| CULTURE & SOCIETY |
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SPOILERS AHEAD |
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From
Tehelka Magazine, Vol 9, Issue 41, Dated 13 Oct 2012 |
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| CULTURE & SOCIETY |
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SPOILERS AHEAD |
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No Laughs Lost
By Kaushik Kashyap
Some two hours into the film, I heard a child several rows behind say, “When will the film end, papa? I don’t like it.”
Wise words, those. And it doesn’t even require an adult to see it. Dull, boring, insipid: adjectives that best characterise Priyadarshan’s latest directorial venture, Kamaal Dhamaal Malamaal.
The movie is about a cowardly village lout Johnny (Shreyas Talpade), who is in love with Maria (Madhurima), but can do nothing about it, as the girl’s family is against the match and her brothers use Johnny as a punching bag. Johnny aka Bakri (to assert he’s a wimp, in case you miss it) is the son of Om Puri, a poor villager who digs holes in his fields all day and rings the church bell every evening, while Maria’s father is Paresh Rawal, a rich man with a grudge against Puri.
In walks Nana Patekar, a man with no name and a bottomless stomach who starts digging more. What follows is more excavating, a stolen gold cross, a burnt house, a dark past and a forced ending.
Two hours too long and 50 characters too many, the film fails to elicit even a grin. Kamaal Dhamaal Malamaal is at best a 30-minute short story and a bad one at that. Skip it. You’ll not have missed anything.
Kaushik Kashyap is an Assistant Editor with Tehelka.
kaushik@tehelka.com
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