Film Review - Ekkees Toppon Ki Salaami

21 Guns

Film: Ekkees Toppon Ki Salaami

Cast: Divyendu Sharma, Anupan Kher, Neha Dhupia

Directed by: Ravindra Gautam

Duration: 2 hrs 20 mins

Rating: * * 1 / 2

Ekkees Toppon Ki Salaami is one of those off-beat films that dare to be different. It is not a low budget film and attempts to tackle a contemporary subject, of corruption and honesty. With a protagonist who is dead being the centre of a large part of it, the film in some way pays a tribute to that Kundan Shah classic Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron which incidentally also dealt with corruption as its backdrop.

Purshottom Joshi (Anupam Kher) is a BMC employee and they don’t come more honest than him. His sons Subhash (Divyendu Sharma) and Shekhar (Manu Rishi) are not exactly following their father’s footsteps when it comes to honesty. On the day of his retirement, the elderly gent is falsely accused of graft and is heartbroken. Soon he dies, but not before he makes Subhash promise him that for his funeral there will a 21 gun salute which is usually reserved only for state leaders.

Co-incidentally, the state Chief Minister (Rajesh Sharma) also dies on the same day and Shekar along with his girlfriend (Taanya Shrivastav) hatch a plan to switch the dead bodies so that his father’s wish can be fulfilled.

Although the plot sounds a bit far fetched, there are some comic elements that help it sail through although it is not very smooth primarily because it stretches quite a bit. Uttara Baokar as the chief minister’s mother who wants to take over his mantle is a hoot. Her rival is Jaya Prabha (Neha Dhupia) who had an affair with the C.M and now wants to extract her pound of flesh.

The film maker’s intentions are noble and the film is relatively engaging. The problem with many of these films dealing with an off-beat subject is that they want to tell a story that is uncommon and yet embrace the Bollywood song and dance routine which more often than not, looks out of place. 

Some of the blemishes no withstanding, Ekkees Toppon Ki Salaami is a cut above the rest.

Published in The Navhind Times on 12th Oct 2014

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