by: Amit Kumar Agarwal
The same story can be told in thousand-different manners! Similarly, the same screenplay points can be written differently in thousand manners. Many times, the screenplay isn't bad, but the events in the scenes and the plausibility takes a back seat, making the audiences and critics wonder, if this is how the characters will behave.
Lalaji (Akshay Kumar) lives in the famous Chandni-Chowk locality of Delhi, with his four sisters. He has a chaat shop that is famed for blessing pregnant ladies with boys if they eat the golgappas. He promised his dying mother that he will marry only after marrying off all his sisters. His childhood love, Sapna (Bhumi Pednekar) has ambiguous feelings about the oath, but her dad (Neeraj Sood) abhors this fact, as he wants to see his daughter married. The conflict for Lalaji is that he can't collect enough dowry to marry off his sisters.
The story has enough meat for a great emotion-laden comic drama, but the writing meanders mainly because it wants to pack everything in a short time of 1 hour and 50 minutes.
Spoilers ahead
How bad is writing, can be gauged from the fact that some entertaining scenes carry on to the extent that they become boring and audiences yearn to move on to the next scene.
There are many examples 1. The bank loan scene involving Hitler. 2. The three sisters fighting over a samosa. 3. When Sapna’s dad invites a prospective groom home to finalize her marriage. The sisters create such a ruckus that it looks repulsive.
The characterizations are completely overlooked, the eldest sister is constantly shown as docile in the entire movie, yet in the scene where they send off a suitor packing, she is shown as complete firebrand.
1. Sapna loves Lalaji, yet she goes out with her prospective suitors. 2. The three sisters should've been heart-warming to the audiences, but they are shown in such a bad light that they fail to garner sympathy for themselves. 3. These loopholes can be overlooked in larger-than-life films, but in slice-of-life films these loopholes are actually blunders that alienate the audiences from the film.
The pre-climax plot ought to have been the interval-point to pack in the right emotions.
The plus-points are the emotions in second-half connect. Many of the comedy scenes connect as well, these things off-set the weakness of the writing to an extent.
Anand L Rai tries to rise above a feeble screenplay and succeeds partially. The biggest downer of the film is the screenplay by Kanika Dhillon and Himanshu Sharma. Kanika was the writer of Ek Villain 2 as well, so the bad writing is understandable.
Akshay Kumar lives the role of a brother and lover trying to set his families and his life, right. Bhumi Pednekar is fine. Sadia Khateeb as the eldest sister Gayatri makes a mark, though her track could've been better handled. Neeraj Sood and other lend able support. Sahil Mehta after Good Luck Jerry again leaves a mark.
Overall, the film had all the potential to be a blockbuster, but the screenplay has really pulled the film down. In the end film will do better than Lal Singh Chaddha and will settle to be an average fare - but with such a strong idea Raksha Bandhan that released on the perfect day, the film hasn't lived up to expectations.