Bollywood has become a Punter’s delight these days what with the scale and extent of rigging in Movies. The Common Man nevers know which way the cookie will crumble. The thing that got me interested in Khatta Meetha in the first place was a review posted on the Net that didnt speak too highly of the movie. Now there were umpteen replies saying (some of them looked credible too) it was great. So last evening I found myself checking out (God, how many times I’ll fall in this Trap !!) who was credible and who wasnt.
The movie does have a plot even if a tad trite. Sachin Tichkule (Akshay) is a contractor facing seamier times. He lives with a family of brothers, bhabhis, sister & parents, most of whom are fed up with his ways. His bothers & Jeeja (all Public Works contractors) are neck deep in crime but have managed to keep Law at bay on account of money & connections. Meanwhile Akshay is finding it difficult to make payments to his labourers and somehow ekes it by pilfering, pawning & selling possessions. Enter Gehna (Trisha), his exGF who has now returned as Commissioner of the Municipality. The Plot then turns the beaten way with the usual intricacies that arent much to write about. The climax is a letdown with the super-hackneyed chase scenes on usurping & guarding critical evidence.
The movie has a few Hilarious moments including the Road Roller sequence involving Johnny Lever, Asrani attending multiple phone calls, Akshay in the ’Tichkule & Tichkule’sequence with Kulbhushan Kharbanda and the skirmish between Rajpal Yadav & Neeraj Vora. Both Asrani & Rajpal Yadav have done well while Johnny Lever & Neeraj Vora in their small roles are passable. Akshay himself though not looking the part (kambakht Age !) has done very well. Trisha - nothing to write about except that she looks strikingly fair in one scene and equally dark in the next.
Dont ask me about the music. I dont remember much of it except perhaps the tunes of the song Na Na Chi Tang (not sure of the title) which was rather catchy in parts.
Some of the scenes in the movie instantly remind you of the cult classic Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron (Dr Strangelove of Bollywood) for the extremely subtle and incisive (if at all dark) humour. And I was darned impressed. The movie flags off with Akshay Kumar praying at the top of his lungs in a bid to appease his Gods. All his family members are peeved by this loud show of devotion. Perhaps it was just Priyadarshan’s way of poking at some of us for resorting to loudspeakers in the name of Gods and seriously inconveniencing the Public at large.
Again the sequence where the archaic Road Roller is dissembled part by part and then later towed away by the help of an elephant (digitally generated, no animals were harmed you see :-P) seems to mock at all the outdated machinery/equipment which though utterly useless is still maintained by the Public offices even the expense of serious inconvenience and life threatening pollution.
Similarly a scene where Asrani is shown to alternate between a couple of phone calls and a couple of people, is again a scathing attack on the mania of Multi-Tasking that seems to have gripped the world today. Between them I feel these scenes gave me a good deal of my money’s worth.
The movie is a few things but it isnt a lot else. If you want a movie which keeps you on the edge of your seats with trademark Priyadarshan stuff, this may not please you altogether. But if you want to watch a movie which treats a serious subject (and I consider the Road Roller dismantling a very serious one) with biting dark humour, this movie has something to offer. Dark Satires are not everyone’s cup of tea and if this is the sign of how Priyadarshan is evolving, this one’s not a bad attempt at all.
Rating - 3.5/5