Film Review - Chennai Express

                                   Please Mind the Gap

Film: Chennai Express

 

Cast: Shah Rukh Khan, Deepika Padukone

 

Directed by: Rohit Shetty

 

Duration: 2 hrs 22 mins

 

Rating: *  *

 

        In a nutshell, Chennai Express is a film about a South Indian girl in Mumbai who has escaped from the clutches of her tyrannical father. In order to escape further, what does she do? She boards a train that heads back to her village. 

            Now that is kind of respect this film has for logic. But when you have two big stars, a director with three films that have made it to the Rs.100 crore club, who cares about logic? The film makers know that the audiences out there are suckers who will throng the theatres anyway, logic, reason and common sense be damned.

            The case is not against entertainers per se; there have been many films that have entertained the public aplenty, and also left something that you could take home or remember after you have left the theatre. But some so-called mass entertainers have such convoluted storylines that you would rather forget everything you saw rather than savor it.

            In the case of Chennai Express, the fault is not so much with the director Rohit Shetty as it is with the writer Yunus Sajawal. If you see Sajawal saab’s filmography, it will boggle your mind – Rascals, Do Knot Disturb, Tom, Dick, Harry, God Tussi Great ho and many other travesties are credited to him.

            For the n^th time in is career, Shah Rukh Khan plays Rahul, after his grandpa’s death, he is on his way to Rameshwaram to immerse the ashes. Actually he is fooling his grandma and heading to Goa to join his friends when he boards you know which train. As if the lend-me-your-hand-while-the-train-is-leaving-the-platform scene was not enough in Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge and subsequent films, it is repeated here again and right away you know that novelty is not to be expected in this film. The damsel in distress is Meena (Deepika) who is being hounded by her father’s goons and after a brief journey, they are all in the village where her dad rules the roost. . She speaks with an accent so heavy you may never have heard anything like it before (Mithun Chakraborthy in Agneepath comes close) but then accurate portrayals have never been Bollywoods forte.

            In between all the buffoonery, you also get to see some unabashed product placement for a phone that SRK endorses, not to mention the considerably lame references previous films time and again.

There isn’t a great deal that happens in the second half as the plot just meanders on. Since it is a Rohit Shety film, it is mandatory for a few cars to be air borne before they come crashing down. We are also subjected to some not so melodious singing (to put it politely that is) by the two stars, when they try to communicate via parodies. In the end she also mentions that her childhood friend is in Pune so why did she board the train which takes her back to the village? As Deepika would have said in that accent, “Fillum ka story dekh ke mera multiplex ke dewaar pe sar phodne ka man karte”

And there are more stereotype characters than you will ever find – the father wants to get his daughter married against her wishes to some one else so that he can spread his fiefdom.The self deprecating humor works but only sporadically, at least they don’t try to pass of SRK as a thirty something young man.

The music doesn’t have much to hum, barring the titli song. As far as the acting is concerned, Deepika Padukone holds fort which not many actresses would have been able to with such conviction. Shah Rukh Khan occasionally shows his knack for comedy but most of the time he hams and is so over the top that could easily fly over Burj Khalifa. 

So to sum up, there are two types of people in this world – those who can leave their brains behind and enjoy a brainless ‘entertainer’ and those who have difficulty in parting with their grey cells. Ask yourself, which kind are you?

 

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