First
things
first.
This
is
not,
repeat
not,
a
comedy.
Not
by
any
yardstick.
For
those
expecting
a
typical
Priyadarshan-Akshay
Kumar
comedy
Khatta
Meetha
is
not
your
cup
of
tee-hee.
For
those
who
know
there's
a
more
reflective
and
ruminative
side
to
both
the
prolific
director
and
the
leading
man,
here's
the
thing.
Khatta
Meetha
takes
stinging
satirical
swipes
at
the
epidemic
disease
of
corruption
that
has
taken
over
the
Indian
ethos.
Tragically
the
treatment
is
quite
often
heavy-handed.
But
the
statement
never
drowns
in
the
diatribe.
Priyadarshan
tends
to
fill
up
the
outer
edges
with
a
profusion
of
incidental
characters
and
over-elaborate
gags
and
jokes
that
hold
themselves
in
place
in
a
world
of
unmitigated
chaos
like
De
Dana
Dan.
Here
the
clutter
and
the
clamour
just
make
you
feel
the
director
needed
to
respect
his
own
tone
of
sobriety
in
this
longish
tickling
treatise
on
malpractices
in
the
middleclass.
The
plot
is
a
bit
of
a
tangle.
Akshay
Kumar's
family
of
discontented
mal-paani-practitioners
is
a
universe
of
brutish
brothers
and
screechy
sisters-in-law,
and
silently-suffering
parents
(played
by
those
wonderful
actors
Kulbhushan
Kharbanda
and
Aroona
Irani).
It's
a
family
of
corrupt
road
contractors
and
initially,
Akshay
seems
the
most
wickedly
immoral
of
them
all.
But
hang
on!
As
the
narrative-at
time
plodding-moves
forward
we
begin
to
understand
the
wacked
-out
sinister
yet
satirical,
chaotic
yet
orderly,
corrupt
yet
weirdly-ethical
world
of
Sachin
Tichkule.
Here's
a
character
that
seems
to
have
been
written
only
for
Akshay
Kumar.
And
he
gets
hold
of
the
'muddle'-class
morality
of
Tichkule's
world
with
delightful
earnestness.
Frequently
Akshay
is
exasperating
in
his
efforts
to
explain
why
the
middleclass
is
in
a
state
of
self-destructive
decline.
But
it
isn't
the
actor
to
blame.
It
is
the
nature
of
the
material
offered
to
the
actor.
The
domestic
and
professional
world
of
Scahin
Tichkule
is
not
easy
to
penetrate.
Akshay,
demonstrating
a
primetime
ripeness
in
his
body
language
and
repertoire
of
Chaplinesque
expressions,
enters
this
wacky
wounded
world
of
the
exploited
and
the
damned
with
extraordinary
empathy.
Akshay's
is
a
performance
that
is
far
more
accomplished
than
it
may
seem
to
the
popcorn
province.
He's
exasperating
in
his
directness.
He's
partly
a
cartoon
character,
partly
an
emblem
of
our
times
and
wholly
entertaining
in
his
chaotic
comprehension
of
the
inadequacies
of
world
we've
inherited
from
the
freedom
fighters
and
brutally
disfigured.
But
alas.
Akshay's
character
is
much
much
too
wordy
in
his
tongue
type.
The
hallmark
of
Charlie
Chaplin's
social
comment
was
his
silent
expressions
of
protest.
Akshay's
character
and
the
film
on
the
whole
are
much
too
verbose.
The
characters
are
constantly
talking,
as
though
not
speaking
would
take
away
the
audiences'
attention.
A
film
making
a
social
comment
didn't
have
to
over-state
its
case
so
blatantly.
But
the
words
do
not
cut
into
the
narrative's
basic
flow
of
tongue-in-cheek
satire.
Some
sequences
such
as
the
one
involving
the
steamroller
and
the
elephant
consume
too
much
footage.
The
art
of
understatement
eludes
this
political
statement.
Trisha
Krishnan
wearing
chunky
ear-rings
and
severe
bureaucratic
expressions
makes
an
unusual
debut.
She
is
different
from
the
short-skirted
hotties.
But
whether
that
difference
makes
a
difference
in
Hindi
cinema,
time
will
tell.
Khatta
Meetha
stands
tall
in
its
message
of
restoring
a
semblance
of
moral
order
in
the
middleclass.
The
last
half-hour
after
Sachin
Tickule's
sister
is
murdered,
is
thoroughly
gripping.
And
the
fight
between
Akshay
and
the
corrupt
goons
in
the
crowded
lanes
is
chilling
in
its
realism.
Realism
is
a
remotely
but
decidedly
obtainable
component
in
this
parodic
parable
on
the
rotten
fruits
of
excessively
materialistic
aspirations
in
post-Independence
India.
Technically
polished
and
many
notches
superior
to
Akshay
Kumar's
other
recent
entertainers
Khatta
Meetha
conveys
that
sweet-sour
taste
of
a
universe
that
has
rapidly
degenerated
into
absolute
self-gratification.
See
it
for
what
the
film
leaves
unsaid,
though
that's
hard
to
do
when
everyone
is
ceaselessly
talking.
Story first published: Friday, July 22, 2011, 8:46 [IST]