New Delhi:
Aanand L Rai had announced ‘Atrangi Re’ before the onset of Coronavirus in the country. When the shooting of the film started, lockdown was implemented. The film was stalled for months, then shooting started amidst the Covid19 protocol and then Aanand L Rai added this dialogue in his film that ‘Covid’s brother David is spreading fast, medicine needs to be taken’. As awkward as this dialogue is, Atrangi Re is even more awkward. Simply put, Aanand L Rai made Zero , even bigger than his old film Zero is ‘Atrangi Re.’
Aanand L Rai has experimented for the first time in the opening credits of Atrangi that he has replaced all his teammates in the credits of the film. Himanshu Sharma has written almost every film of Aanand L Rai. In Atrangi Re, Himanshu gave a good story to Rai Saheb, but it was blundered in the screenplay, which the directors have not been able to reconcile.
The story begins with showing that Rinku is running away, the housemates are trying to catch her. The whereabouts of Rinku’s lover is not yet known. The housemates catch a boy from outside Bihar to get rid of her… Smell the laughing gas and make him sit, they wed Rinku and Vishu forcefully. Now Vishu Babu from Chennai, who is pursuing his medical studies from Delhi and is about to get engaged to his own Dean’s daughter, gets caught up in Rinku’s affair. The marriage breaks down in the affair of Rinku and then Rinku’s chapter starts. But the lover of Rinku, Sajjad Ali Khan, is a mystery. Shows magic games, magically comes and goes.
Rinku’s problem is that she loves both Vishu and Sajjad, but this is just a show. The real problem is something else, due to which Vishu’s mind wanders. The ‘papads’ that he makes after falling in love with Rinku have not tasted good. To explain in a way, in the climax, Vishu Babu is distributing sweets to the people at the railway station that my wife has finally returned, but all those whom he is distributing sweets are not visible. The whole background is blurred behind Vishu… Similarly, in this story, the whole story behind these three characters is blurred.
Aanand L Rai is an emotional director, one who gets lost in his characters. This time too, he has forgotten the story, getting lost in his character. All the efforts he has made to show the illness of Rinku Sooryavanshi played by Sara Ali Khan, they all failed in front of the camera. The scenes in which the tussle between Akshay and Dhanush, cutting off Akshay’s hand, showing the drama of operation theatre, was to make the film intense, all those scenes were missed one after the other. Talked a lot about showing seriousness to mental illness, but left it as a comic thing. In all Aanand L’s films, the background of the parallel character makes the film strong, but in Atrangi Re, the camera did not even turn on the other characters.
The biggest highlight of the film is its music album. Irshad Kamil’s lyrics and Rahman’s music give a brief pause in the film. The effect of Chaka chak is visible in the film. Shreya Ghoshal’s voice makes your feet dance. Even the slightest sand leaves its deep impact in the voices of Arijit Singh and Sasha. Little-Little’s influence is going to be seen in Dhanush’s voice. The song Garda filmed on Akshay Kumar is used in the end credits, well he was needed there too.
The strongest foundation of ‘Atrangi Re’ is Dhanush. Such a talented actor, who can handle even in a slipping story. Can put a smile on your face. He can explain his point to Hindi people even by speaking Tamil, that is the ability of Dhanush a fantastic bow to him!
Talking about Sara Ali Khan, the director explained, the writer tried a lot by filling the dialects and abuses of Bihar in the dialogues and Seema Biswas gave her good amount of training, so that Sara could bring life to the emotion, but it didn’t happen. Sara is definitely engaged, but Rinku has not been able to pass even Grace in becoming Sooryavanshi.
Akshay accepted to take a side role in Atrangi Re to play Sajjad Ali Khan. Tremendous entry scenes were also planned for him. Great tricks of the magician were also there. Even after all this, there was nothing special for Akshay to do in the film.
The best character like Seema Biswas was left behind in a few scenes. Ashish Sharma, who became Dhanush’s friend, has made a big impact in Atrangi Re. The rest of the characters became victims of DOP’s out-of-focus.
2.5 stars to ‘Atrangi Re.’
]]>
, International, ,