Chennai Express – A Review.
It’s been long since I did a film review. Not that the films
I watched in-between where not review worthy, just that, what with live
tweeting and facebook status updates from the movie theatre itself, I have run
out of things to say on the movie by the time I came home and sat down to do a
proper review on the blog. But as they say, a time comes for everything and
Shah Rukh Khan has made me write a review post again with his new film Chennai
Express.
The film is produced by Red Chillies Entertainment, his own
banner and helmed by Rohit Shetty the man who has made an art form of re-making
southern blockbusters into Hindi movies. Chennai Express is again one such
re-make of the Mahesh Babu starrer Okkadu (in Telugu) later remade as Gilli in
Tamil starring Vijay- both of them taking the lead actor known for his romantic
hero’s role and establishing them as the action heroes of their industry. But
if you go expecting an out and out action film with the promos in mind, you
will be surprised for this film is more of a comedy than an action thriller-
quite unlike the originals.
The story, well to tell the truth, there is not much of a
story, but you don’t miss it that much with the engaging screenplay with never
a dull moment on screen. Anyway the story starts with Shahrukh’s granddad dying
off and making a last wish for his ashes to be dissolved in the sea off
Rameshwaram. Shah Rukh, free at last of his overbearing and controlling
grandfather, who has brought him up all these years with an iron fist after his
parents’ death in a car accident, plans to take a side trip from Rameswaram to Goa.
For as per the story the hero is a 40 year old bachelor who has spent all his
time looking after their ancestral sweet stall business rather than do normal
stuff like dating or getting married.
Anyway with grandpa’s ashes in tow Shahrukh boards the
Chennai express planning to get off halfway and visit Goa to have fun with
“foreign” girls- as his friends advise him to do. Unfortunately for him in a
straight lift off from his mega hit Dilwale Dulhaniya Leh Jayegi movie- he
gives a hand to the heroine Deepika Padukone who is running hard to try and
board the train. In aparody of that famous scene - SRK also gives a hand to
lift up four other guys who are running behind Deepika. And then starts the
non-stop fun.
Hero learns that the heroine is being chased by goondas, the
same fellows he helped board up the train and he does what any self respecting
action hero would do- frightened, he climbs up and lies down shivering on the
upper birth to conceal himself from the goondas. This is one of the most
hilarious scenes in the movie as the hero learns the entire back-story from the
heroine through an antakshari competition- for while heroine can speak hindi,
her kidnappers cant. So hero and heroine communicate exclusively through
singing old hindi songs and adapting the lyrics to the situation.
Anyway the goondas on being asked for their tickets by the
railways TTE throw the Ticket Examiner out of the train for which hero becomes
an unwilling eye witness. Hence they make him get down with them (and the
heroine) at their hometown railway station- planning to kill him off at their
own sweet time. And heroine trying to save the hero’s life, tells her dad- the
Don of their town- that she is in love with the hero and poor hero who doesn’t
know the language they are talking in, nods his head in agreement. And then the
fun starts. All this is within the first half an hour of the movie.
The rest of the movie is about how the two escape from the
village and flee down south to Rameswaram where Shahrukh fulfils his grandfathers
dying wish and on the journey slowly fall in love with each other- until Shahrukh
decides to man it up and return to heroines village – to bash up the baddies in
the climax and prove that true love always wins with the awesome (clap worthy)
dialogue – “I have decided to stop running and face my problems- your father”.
A dialogue which I am sure a lot of guys in love would borrow in coming years.
Satyaraj as the heroine Deepika’s father – Periyathalai,
underplays himself with nods and grimaces and not many dialogues till the
climax where he spoofs Amrish in DDLJ (again) by saying “Meena thera”. Most of
the film is a spoof on one or the other SRK’s films and unless you are a fan
boy of Bollywood you would miss most of the inside jokes. For me the joke of the
movie is when ShahRukh tells Deepika about his parents death and says that since
he was 8 years old he has lived a lonely life and then the heroine asks (in a
first for hindi movies) – “so after that for Pachees saal (50 years) you have lived
alone?”. The entire theatre broke out in claps at this dig on aged heroes of
Indian cinema romancing heroines half their age. But it took a Shah Rukh Khan
to boldly agree to such a dialogue not minding his superstar image.
There are no fights as such in the movie- till the very end
when hero shows “the power of the common man”. Songs are hummable but may not
stick to your mind for very long. Except for the Thalaiva song- a tribute to
Rajnikant- which plays with the end credits and is such a good song that it’s
wasted there- so don’t leave immediately after the climax fight. The item song
with Priyamani and Shah Rukh doing a Kuthu dance- goes something like 1,2,3,4
get on the dance floor sound eerily similar to a recent song starring Rani
Mukherjee and Prithiviraj- but I am no expert on music and can’t say for
certain and leave it to better judges.
Downers? Well if you are in the mood to nitpick then there
are always a dozen things you can pick on – like how there is a been there/seen
that feel to the storyline and how the hero rahul continues to call the heroine
meenamma, using the tamil honorific amma after the characters name- meena, even
after he is told her real name. And Deepika’s “tameel” accent jars a bit which
makes me wonder why no one corrected her at least during the dubbing. But taking
all, the downers pass over pretty swiftly because of the smart screenplay.
Verdict- For those who love spoof movies – this is the movie
of the year and not to be missed. SRK spoofs everybody, including himself mercilessly
and the result is highly entertaining. The film is a laugh riot from beginning
to end, except for some sagging romantic bits in the middle. There’s an insane
bit of tomfoolery with the midget actor Kingkong and Shah Rukh miming various
modes of transport, just before the interval, which had me in splits. My
overall verdict is – the movie is full paisa vasool. If you need some mindless
entertainment for stress relief – this is the movie to watch. And King Khan’s
back with a bang.
Not a great movie. The jokes though stale, but because of their perfect timing do make us laugh. Both SRK and Deepika have done a good job and because of them the film is watchable.
ReplyDeleteRahul...i prefer comedy films to tearjerkers any day and although the film is almost the same as DDLJ (like watching it again- but this time set in the south instead of punjab)- it was not boring...that's all i want..not to be bored and sent out of the theatre at interval time itself- like some recent films made me leave
DeleteCan say the direction of Rohit Shetty was awesome in Chennai Express and role played by SRK and Deepika is really fabulous but the lacking part in this movie is music only otherwise movie is really great and one time watch for fun and comedy.
ReplyDeleteReally Prachi?? You didnt like the Kanyakumari song? I thought it was decent...plus its all the rage on all music channels.....but yes...this movie is strictly a one time watch only....I was watching bits of baazigaar yesterday when I was randomly flipping channels on tv...this doesnt even come close to that movie
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