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Thursday, March 27, 2025
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BOLLYWOOD FUKREY
EDITOR'S PICK
There is something about the theatre of the absurd that brings on a volley of
unwarranted nonsense in the filmmakers of this country.
Not this time. "Fukrey", about an eclectic bunch of no-good students
poised between a rapidly-receding adolescence and a reluctant manhood is far
funnier, more intelligent sharply-enacted and deftly executed than the recent,
much-lauded "Kai Po Che".
And yes, though the boys think and talk a lot about sex, there is a refreshing
absence of double-meanings in the dialogues.
In hindsight, both the screenplay and performances in "Kai Po Che"
seem somewhat overrated. And I plead guilty to that crime of over-estimation.
"Fukrey", with its inventive plot and wickedly dead-on
characterisations is the kind of rare and precious comedy where the actors seem
to have adopted their roles without considering their own ambitions as an actor.
Each actor - from Pulkit Samrat to Richa Chadda to Pankaj Tripathi, shines
meteorically in his or her allotted corner and yet manages to merge with
writer-director Lamba`s larger scheme of things.
And gosh, what schemers masquerading as daydreamers this delicious romp into the
Delhi`s rumbling underbelly this film throws forward! The fiercely
individualistic style of storytelling visits places in Delhi where the
stereotypes of middle-class life(girl courting boy from adjacent rooftop,
working-class boy dreaming of attending a college filled with girls in short
skirts, rave parties being busted by an overzealous cop, etc) flicker into
shapes we have never seen before.
It`s a familiar world recreated with warmth and humour. Delhi, as shot by
cinematographer K. U. Mohanan, never seemed more designed to demonise young
dreams, not even in Shoojit Sircar`s "Vicky Donor". Sperms maybe
bankable. Youthful dreams are the real financial challenge.
It`s not just the unobtrusive ingenuity of the technicians that gives "Fukrey"
its flamboyant funny and fresh flavour. "Fukrey" gets its palpable
energy from its characters who, put simply, exude character. These are
youngsters whom we know, and probably don`t want to know.
There`s the embarrassingly named Choocha (Varun Sharma) who dreams weird
lottery-winning dreams and his cocky over-confident buddy Hunny (Pulkit Samrat)
who interprets Choocha`s get-rich-quick-by-hook-or-crook schemes. The duo`s
dreams of admission into a college of short-skirted girls is fuelled by a
college watchman playred Pankaj Tripathi, who posseses a unique abilty to make
even the commonest English word sound like an abuse.
Other characters - a mithai-wallah`s somber Sardar son (Manjot Singh) and an
irksomely bewildered wannabe musician Zafar (Ali Fazal), join in to get a
foothold into a world where money comes to the dreamers`s life from unexpected
quarters. Joining the band of wannabe dudes is a female gangster who is not fat,
imposing, uncouth and scary.
Richa Chadda`s Bholi Punjaban is an eminently feline and sensual creature,
wanton and immoral, cheesy and yet enchanting. Richa gives this unusual
character a special spin. Her scenes with the naive and funny Choocha are among
the finest funniest moments in the film. A close second are the scenes where
Choocha is being put to sleep by his friends to dream up their riches. Looked at
closely, such moments of unalloyed worth actually define a very dark and
depressing truth about why today`s 20-something ends up tied to a ceiling fan.
The film`s inventive step-by-step unraveling of youthful avarice is played
mostly at a flippant devil-may-care pitch. Not that Lamba`s direction forbids
emotional leeway. There is an eminently poignant moment in a dingy government
hospital where the dreamer-musician Ali`s father`s urine sample has to be
collected by his son.
It`s a moment that melts the mirth into a heap of despair.
Watch the emotional and physical detailing of this sequence to know how
diligently Lamba has crafted his tale of greed, male bonding, backsteeet
badmaashi, sun-splashed revelry, surreptitious romancing, coming of age and yes,
one of the most interesting female gangster characters written for Hindi cinema.
In this rugged tongue-in-cheek bro(ke)-mance, Lamba cracks the comic code far
more confidently than he did in his first film "Teen They Bhai".
The performances make you thankful and relieved. At last, our cinema has moved
on from its fixation with a known bunch of stars to explore talent that is
refreshing and unique. Richa Chadda, Manjot Singh, Pankaj Tripathi and Varun
Sharma are in terrific form, but it`s Pulkit Samrat who is clearly the star of
the show.
If I had made "Kai Po Che", I`d wonder why my film wasn`t as savagely
funny as "Fukrey".
Actor Manjot Singh of "Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye!" fame says whenever he expresses his desire to do serious and romantic roles in Bollywood, he is told that a "Sardar will only be accepted in a comic role". The young actor believes only Sikh actors can break this perception.The audience has seen his comic side in films like "Student of the Year" and "Fukrey".He agrees that he has done many comic roles but "not the ones where I have had to humiliate myself. The kind of roles that I have taken up were more like situational comedy".And he wants to explore more genres.Read More
I see myself doing organic farming: Actor Pankaj TripathiNational Award-winning actor Pankaj Tripathi, whose performances in film after film have drawn critical acclaim, says his big dream is to live in the lap of nature -- in a farmhouse where he can indulge in organic farming.Born to a farmer's family and brought up in Bihar, Pankaj told IANS in an interview: "I am really thankful for whatever I have got in the last five years. It is great, really. But I want to see myself somewhere else.""I want to build my farmhouse where I will do organic farming, I want to pet some animals, and some beautiful flowers should be there in the garden. I want to live close to nature, along with my family."Read More
“FUKREY” is one such crazy story of four restless and hapless souls, running after their individual desires, brought together by one dream, which turns their not so simple life upside down.
From breaking school walls, to cross dressing dancers at the ‘Ram Lila’; from a ‘Jugaad Baaz’ college watchman to leaking examination papers; from a female pimp, who runs her drug cartel through Nigerian henchmen to visionary dreams.
Can the four ‘Fukrey’, the four nobodies, twist their fate and dreams into reality or will they forever be lost in the obscurity that they come from?
Flickbay’s first venture - Screening of film Fukrey - Stills
Success party of film Fukrey Stills
Fukrey film song launch - Stills
Fukrey party hosted by filmmaker Ritesh Sidhwani