Batti Gul Meter Chalu film review: Comes with a few sparks

Gulf News

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00:00Hi, this is Manjusha Radhakrishnan from Gulf News Tabloid and I've just been to watch

00:04Bollywood actor Shahid Kapoor's issue-based drama Batti Gul Meter Chalo is directed by

00:10Shri Narayan Singh of Toilet Ek Prem Katha fame who uses his cinema to stoke the activist in you.

00:23This time around, he sets his eyes on enlightening us about the power outages

00:28in rural India. But you don't have to be the brightest bulb in the class to figure out that

00:32taking on such a grim subject and making it into a palatable Bollywood entertainer isn't an easy

00:38task. But we have to give it to director Singh. He manages to take a grim subject, a bleak subject

00:44such as power outages and tailor it into a Bollywood entertainer where it's filled with wit,

00:50humour, song and dance. But does it always work? I'm not so sure. Somewhere along the way, it makes

00:56you wonder if the filmmakers were hesitant about committing to being a full-time activist

01:01in their film. It kind of adulterates their worthy cause. It's set in a small town of

01:06Theri in Uttarakhand where power outages, blackouts and inflated electricity bills

01:12have ruined the lives of a common man. The three principal characters played by Shahid Kapoor,

01:18Shraddha Kapoor and Divyendu Sharma are thick mates. They've grown up together and have this

01:22easy bonding between them. The scenes where they show their friendship and their dynamic

01:27is quite enjoyable and engaging. It sets the tone of the film. The movie begins on a breezy note

01:32where they hang out together, have fun with each other before it moves into the bleak tones.

01:36Here is where director Singh seems to have gone wrong. He seems to have adulterated the movie a

01:41bit too much and tried to insert songs, dance, wit into a subject that is serious in its nature.

01:48Perhaps it's the director's fear of making a film that's too bleak that he manages to insert

01:54nuggets of humour and wit or a song or a dance at every given interval. Is it frustrating? What

02:01does it have to do with power outages, you ask? Well, absolutely nothing. That's one of the prime

02:06problems of this film. There are way too many distractions in a movie that's principally about

02:10power outages and the corruption in giant power corporations. In terms of acting, Shahid Kapoor

02:16is in top form. He plays this sly lawyer who specialises in out of court settlements. He isn't

02:22the most cruelest man on earth, but what he lacks in beliefs, he makes up for being just crafty.

02:27It's a joy to watch him on screen. Shraddha Kapoor plays an aspiring fashion designer,

02:32but she isn't the brightest bulb in the class because she has this bizarre idea out of nowhere

02:37that she wants to test out who is the husband or the boyfriend material between the two of

02:42the boys. But the fun escapades among the three, including a wager for which boy is the perfect

02:48husband material, are just mere distractions. The real subject and topic at hand was power outages.

02:54One of the negatives of this film is that although we know that it's such a serious issue,

02:59it never stokes the activist in us because somewhere along the way, all these witty lines,

03:05the song and the dance distract you from the real cause. There's one particularly emotionally

03:09charged scene where Shahid Kapoor has to show his emotional prowess and he does a stupendous job of

03:17it. While the first half is breezy in tone, it's the second half that gains momentum where it gets

03:21transformed into a courtroom drama. In the second half, Shahid Kapoor goes through a transformation

03:27from a roguish and petty lawyer. Shahid Kapoor transforms into a man on a mission. His mission

03:33is to bring down a powerful and greedy private electric company. On the bright side, the courtroom

03:39scenes aren't dreary. The witty exchanges between Yami Gautam and Shahid Kapoor's character is quite

03:45interesting to watch. It kind of breaks the bleakness of the subject and makes the matter at

03:50hand, which is about power outages and how it affects the common man into a more edible form of

03:57movie watching. While Shahid Kapoor nails the emotionally charged moments, it is his gravity

04:02defying hairstyle and his designer beard that's a tad distracting. But then hey, it's Bollywood,

04:07so anything goes. I have given this movie 3 out of 5. For the full review, go to gulfnews.com

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