Khatta Meetha

Director: Priyadarshan

Cast: Akshay Kumar, Trisha Krishnan, Rajpal Yadav, Johny Lever, Makrand Deshpande, Asrani, Aruna Irani

America has Americans. The English have Englishmen. France hosts the French, and so on, so forth. There is but no such thing related stories as an Indian. There are only Punjabis, Gujaratis, Maharashtrians, Bengalis.

Akshay Kumar’s Sachin makes this linguistic observation about a truly imagined nation he lives in. Nothing unites the corrupted Indian, he says, besides a dishonest love for money: “Sirf jeb bharna hai, pet phulana hai (Just inflate your wallet, and the belly)”.

This master Sachin isn’t exactly some ‘angsty’ blaster himself. He’s a civil contractor by profession. When various levels of bureaucracy have apportioned their cuts on a designated project, he cuts down on the ingredients to build the given road. His colleagues similarly play with the mix of cement and iron when building bridges that eventually fall. It’s just that they do a bigger and better job of it. Sachin remains the poorer and unlucky one.

He wears Rayban aviator glasses indoors, tailored shirts with pleats in his baggy trousers; and bums around everywhere with an umbrella in hand, and a Reynold’s pen in his breast pocket. Caricaturist RK Laxman may not quite get this bumbling, young version of the Common Man who never spoke in his cartoons. This one prattles, babbles, raves, hams it up: does everything to catch his audience’s undivided attention. He has enough over-excited friends to outdo him, and keep the tone unbearably up still.

Sachin has Tichkule for a Maharashtrian surname, something he constantly repeats for our loud response. He lives with his father (Kulbushan Kharbanda), who in a unique effort toward national integration, speaks in thick Punjabi twang. There are other crooked Tichkules in this home you wouldn’t mind engaging with, were there chutkule (jokes) to match. The jokes, you can tell, have pretty much dried up. No amount of slapstick will wet this pool.

A humourless skit follows another then, in a script (Vellanakalude Nadu, originally in Malayalam) written over two decades ago, when potholes and politicians were even bigger civic concerns. Ol’ man Vajpayee should take credit for the way Indians drive their new Nanos now, at least over smooth national highways across the country. But that’s another story.

This one’s about wacky Akki alone. Truly, few things unite Indians, besides a high illiteracy rate, and films of Bollywood superstars. One benefits from the other And Priyadarshan gets to churn out his own no-brainer remakes every other week.

By now, he should be able to re-structure footage, re-edit his past Hindi films as well, and release them over again with different titles. They all feel the same. Actors rotate in turns. Homes are havelis. Men dress in white. The story’s placed in the middle of anywhere. Jokes can certainly interchange.

Of all, you can hardly fault Akshay Kumar his fat salary (apparently he takes home over half a film’s budget). His presence also provides for more than regular employment to an entire set of unemployed losers. Asrani. Rajpal Yadav. Johnny Lever It’s a good scheme.

Khatta Meetha directed by Priyadarshan is a comical satire starring Akshay Kumar and Trisha Krishnan in lead roles. Akshay plays the role of Sachin Tichkule, an honest small time contractor. But being honest means limited success and Sachin is always cash-strapped to even afford bribes. His troubles increase when his ex-girlfriend (Trisha) is appointed the municipal commissioner.

Khatta Meetha starts of pretty well, a couple of well-directed comic scenes are hilarious and managed to get the entire house down; the Asrani house clean up scene and the other involving Johny Lever and his attempt to repair the Road roller. Unfortunately, apart from these two sequences there isn't much to laugh at.

The problem though lies completely in the post interval portions. The film is stretched too long as the melodramatic sequences makes you cringe. What's worse is that several scenes seem repetitive and since Khatta Meetha (like every other Akshay film) has no story, the film rests entirely on the character actors to pull off the one-liners, some of which work while most don't.

Amidst all this there are plenty of typical Priyadarshan song and dance routines, all of which are pure waste of time and money. A couple of songs are melodious (music composed by Pritam).

Akshay Kumar makes Khatta Meetha watchable, he's great throughout. Asrani, Rajpal Yadav scream - screech their lungs out. Johny Lever is good. Trisha looks good, but her acting is forgettable. Others don't have much to do.

To sum things up, Khatta Meetha is better than some of Akshay's previous films like De Dana Dan and Kambakht Ishq but if what you expect is an out-an-out comic entertainer, you'll be disappointed.

New Delhi, July 19 (IANS) After tickling the funny bones of their fans with "Hera Pheri" "Garam Masala" and "Bhool Bhulaiyaa", the hit pair of director Priyadarshan and actor Akshay Kumar is back for the sixth time with yet another light-hearted outing, "Khatta Meetha", which releases Friday.

While their previous films were slapstick comedies, "Khatta Meetha" takes a dig at the corruption and bribery.

"Our country is said to be a growing superpower with the fastest growing economy, but we still do not have good roads because of corruption in our system. This film is a message to people involved in the system...," said Akshay.

Produced by Shree Ashtavinayak Cine Vision Ltd and distributed by DreamWorld Searchlight Pictures, "Khatta Meetha" is a remake of Priyadarshan's 1988 Malayalam film "Vellanakalude Naadu". It will also launch southern actress Trisha in Bollywood.

The star cast of the film also includes Makrand Deshpande, Johnny Lever, Rajpal Yadav, Aroona Irani and Milind Gunaji.

Akshay's character in "Khatta Meetha" is modelled on R.K. Lakshman's iconic Common Man cartoon character.

The movie revolves around a struggling road construction contractor, Sachin Tichkule (Akshay), who dreams big but his dreams never come true as he doesn't have enough money to bribe the 'babus'. To make matters worse, the new municipal commissioner turns out to be his ex-girlfriend Ganpule Madam (Trisha), who now hates him.

"It's my first Hindi film and I can't expect to have everything that appeals to me. It's definitely not a film where I am singing and dancing around trees. But it's good enough for a launch and Priyan has projected me very well. Akshay's comedy would be the highlight of the film," Trisha had told IANS.

The movie has had its share of controversies too. Akshay found himself in the midst of a furore after he visited the ailing Laxman. Some believed it was a promotional tactic for his film. But Akshay later clarified saying he was invited by Laxman's family.

"Khatta Meetha" has also made headlines over a controversial song titled "Bullshit", which takes potshots at corrupt politicians.

However, the actor said: "We are not taking names of any individual or political party in the track. We are just commenting about corruption."