Small town films made on a modest budget, relying on a key-namer and a comic subject are the most saleable projects in Hindi Cinema since last few years and MOTICHOOR CHAKNACHOOR is yet another product in the line offering the same old things.
The makers do try hard but its core subject gets deliberately stretched resulting in a tiring second half and the writing doesn’t offer anything exciting to keep you invested. Hence, it more or less remains a simple and sweet film with the supporting cast (the family members) once again making an impact and 'a surprise-performance' taking you over unexpectedly.
The good news or the plesant surprise is that in a film featuring Nawazuddin Siddiqui as a Dubai returned, sex-starved, unmarried middle-aged man, it’s not Nawazuddin but the girl Athiya Shetty impressing the most, who otherwise looks like a misfit in such a small-town family drama. No doubt Athiya still has a long way to go in order to give an outstanding act excelling actors like Nawazuddin Siddiqui. But with this performance, she does take some big steps forward giving a solid answer to her critics raising the bar for herself.
However, where both Nawazuddin and Athiya keep trying to make it an entertaining watch, the writers never give them enough to do so and the direction keeps struggling to move over an average attempt. As a result despite having a good subject talking about girls being desperate to marry an NRI, parents looking for a fat dowry in return for their foreign returned boys and an NRI faking his status returning after losing the job, MOTICHOOR CHAKNACHOOR had a lot that could have been exploited in a much more engaging and entertaining form as a social family comedy.
Even then, it thankfully turns out to be a simple and sweet, average film with Athiya being a true revelation as the bubbly and ambitious small-town girl, she never appeared to be. The final product could have delievered a lot more with a better written second half, but you can still watch it once as a fairly good, time pass movie without expecting something extraordinary.
And as a bonus it has a good song as Chhoti Chhoti Gal too, composed by Arjuna Harjai, penned by Kumaar and sung by Arjuna Harjai and Yasser Desai. But the catch here is that in a film having nothing to do with Punjabi region, language or characters, the best song of the soundtrack is yet again strangely in Punjabi, that seems to be another weird norm of the present times. Perhaps now we cannot even complain as nobody seems to listen or even mind the illogical absurdity.
Rating : 2.5 / 5
Tags :
MOTICHOOR CHAKNACHOOR Review by Bobby Sing at bobbytalkscinema.com, New Hindi Films Reviews by Bobby Sing, New Bollywood Movies Reviews by Bobby Sing, Small Town Hindi films revolving around a Marriage.
