Laxmii Movie Review: Kaafi tacky

LaxmiiOn DisneyHotstar Director Raghava LawrenceCast Akshay Kumar Kiara AdvaniRatingThis film pretty much starts with the scene of a witchhunt in Haryana By which I dont mean the sort of witchhunt that plays on national news on Indian TV But an actual witchhunt where the proverb comes from Which I guess is the ancient act of banishing women by ascribing them characteristics of a witch mdash with supernatural powers that could hurt society Call them chudail if you willGod knows if this practice is still prevalent Its metaphorical equivalent certainly is Akshay Kumar walks into the real witchhunt scene to save a girl from the clutches of a fake tantric Heres the thing thoughAkshay plays a member of a rationalists association in this movie that is altogether obscurantist by nature mdash feeding fully into the fact that there is indeed a ghost that in this case probably gets into the heros body while the hero goes around tormenting everyone including his family as a result Not sure whyFrankly all supernatural movies expect audiences to believe in the paranormal So one mustnt be shocked on that account This one is a remake of a Tamil film presuming a hit called Kanchana 2011 that was a sequel by the same director Raghava Lawrence of a film called Muni Havent seen either Honestly looking at this remake doesnt seem like have missed muchI know everyone usually keeps going on about how the original was much better Well this is supposed to be a horrorcomedy that doesnt scare you for even a second And frankly there is nothing to laugh overabout even if you consider that let alone a scene any of the characters were supposed to be funnyFor instance the heroines Hindu father Rajesh who cant stand the fact that his daughter is married to a Muslim He is the seedhesaadhe Akshay and so the bigot baap starts to accept him after all What does it have to do with the rest of the movie NothingOr that this film shines a light on the plight of a transgender protagonist which is what Akshay transforms into mdash a reason some may have been excited about this subject in the first place This whole backstory plays out like a totally unrelated half hour or so of a film within the film with nothing really adding upThese are aspect in line with Akshay 20 movies that more often than not deliver a social message along with massy entertainment Sharad Kelkar plays the transgender character as well An actual transgender person in this role at least wouldve been genuinely transformative for the community noWhich isnt to say Kelkar isnt excellent he usually is Nothing still matches up to Ashutosh Rana from Sangharsh 1999 while Laxmii originally titled laxmmi Bomb a bull bhulaiya of sorts looks and feels mdash by way of camera work production design charactersperformances mdash considerably more dated than the 90sLets just say that while this typically wannabe Bollywood blockbuster type has directly dropped on HotstarDisney its just way too overthetop to merit an onlyOTT release The only place I could see this finding some favour among audiences are probably North Indias singlescreen theatresWatch the trailer of Akshay Kumar Kiara Advani starrer Laxmii hereWhat would I love to catch with that crowd Okay maybe not the hero doing a Jai Mata Di jagrata version of Gully Boys Apna Time Aayega Maybe that mahagrand number picturised before Dubais Burj Khalifa with the wife singing to her husband Mundya dilade mainu Burj Khalifa boy buy me Burj KhalifaKiara Advani plays this wife Guessing the last time she and Akshay paired in a film together Good Newwz 2019 the todu track was Dilade ghar Chandigarh mein buy me a house in Chandigarh Clearly as a screencouple theyve been through an upgradeSpeaking of Kiara I only recently learnt thanks to Wikipedia that her truelife name is Alia which she had to change for screen because theres already an Alia Bhatt in Bollywood Look closely though every scene youll find her gently mimicking Deepika Padukone Which is fine except she has no scenes Laxmii is basically Housefull 4 without even the jokes for them to work or not Boy buy me Burj KhalifaAlso readBhool Bhulaiyaa Go Goa Gone Golmaal Again Stree Decoding The Genre Of Horror ComedyKeep scrolling to read more newsCatch up on all the latest entertainment news and gossip here Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps MidDay is now on Telegram Click here to join our channel middayinfomedialtd and stay updated with the latest news