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EDITOR'S PICK
Rating: ***
First things first. This is not, repeat not, a comedy. Not by any yardstick. For
those expecting a typical Priyadarshan-Akshay Kumar comedy "Khatta Meetha"
is not your cup of tee-hee. For those who know there`s a more reflective and
ruminative side to both the prolific director and the leading man, here`s the
thing.
"Khatta Meetha" takes stinging satirical swipes at the epidemic
disease of corruption that has taken over the Indian ethos. Tragically the
treatment is quite often heavyhanded. But the statement never drowns in the
diatribe. Priyadarshan tends to fill up the outer edges with a profusion of
incidental characters and over-elaborate gags and jokes that hold themselves in
place in a world of unmitigated chaos like "De Dana Dan".
Here the clutter and the clamour just make you feel the director needed to
respect his own tone of sobriety in this longish tickling treatise on
malpractices in the middleclass.
The plot is a bit of a tangle. Akshay Kumar`s family of discontented mal-paani-practitioners
is a universe of brutish brothers and screechy sisters-in-law, and
silently-suffering parents (played by those wonderful actors Kulbhushan
Kharbanda and Aroona Irani).
It`s a family of corrupt road contractors and initially, Akshay seems the most
wickedly immoral of them all. But hang on! As the narrative - at time plodding -
moves forward we begin to understand the wacked - out sinister yet satirical,
chaotic yet orderly, corrupt yet weirdly - ethical world of Sachin Tichkule.
Here`s a character that seems to have been written only for Akshay Kumar. And he
gets hold of the `muddle` - class morality of Tichkule`s world with delightful
earnestness. Frequently Akshay is exasperating in his efforts to explain why the
middleclass is in a state of selfdestructive decline. But it isn`t the actor to
blame. It is the nature of the material offered to the actor.
The domestic and professional world of Scahin Tichkule is not easy to penetrate.
Akshay, demonstrating a primetime ripeness in his body language and repertoire
of Chaplinesque expressions, enters this wacky wounded world of the exploited
and the damned with extraordinary empathy.
Akshay`s is a performance that is far more accomplished than it may seem to the
popcorn province. He`s exasperating in his directness. He`s partly a cartoon
character, partly an emblem of our times and wholly entertaining in his chaotic
comprehension of the inadequacies of world we`ve inherited from the freedom
fighters and brutally disfigured.
But alas. Akshay`s character is much much too wordy in his tongue type. The
hallmark of Charlie Chaplin`s social comment was his silent expressions of
protest. Akshay`s character and the film on the whole are much too verbose. The
characters are constantly talking, as though not speaking would take away the
audiences` attention. A film making a social comment didn`t have to over-state
its case so blatantly.
But the words do not cut into the narrative`s basic flow of tongue-in-cheek
satire. Some sequences such as the one involving the steamroller and the
elephant consume too much footage. The art of understatement eludes this
political statement.
Trisha Krishnan in wearing chunky ear-rings makes an unusual debut. She is
different from the short-skirted hotties. But whether that difference makes a
difference in Hindi cinema, time will tell.
"Khatta Meetha" stands tall in its message of restoring a semblance of
moral order in the middleclass. The last half-hour after Sachin Tickule`s sister
is murdered, is thoroughly gripping. And the fight between Akshay and the
corrupt goons in the crowded lanes is chilling in its realism.
Realism is a remotely but decidedly obtainable component in this parodic parable
on the rotten fruits of excessively materialistic aspirations in
post-Independence India.
Technically polished and many notches superior to Akshay Kumar`s other recent
entertainers "Khatta Meetha" conveys that sweet-sour taste of a
universe that has rapidly degenerated into absolute self-gratification.
See it for what the film leaves unsaid, though that`s hard to do when everyone
is ceaselessly talking.
South India actress Trisha Krishnan, who teamed up with Askhay Kumar in "Khatta Meetha", is upset with the media for trashing the comedy.Read More
Struggling road construction contractor, Sachin Tichkule (Akshay
Kumar) is doomed to dream big.
There is no chance in hell that his dreams will ever come true, simply because
he has no money to bribe!
To Make matters worse, the new Municipal Commissioner turns out to be his
ex-girl friend (Trisha) who now hates him.
Even as you laugh as Sachin bumbles his way from one disaster to another, the
film reveals in a light hearted way, the extent of Corruption and Bribery
Rampant in the System. And the engenious means you have to adopt if you want to
survive.
Enjoy the bumpy ride!