A few weeks ago, Dhurandhar: The Revenge had hit the cinema halls, and everyone said one thing, that it had “peak detailing”. Last week, another Bollywood film released, with Akshay Kumar, the hero of the masses in its lead. After watching it, I could not stop myself from noticing its “weak detailing”. Here is how.
1. Similarity with Bhool Bhulaiyaa franchise: You will keep missing Kartik Aaryan
Although, the original ‘Bhool Bhulaiyaa’ (2007) film was directed by Priyadarshan, the same director of this film, and Akshay Kumar was its hero, but the real mass success of the franchise had occurred only when Kartik Aaryan had joined it for Part 2 and 3. About 20 years passed since the first film, and now Kartik Aaryan is synonymous with Bhool Bhulaiyaa franchise. And this film does not have Kartik. To make it feel more weird, this film still has almost whole cast of Bhool Bhulaiyaa franchise: Tabu, Rajpal Yadav, Manoj Joshi, Asrani, Paresh Rawal, etc. It keeps feeling as if the film makers chose Akshay instead of Kartik by mistake for this film.
2. Akshay Kumar as boyfriend material
Akshay Kumar is about 59 years old. And it shows in this film and we can’t ignore it. After a few scenes at the beginning, we can see his “chest hair” which is grey and weird. After a while, we need to see how his whole body skin is wrinkled, like a 75 year old man. We also need to notice every once in a while that he has “polished” his face to appear younger, and it has resulted in his face not matching with rest of his body and it keeps feeling “what the yukk”. His father-in-law Superstar Rajesh Khanna at least had the decency to take up father roles after he aged. Akshay Kumar is still chasing girls in the bushes.
3. Vulgarity in Comedy
At the beginning of the film, in a comic scene, Rajpal Yadav pulls down Akshay Kumar’s trouser by mistake, and we are forced to see his bum, totally naked. At first, I could not believe “what just happened”, but I knew it was weak detailing camouflaged as peak detailing. After a while, the movie focuses entirely on the “housemaid” to create vulgar comedy. Rajpal Yadav, the famous “mandir ka ghanta” whom anyone can ring when he feels like, is made the villain while it is not even his fault – although this part has become really hilarious. And by the end of the film, there is a song where group of women are dancing, and the same housemaid is seen dressed and dancing like other rich noble women. Weak detailing.
4. Wamiqa Gabbi as a fresh face in the female lead
Perhaps the only sane and logical character in this film is of Wamiqa Gabbi who plays female lead opposite Akshay Kumar. She is shown as extremely beautiful, although at times she starts resembling Aishwarya Rai and at times Alaya Furniturewalla (female lead of Kartik Aryan’s film Freddy (2022). She brings a fresh face among all other old stale, wrinkled stars. But then, our happiness is not made to last long. A few scenes into the film and I could not stop noticing that her upper teeth was “bent”. Out of the two front upper teeth, one is longer than the usual and is also bent as if dentist has tried grinding it to make even. I know that it is not her fault, that best of the Hollywood stars also had some teeth problem, and it feels like “body shaming”, but I have just put my observations since I could not “un-notice” it. Almost feeling guilty now, but I wonder if this should be considered normal in the age of “peak detailing”.
5. The bhoot and the horror are well-made and feel original
Although slightly similar to the Bhool Bhulaiyaa franchise, the ghost/demon (bhoot) in this film resembling a bat, is really innovative and appears real. And the bhoot is finally a male, not a female ‘chudail’ like earlier films. The horror scenes are able to make you feel horrified and the use of old temple and gospel stories from the Hindu epic tales feel very real. But at the same time, I did not like the way Akshay Kumar is able to physically hurt the bhoot in the climax scene and the very long fight scene where he appears almost equal in physical strength to the Rakshasa. What is even the point of the big fight scene in the climax when everyone knows that the “hero will get beaten up first but will be able to kill the villain eventually”. It is like a “fixed match” no one will bet even a paisa on. But then, this should not be surprising, since we are dealing with Bollywood’s ordinary films with weak detailing.
Final verdict: Recommended
All said and done, the film is entertaining, with too many comic and laughter scenes and at the same time some very good horror in the later part, with usual performances by the cast. I think this should count as good enough for a casual watch and hence I recommend it, despite my freak detailing in this blog review.
- Rahul
