Hello Charlie Movie Review: Hitch This Aadar Jain-Jackie Shroff's Ride Only If You 'Ape-Reciate' Silly Gags

Story

JD Makwana (Jackie Shroff), a business tycoon and a colorful playboy plans to flee from India after duping banks of a lot of money. Touted to be the alchemist of finance, the man loves to play chess and mind you, bananas are his pet peeve. Makwana's model-girlfriend Mona (Elnaaz Norouzi) suggests him to disguise as a gorilla named Toto so that she can smuggle him out of the country to Dubai.

On the other hand, Chirag Rastogi aka Charlie (Aadar Jain) is a man running out of luck who has always been unsuccessful in whatever ventures he has partaken. When his uncle (Darshan Jariwala) takes off to his village to participate in a tricycle race, asking him to take care of his truck Girnaar Express, Mona assigns him the job of escorting Toto to a circus in Diu, from where the latter and his girlfriend plan to bid goodbye to the country. Meanwhile, a real gorilla who was to be transported to a zoo, escapes after the plane carrying him crashes.

As Charlie sets out to transport Toto to Diu, unware of his identity, a series of misadventures take place when he bumps into a scheming circus owner Priyesh Patel (Girish Kulkarni), a circus dancer Padma (Sholakka Pandit), a forest ranger Ranger Solee Topi (Rajpal Yadav) and a veterinary doctor Dr Gantra (Bharat Ganeshpure).

Direction

Right from the first frame till the last, director Pankaj Saraswat through his storytelling skills, tells us not to take things seriously in this adventure comedy film. When it comes to laughter department, the silly gags do tickle your funny bone. Further, the comedy of errors also bring in a fun element to the narrative.

However, minus these ha-ha scenes, the film's story barely has any meat to it. Also, things get a tad repetitive when Saraswat tries to extract some juice from the wafer thin plot. A little more crisp writing would have upped the entertainment quotient by several notches.

Performances

After making his Bollywood debut with Habib Faisal's musical drama film Qaidi Band in 2017, Aadar Jain makes his onscreen comeback with Hello Charlie. While the boy still has a long way to go in terms of his acting chops, his comic timing is promising.

Jackie Shroff's swag is on point and as Toto too, he offers an platter filled with entertainment to the audience. Elnaaz Norouzi's femme fatale act works fine for the film. Debutante Shlokaa Pandit barely makes a mark as a circus dancer and Charlie's love interest. The rest of the cast including Rajpal Yadav, Darshan Jariwala, Siddhant Kapoor and others pull off a decent act.

Technical Aspects

Andre Menezes's cinematography works fine with the theme of the film though the production value looks a bit artificial at places. Chandan Arora and Mitesh Soni's editing could have been a little more tauter.

Music

'One Two One Two Dance' crooned by Nakash Aziz, makes up for its forgettable lyrics with its colorful visuals. The rest of the tracks simply add minutes to the runtime of the film.

Verdict

At one point in Hello Charlie, the narrator says, "Shaayad kisine theek hi kaha hai, jo kuch nahin karte woh kamaal karte hai." One wonders if the makers took their words a tad seriously and chose to pass off a bunch of silly gags as a film.