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Thursday, April 25, 2024
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BOLLYWOOD FUKREY RETURNS
EDITOR'S PICK
'Fukrey Returns', thankfully with entertainment (Review By Subhash K
Jha ; Rating: ***1/2 )
There is a kind of quirky credibility in the way the characters of "Fukrey" have
grown on us ever since they were seen in the first "Fukrey" film. It's been
nearly five years. But we haven't forgotten Hunny, Choocha, Lali, Pandit and,
last but not the least, the woman who won't be put on a leash, Bholi Punjaban.
Please note, I make no mention of Zafar, played by Ali Fazal, as his character
remains strangely sketchy, unfinished, incomplete. He is a Fukrey on the
look-out for a more fleshed-out platform of expression.
Strange, because the other principal players in this prickly parody of Capital
consumerism are so vividly etched, we feel we know them inside-out. "Fukrey
Returns" acquaints us with the bang-gang even better than the first "Fukrey"
film.
And boy, is the gang having fun!
Wait... no, not so much fun when they are hunted and chased down by a mob
instigated by a wily, slimy politician.
It's all done in the spirit of a festive if doomed farce, orchestrated and
executed with a casual finesse that is easy to miss if you are used to haphazard
slapstick comedies from Bollywood. Trust me, there is nothing haphazard or
random in the way writer Vipul Vig and director Mrighdeep Lamba spin a destiny
of disconcerting chaos around the characters.
The narrative is piled high with breathless action, a lot of it involving the
characters running around the narrow lanes and over-bridges of Old Delhi. The
cinematography (by Andres Menezes) is constantly hunting down elusive dreams in
crowded, bustling roads. For a large part of the film, the protagonists are
either being chased or hunted down, even in their dreams. Wet or otherwise.
In the opening sequence the film's hero Bholi Punjaban -- played with
lipsmacking relish by Richa Chadha -- appears in Choocha's dream as a snake.
Richa's 'ichadhaari naag' act puts all her illustrious predecessors from Rekha
to Sridevi to shame. It's the fun that she seems have while spoofing cinematic
conventions while playing a gender-proof gangster (with two Black African
henchmen by her side) that makes Chadha the most unconventional hero seen in a
mainstream film.
The boys seem to have a lot of fun being bossed around by Richa's (anything but)
Bholi (ha ha) Punjaban. Their camaraderie is palpably parodic, yet so real in a
Punju-Delhi way that we feel we've met these badass blokes at the traffic light.
Lamba directs the ensemble cast with verve and affection, punctuating their
exquisitely colloquial quips with unexpected bouts of tenderness. While all the
performances rate a big shout-out of approval, Richa's Bholi Punjaban is indeed
the film's hero. She attacks the role of the woman in command with the relish of
a customer at a restaurant attacking a plate of succulent chicken legs.
I must confess Varun Sharma's Choocha is my favourite "Fukrey" actor. Sharma
invests his part with a lot of foot-in-the-mouth heart. His Choocha is a lovable
loser, an incorrigible dreamer and a chronic disaster. Among the rest of the
protagonists, Pulkit Samrat (very hero-material type but still not getting
there), Pankaj Tiwari (always brilliant) and Navjot Singh (never out of
character) play their characters with a mixture of gusto and desperation -- just
what the film requires.
Special mention must be made of Rajiv Gupta as the slimy politician with a
sidekick whom he makes do the most unmentionable demeaning acts of servility, a
genre-specific villain that Gupta plays with such restrain and relish it's like
the filmy neta being rejuvenated in ways that are at once exciting and amusing.
And then there is that striking cameo of the river diver played by Ashok Pathak
-- an obvious homage to the late Ashraful Haque's memorable cameo as the thief,
Shakiya, in the first "Fukrey" film. When Choocha nearly drowns and Pathak must
give him mouth-to-mouth to revive him, we nearly gag over the irony of the diver
who goes down to fish for coins with his mouth in the river bed, putting his
mouth to more urgent, if far less desirable, use.
Interestingly, this is not the only bad-breath moment in this film. We come
across one earlier on when Pulkit's Hunny demands a "French kiss" (that's what
he calls a liplock) from girlfriend (Priya Anand) and she refuses since he's
non-veg.
Bad breath gets a bad name in "Fukrey". But it's all in good taste.
Circumscribing a world of chit funds, bodypart smuggling, animal poaching and
French kissing, the wickedly anarchic world of "Fukrey Returns" is much smarter
and far more intelligent than it outwardly seems. This is a world of rapidfire
happenings where what goes around doesn't necessarily come around.
At least, not in the way you expect it to.
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
Amazing experience to work with Govinda: Varun SharmaActor Varun Sharma says working with actor Govinda on "Fry Day" was not only fun but an enriching experience as well."It was an absolutely amazing experience to work with him. There is so much to learn from him," Varun told IANS."Even when I didn't had any shot, I used to to sit and just observe him...Notice how beautifully he crafts out the scene and brings out so many different emotions in one scene," he added. Read More
