Royal
Treatment
Film: Khoobsurat
Cast: Sonam Kapoor, Fawad Khan, Ratna Pathak Shah
Directed by: Shashanka Ghosh
Duration: 2 hrs 10 mins
Rating: * * *
Director Shashanka Ghosh has a couple of diverse films to
his credit (Waisa Bhi Hota Hain Part II, Quick Gun Murugun) and has added
another one to that list. Khoobsurat is a remake of the 1980 film of the same
name starring Rekha and given the fate of remakes these days, the expectations were on the
lower side.
But I am glad that this film turned out to be a pleasant
experience and eminently likable. It is feel-good, fluffy fairy tale like story
(it is produced by Disney after all) with a few laughs thrown in for good
measure. Given that the original film
was a plain simple story (that was Hrishikesh Mukherjee afterall), the
screenplay writer Indira Bisht and her co-dialogue writer Juhi Chaturvedi have
done a commendable job of adapting it.
Sonam Kapoor plays Mili Chakraborthy a physio-therapist (for
the Kolkata Knight Riders) who is forced to pick an assignment in Rajasthan, to
treat an elderly gentlemen (Amir Raza Hussain) from a royal family, whose feet
are paralyzed.
If Mili were a detective, she would be like Jacques Clouseau
– bumbling, falling over things and not knowing what to say when. This doesn’t
augur well in a family where everything happens with clockwork precision under
the command of the lady of house Nirmala Devi (Ratna Pathak Shah, her mother
Dina Pathak played the same role in the original).
The son Prince Vikram (Pakistani actor Fawad Khan) is mostly
busy dealing with business matters and is already engaged with the wedding
around the corner. To say that the hyper Mili doesn’t follow the norms will be
an understatement but it is her charm and innocence that works wonders on the
young man and she also helps the father to get better and smile again.
While the story is predictable, it is the scenes and the
dialogues that provide a zing. In such a
setup you are expecting any surprises and the journey is smooth. Initially the humor is a little slapstick but
within acceptable norms and enjoyable in fact.
The costumes and production design also lend an air of
credibility to the proceedings and the visuals gel very well. Sneha
Khanwilkar’s rustic tunes are several notches above the usual and you want to
revisit those tunes again.
The acting and chemistry between the lead players is also a
big positive. While Fawad Khan fares
well, Sonam Kapoor gives her finest performance as the bubbly Mili. The
supporting cast is also apt – Kirron Kher as the Punjabi mother has been there
done that a zillion times and a special mention for Ratna Pathak Shah who is
first rate.
All in all, with a high feel-good quotient, Khoobsurat delivers a pleasant outing at the
cinemas.
Published in The Navhind Times on 21st Sept 2014
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