The director of Hera Pheri and Hungama is again with his another entertainment Hulchul. Featuring a whole bunch of actors ranging from Akshaye Khanna, Kareena Kapoor, Jackie Shroff, Suniel Shetty to Paresh Rawal, Amrish Puri, Arshad Warsi and Arbaaz Khan. This movie of Priyadarshan churns out a film that’s enjoyable in most parts.
Yes, discrepancies do seep in. Treat this film as an entertainer, without taxing your brains, and chances are you’d enjoy the film thoroughly!
Hulchul is about two warring families and their never-ending rivalry.
Fiery Angaarchand [Amrish Puri] and his family of four sons [Jackie Shroff, Paresh Rawal, Arbaaz Khan and Akshaye Khanna] have taken a vow to stay away from women because of a past family tragedy. The mere mention of the opposite sex is strictly prohibited in their family. Actually, it’s the battle over a woman that resulted in the entire dispute between the two families.
Lakshmidevi [Lakshmi] is waiting for an opportunity to seek revenge from Angaarchand and his family. By luck, Angaarchand’s youngest son, Jai [Akshaye Khanna], and Lakshmidevi’s grand-daughter, Anjali [Kareena Kapoor], study in the same college. Then starts the game of cheating
Both Jai and Anjali pretend to fall in love with each other to seek revenge for their respective families. And to help in all the pranks comes Jai’s best friend, the troublemaker Lucky [Arshad Warsi]. But somewhere down the line, all this play becomes serious and the two actually begin to develop true feelings for each other.
A remake of the Malayalam hit GODFATHER, Priyadarshan follows two schools of film-making in HULCHUL. The first is the South formula that brings to your memory the family entertain. And the second school is the one invented by himself, where logic takes a complete backseat and all that matters is providing non-stop entertainment.
HULCHUL can be divided into two parts. The first half focuses on comical situations, the humour is the type that would appeal to the common man instantly. And credit goes largely to a smart and tactful screenplay [Neeraj Vora], brilliantly penned dialogues [K.P. Saxena] and the two performances that dominate this half- Akshaye Khanna and Arshad Warsi.
It wouldn’t be wrong to say that the first half of the enterprise is so thoroughly entertaining, so thoroughly enjoyable that you wait with bated breath for the reels of the second half to unfold.
The post-interval portions do start on a similar note, but the story changes tracks gradually. It now becomes a clash of two egos and the game of one-upmanship takes over. Actually, the story starts moving in an altogether new zone and that’s where things stagnate.
The story is enjoyable till Amrish Puri learns of Paresh Rawal’s marriage. But the goings-on thereafter loosen the pace to an extent. Right from Amrish Puri throwing Paresh and Akshaye out of the house to Amrish Puri agreeing to guard the entrance of the marriage venue, besides the fight between the four brothers [Jackie, Paresh, Arbaaz, Akshaye] in the market, are not as striking.
Also, the item song and the fight thereafter look so odd in the narrative that it’s highly recommended to delete the portions right away. That would only stimulate the proceedings.
The entire climax - right from Paresh, Akshaye, Farha, Arshad pretend to be cooks, to the mangalsutra sequence follows the same pattern as in HUNGAMA [electric shocks]. It’s the type that would appeal to the masses instantaneously. The Manoj Joshi portion in the marriage also entertaining.
Vidyasagar’s music is just about okay. All the songs are not really appeal except Rafta Rafta and Isqe may pyar may.
Performances from all is the best. Akshaye’s versatility is more than evident he acts like a buffoon when required, but breathes fire when the situation demands.
The other performance that stands out is that by Arshad Warsi, who is awesome as Akshaye’s best friend cum adviser. This is another performance after MUNNABHAI M.B.B.S. that will take him high.
Kareena Kapoor delivers a highly competent performance. Although she doesn’t get a chance do much in the after interval.
A Priyadarshan film would be incomplete without Paresh Rawal’s winning performance. The actor may not have got the best lines in the first half, but delivers an astounding performance in the second half. He is in terrific form in that vital scene when Amrish Puri confronts him.
Amrish Puri is, like always, first-rate, essaying the role like a true veteran. Lakshmi is superb. She looks regal and essays her part with aplomb. Farha stages an impressive comeback on the big screen.
The film has a huge supporting cast, but Jackie Shroff and Suniel Shetty stand out of the lot. Arbaaz Khan is strictly okay. Manoj Joshi does a fine job. Asrani, Shakti Kapoor, Akhilendra Mishra, Deep Dhillon and Upasna Singh are adequate.
Over all HULCHUL works two ways. It’ll appeal to those who enjoy light entertainers and also those who like family drama kind of situations. So go and entertain yourself.