Nautanki Saala!

My favourite Rohan Sippy movie was Bluff Master.  I really liked it.  I wonder why he made Kuch Na Kaho in the first place.  And with Dum Maro Dum I was a tad disappointed with the eventual execution of an otherwise good storyline.  But everything said and done, BM and DMD were very slickly made.

One thing about Rohan Sippy is his inclination towards being inspired. Bluff Master was picked up from Matchstick Men.  This time, he has come towards this side of the Atlantic with an inspiration from a French movie called Après Vous.  But I respect Sippy for calling it out right at the beginning of the movie.  Very unlike an Indian film maker.

 

Ram Parmar (Ayushmann Khurrana) prefers to be called RP.  He is the lead role in a local play called Ravan Leela.  It is the Ramayana with an added focus on Ravan but showcased in a very contemporary manner.  His girlfriend Chitra (Gaelyn Mendonca) likes him a lot and is very tolerant about his desire to help people.  She kind of likes that aspect as well. But she doesn’t like being ignored in the bargain.

 

En route back home on Chitra’s birthday, RP is running late, but sees a man trying to commit suicide in the middle of the road.  He stops Mandar Lele (Kunaal Roy Kapur) from taking the easy way out and gets him home.  Over the next 24 hours we figure out Mandar’s broken love story with Nandini (Pooja Salvi).  The kind man that RP is (notice the sarcasm) he steps in to help Mandar get the love of his life back.

 

Nautanki Saala is an unnecessarily stretched movie with several parts that could have been clipped.  The angle of Mandar’s grandmother (Sulbha Arya) was absolutely unnecessary.  Just that aspect could have saved 10 minutes.  The others could have added to another 30 for sure.  The end product would have been so much more compact and easy to view than what we have to see now.

 

Then there is the aspect of music.  Just because Khurrana had a hit with “Paani Da”, doesn’t mean that we need another folksy guitar number in a movie that is set in Mumbai.  A good number for sure but totally out of place in the movie as well.  Dhak Dhak is random and none of the girls can even come remotely close to Mrs. Nene.  Maybe “So Gaya” was apt for the situation and movie.

 

In terms of performances, Khurana was good for the better part of the movie but goes sloppy towards the end.  Kunaal Roy Kapur probably plays his part like it was in the French movie but I wasn’t too impressed.  Gaelyn Mendonca was good and Pooja Salvi was over the top.  I have always been impressed with Evelyn Sharma but that may have more to do with the kind of roles she plays – the supporting girl next door J

 

It will suffice to say that I expected better of Nautanki Saala.  Maybe because of the absolute hit that was delivered by Khurrana last year.  As I had tweeted earlier, the era of good, clean comedy died around 25 years back.  We just see sparks of brilliance like Vicky Donor.  A pity we have an average flick with NS.  6 on 10.  Worth a dekko but nothing great.

 

Watch the trailer on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kzcO_MgpBE