’
The story, or what passes for, goes like this: Rahul (Shahrukh Khan) is a 40 year old unmarried scion of a sweet meat merchant, whose parents have died and is now under the care of his grandparents. His grandpa is a control freak and dominates his life. At the ripe old age of 99, just when he is a few weeks shy of a century, he is watching a crucial cricket match where Sachin is on 99 runs and gets out, missing his century. The old man dies of shock.
Then begins the journey--- The old man has stipulated that his ashes be immersed half in the home town and other half in Rameshwaram (the southernmost tip of the country!) This sort of puts a spanner in the plans of the newly free, Rahul has committed to visit Goa with his band of boys. The plan is to take the ‘Chennai Express’ (don’t ask why someone so affluent would take a train, that too, a non-AC compartment!)since his granny will be coming to see him off at the station, with his friends taking the road to Karjat and him getting off.
Once on the train, a series of DDLJ events viz. Deepika running after the train and him extending his hand and pulling her in followed by a host of uglies….Deepika (Meenamma) is the daughter of a gang lord from down south, who in order to shore up his territory, wants to marry his daughter off to Tangabali (Nikiten Dheer).
Meenamma doesn’t want to marry him so runs off. How she with the help of Rahul, manages to convince her dad and the two of them marry with the consent of all, is what the film is all about.
Considering it is a Rohit Shetty film, it has the stock shots of vehicles being blown up all over the place halfway into the running length, but thankfully, the exaggerated fight sequences as in the earlier movies where people do multiple flips when punched once etc is skipped and the climactic fight scene seems that little bit believable, though Shahrukh’s character (Rahul) is out classed/numbered.
I have a grouse that most of us who don’t speak the language would have; there is too much spoken Tamil throughout the film that continues without the aid of sub-titles, which affects ones comprehension of the flow, at times. Also, why is there a propensity of Hindi filmmakers to showcase these obese, ugly characters from bad camera angles to project them as some grotesque beings? Feel that is not being fair to them.
What I liked:
•The visuals of places as yet unidentified, specially the waterfalls shown in one of the scenes
•The temple scene where married couples have to pray with the groom carrying the bride in his arms up the 300 steps
•The songs ‘Titli’, 1-2-3-4, The Lungi dance (yeah, this features with the closing credits)
•Drunk escape
•No grotesque women!
•The climactic fight with Tangabali (Nikiten Dheer)
•The communication thru songs between Shahrukh & Deepika
•The Sikh police officer
•Shahrukh left adrift in the smugglers dhow
What I didn’t:
•Blatant product placement viz. Sony Experia mobile. Need to draw a line somewhere.
•Horrendous close ups of the toughies
•The grossly inflated ticket prices!
In the final analysis, the kids liked it and I would have recommended it as a one time watch, IF only the tickets were fairly priced.
Having paid a small fortune for a family of four, I would rate it 2.5