With brilliant cinematography, 'Joker' is a visual thrill!
Director: Shirish Kunder
Cast: Akshay Kumar, Sonakshi Sinha
Rating: 2.5 / 5
Editor-turned-director Shirish Kunder, presents a decorated meal that looks tempting. You bite into it and you love what you taste, but as you keep eating you realize that this isn’t fun anymore. And when you’re done, you don’t know if you really enjoyed what you just ate! By the time you're home, it's a forgotten deal.
Kunder portrays ‘Joker’, like what seems to be a very satisfying meal, but when you look back, it’s just another colourful, big-starrer, loop-holed film!
In short, the makers get it bang-on with the cinematography, direction and some fantastic one-liners, keeping you entertained till the very end. Except for one utterly, overdone sequence towards the finale - with Shreyas Talpade playing 'dumb dancer'.
The film portrays a beautiful story with a dark, sepia tone – like the one we find it Johnny Depp’s outstanding ‘Edward Scissorhands’.
‘Joker’ begins in 1946, colonial India, where the town of ‘Paglapur’ is established as a ‘lost village of fools’ with no marking on India’s map!
Since its inception, the movie presents a visually mystical picture of the town, with captivating background scores introducing the title of the film – ‘JOKER’.
The film follows scientist Agastya, (Akshay Kumar) and his girlfriend Deeva (Sonakshi Sinha) from America to the town of ‘Paglapur’ – ‘land of the folly’ to meet Agastya’s unwell father. Things take a twist when Akshay Kumar decides to take matters into his own hands and help the town establish itself.
So far, so predictable!
But the movie presents Akshay Kumar in the role of a young man, wanting to find life outside the borders of the earth. This is beautifully explained through a conversation he has with Sonakshi Sinha, regarding how he managed to dwindle out of ‘Paglapur’ in the first place!
The story takes you through a predictable, yet enthralling journey, in the lives of the people of ‘Paglapur’.
The supporting cast playing Babban (Shreyas Talpade) Agastya’s brother, Masterji (Asrani) and others like Gurpreet Ghuggi, Sanjai Mishra, Pitobash Tripathy, carry the film forward in a sensational manner.
The lights, art and set designs in the film, along with firefly lanterns, vegetable costumes, make up for the over-the-top, humour at times.
But the cherry-on-top, literally and figuratively, is definitely Chitrangada Singh’s ‘Kaafirana’ – ‘I want justa you’ which fits in like a puzzle’s missing piece in the film – so perfectly, you find yourself leaning forward, tapping your feet to the ‘chammak chalo’ in vibrant saris, giving you every ‘thumka’ of her life!
Shirish Kunder presents a magical picture of people falling from trees, quick sand saviors, communication with Talpade yelling out, “kaalaghus gat gat” blah blah, and a village ‘Einstein’ appeal. Kunder also manages to bring out the best in Akshay Kumar, who acts brilliantly, and Sonakshi Sinha, who offers a non-skinny, yet sexy feel to the film.
Minissha Lamba, cannot be blamed for the annoying “typical woman-PRESS” role in the film. With the worst dialogues and unlike-journalist attire, she takes the film down with ease!
The movie takes you through a fantastic story until the interval. However, with a slower, more-bollywood-like, threadbare second half the movie goes on a low-key.
Coupled with the uncanny music combo, of Kollywood’s music star, G.V. Prakash Kumar and Bollywood’s, surprisingly good new-comer, Gaurav Dagaonkar, the film stays upbeat through all of its one and a half hours of length. Even though songs - ‘Jugnu’ and ‘Sing Raja’ could have easily been chopped out of the film, the montages they create work in favour of upholding the feel the movie lavishly presents.
With witty puns like the American called, ‘Simon Goe-Back’ and ‘Ulti Chhatri’ being called a ‘Vomit Umbrella’ you have moments in the film that you enjoy! But with an out-of-the-blue, predictable and average climax, the film proves itself to be just one of those everyday Bollywood dramas.
With everything going for it, ‘Joker’ presents a sci-fi-comedy-drama, ‘run-baby-run’ mélange that might just interest you, if you’re the type of Bollywood junkie, who at the end of the day, enjoys a well- presented meal, no matter what the ingredients!
