Art & Entertainment

Khatta Meetha

Ample doses of over-the-top buffoonery and liberal sprinkling of double entendre. One of the most cringe-worthy films from Priyadarshan...

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Khatta Meetha
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Starring: Akshay Kumar, Trisha, Rajpal Yadav, Johnny Lever 
Directed by Priyadarshan
Rating: *

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Each of Priyadarshan’s Hindi remakes has a great Malayalam original behind it; or so one has been told by his fans. But watching the mediocre stuff he churns out with alarming regularity, it’s hard to imagine the goodness of the original behind it. The same holds true for Khatta Meetha. It is so stale and tasteless a concoction that one wonders what Vellanakalude Nadu would have been like till someone reveals that it was a much-appreciated hit.

Priyadarshan packs in all the familiar elements of the brand of cinema we have come to associate him with. There are ample doses of over-the-top buffoonery by his favourites Rajpal Yadav and Johnny Lever. In tune with them, the rest of the cast too keeps the volume high. Instead of conversing, they shout and scream at each other, each actor competing with the other in ‘loudness’ quotient. Add to it the liberal sprinkling of double entendre and you get one of the most cringe-worthy films from Priyadarshan in recent times.

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The film is about a family of contractors, each more corrupt than the other. They can go to any lengths to make money. The father of the household, ironically, is an honest, retired judge. The film could have been a nice exploration of the corruption and dishonesty underlying the construction industry, its nexus with power and politics. But that is not the director’s intent. In fact, he himself appears confused quite early in the film. What starts off as a full-blown comedy acquires seriously tragic dimensions. The film hangs awkwardly between a loud farce and louder melodrama and the filmmaker totally fails in achieving the fine balance between the light and frothy and the serious and weighty.

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Akshay tries to liven matters with comic touches, like the breakfast table scene at the start, but he soon merges with the film’s tone and tenor. Trisha is good and fetching so long as she doesn’t speak. This surely is a bad vehicle for her to have chosen to launch into Bollywood! You also need to watch the film with a huge suspension of disbelief, especially when it comes to art direction. The Marathi family doesn’t look like one and in which part of India do you see havelis with open air kitchens in the aangan, where women cook elaborate food in heavy Kanjivarams?

High Fives

Bollywood

  1. Khatta Meetha
  2. Tere Bin Laden
  3. Salt (dubbed)
  4. Udaan
  5. Chakravyuh (dubbed)

Hollywood

  1. Inception
  2. Salt
  3. Despicable Me
  4. The Sorcerer’s Apprentice
  5. Toy Story 3

Pop

  1. California Gurls (Katy Perry, Snoop Dogg)
  2. Airplanes (B.o.B, Hayley William)
  3. Billionaire (Travie McCoy, Bruno Mars)
  4. Cooler Than Me (Mike Posner)
  5. OMG (Usher, will.i.am)

Courtesy: Film Information

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