Watched Patakha yesterday, so it’s a delayed review, and I won’t lie, a little-influenced one as well. Pardon me, but I had to know what others were thinking about the movie, as I can see reviewers are slitted between sections where either they loved the movie, or they are disgusted with it. Well, me, as a cinema lover, is on the former side. I liked the movie, simply because of the fact that it offered exactly what its trailer was showing us, so no it wasn’t a disappointment for me.
Patakha is a twisted tale of two sisters, ’Badki’ - ’Champa Kumari’ ( Radhika Madaan) and ’Chhutki’ - Genda Kumari ( Sanya Malhotra) , who are at peace only when they are fighting with each other. Their father, ’Shanti Bhushan/Bapu’ - Vijay Raj, who claims they are his ’jigar ka tukda’ and ’Dipper’ - Sunil Grover is the second in command when it comes to the story.
Certainly not amongst the top listers of Vishal Bhardwaj’s creations; but we should applaud for him as a director, as Patakha gives you that untempered, raw flavor of an interior village of Rajasthan and its inhabitants, so much so that, I was actually amazed to see those rotten/decayed teeth of the characters. No, I am not giving any spoilers here, as the trailer of the movie has done enough of that damage already; but what I would suggest is to go for it to admire and enjoy the stupendous performances of the star cast. The story is actually not the Hero here, performances are.
I didn’t know who Radhika Madaan is before I first watched the trailer of the movie, a couple of months back. And I must compliment her of her range as an actor. Being a Tele-actor, who is, in my opinion, nothing greater than mere reaction/expression givers ( my apologies, not a daily soap fan, sorry) , Radhika Madaan actually gave a firecracker of a performance. Sanya Malhotra is a master of her craft, after Dangal, she had raised our bar of expectations from her as an actor pretty high, and she does justice to that. But the actual ’Patakha’ of the movie is Sunil Grover, who left me in splits every time he appeared on the screen. Whattaa performance man! This guy deserves a Standing Ovation. And I am too small to judge Mr. Vijay Raj’s performance. I give my heart to him, every time he delivers a dialogue in his ghoulish ( forgive me for my choice of words), voice. I guess no one has any idea, from where does he bring out that gut chilling voice.
On the downside of the movie, there isn’t enough material to warrant 134 minutes, and the tone gets uneven in the later sections. A crisper running length would have ensured a more explosive impact, and that political subtext, in my opinion, wasn’t necessary. When you are making something for entertaining your audience, you should stick to it. Spoon feeding an unnecessary message, isn’t always necessary.
However, if you’re a fan of dark humor and circumstantial comedy, Patakha won’t disappoint you. Give it a try. We as cine-goers must support such movies.