You shift excitedly in your chair as other patrons breeze in chattering loudly as the credits roll by. No I won’t get into how a large behind blocks my view for a full 2 minutes while the owner of the behind figures out with the companion how to switch on the torch in the mobile so that they can find their mysteriously hidden seats. Finally they decide they decide the direction of their trajectory while of course munching on their popcorns
I am not at all irked with that. I am beside myself with excitement. Watching a Kangana Ranaut Movie. Wow First one that after the Big B. The pure lure for the movies. The teaser was a real tease. The Haryanvi avatar of Tanu with the different teeth and rapid fire Haryanvi was an absolute draw. You settle with excitement in the seat and wait for the fun to begin.
A large building with dimly lit rooms and three characters in whites act bad, ask horrendous questions to a well-dressed couple who for some strange reason look fazed but not troubled. Hold it. The punch has to come yet. You tell yourself. Don’t be impatient. The wife calls the husband a piece of ginger. You chuckle and then quickly repress it as you realize you look like one too. The husband then tries weakly to explain something nonsensical to the men in whites. By now I am distracted. I am trying to reason the logic. Who are these men? A mental institution. These people are talking about their marital discord or something like that. The wife looks more erratic akin to a disturbed person than a hassled wife. The man is unsure why he is there in the first place. And then without warning the husband is led away to be locked away in a mental institution.
The wife takes the next flight out of the country back home. She calls up husband’s acquaintance back home and asks him to come back to London and get the husband released from the mental institution because he is not carrying his credit cards.
Sorry but I am fuming by this time. What in the heavens is this? We are almost 20 minutes into the movie. The heroine is back home to a village set totally reminiscent of small town India and mirroring yes Queen and if Queen had a matchmaking session then we have one here. For absolutely no reason whatsoever the psychotic wife comes out seminude in a bathrobe and shocks the bridegrooms family. And half the people in the theatre fall down their seats with raucous laughter. I look around. Hello did I miss some subtitles. This has to be one of the crassest unrelated and unnecessary sequences simply added to establish perhaps that the near psychotic protagonist has a mind of her own
There are more characters populating the scene than can be assimilated in the time that they are on the scene though there is serious effort to replicate a small town realistically.
Things seem to settle down when the dazed hero( Madhavan with a perennially shocked and loser look) gets back to homeland and conveniently meets a look alike of his wife – Kangana again in a much better enacted role of a Haryanvi young athlete’Dhatto’. He is taken in obviously by the fact that she looks akin to his wife. Over a period of time with expressly forgettable sequences he gets to a situation where he is to marry her. So what are the complications that arise.
Convenient coincidences and social messages forced into the script without any commitment or emotion as a token nod to taking on a larger platform of social causes while trying to be desperately funny.
There are lame attempts at slapstick comedy and the main laughs are drawn because of the small town lingo used and the audience is tickled pink probably to hear some nostalgic phrases like Mumbai audiences feel with “ maazi satakli”.
There is something inherently wrong in a film that is forever trying to force laughter into scenes all leading to a very lame climax
Deepak Dobriyal as the hero’s relative and side kick is the best of the lot picking up the energy and helping a few chuckles coming along. Watch out for Mohammed Zeeshan Ayub. He is a ticking bomb and is destined to go far.
Madhavan – seriously what are you doing in this movie? Bad brief or just plain uninterested. The script is also not too kind to him showing him as bumbling weak man who has no mind of his own. I do not believe that Madhavan was being a gentleman and trying to take the backseat to allow Kangana to rule the show.
And then to the Big K. You just cannot fault her. Especially when she is doing the Haryanvi athlete part. She certainly looks bored whenever she is asked to reprise her Queen role and repeat the dance with gay abandon. But she jumps into character for the Haryanvi role making the character completely loveable. But even with her gigantic effort she cannot make the plot appear sensible. All the stars just for her effort.
There are many characters in the sub plots who put in their best - just could not understand the references to IVF, wife hiding it from her husband, one character trying to get a married woman to agree to elope with him -and the art director just tries too hard with the result you are completely distracted by the background than focusing on the main artists. You get tired of the Haryanvi dialect after some time as it distracting though it is not too difficult to follow.
To be fair to the director many in the audience were in splits in the first half probably due to the gimmick of including the Haryanvi dialect and Tomboy but post interval the audience was like a zombie and that should tell you about the movie.
Watch it if you liked the first part and are a fan of the BIG K.The question remains why Manu meets Dhatto. Just a ploy to make a second part with a nonsensical script.
But way to go Kangana! You are impressive. Sadly cannot say the same for the movie.
Rating*1/2