Movie Review : Fukrey

Rating : 1/5
Genre : Comedy
Year : 2013
Running time : 2 hours 19 minutes
Director : Mrigdeep Singh Lamba
Cast : Pulkit Samrat, Priya Anand, Richa Sharma, Manjot Singh, Ali Fazal, Varun Sharma, Pankaj Tripathi
Kid rating : PG-13

What is it with Bollywood and stupid men? You think their tribe lessens but it does not. Hindi films feature them, laud them as heroes even. Fukrey is a prime example of such tripe; I’m surprised that Farhan Akhtar is producer on this atrocious film.

Honey (Pulkit Samrat) and his friend Choocha (Varun Sharma) are two school-going back-benchers set to fail their 12th class boards for the 3rd time. This presents a problem because the two want to progress to college, for those hallowed grounds will enable them to wallow in the company of beautiful girls, bunk classes and goof off. Lali (Manjot Singh), the son of a halwai, dreams of getting admission into a “cool” college and progressing from the down-market correspondence course he is currently doing. Zafar (Fazal) is a floppy-haired wanna-be musician who roams the campus grounds strumming his guitar and composing ditties.

The four need money. They end up together borrowing money from nefarious con-woman Bholi Punjaban (Richa Sharma) to put in a hare-brained lottery-winning scheme. It will not end well.

I’m all for low-budget charmers about local life, provided they have a semblance of realism. Fukrey is based on a premise so shaky and devoid of common-sense that it is hard to root for. The film really didn’t go anywhere, and played out like a boring tv serial – I actually dozed off. Plus the characters in this film are an unlikeable lot.

Character flaws are common, interesting even, but stupidity is hard on the palate. These four heroes are brain-dead, imbeciles of prime grade. Honey is street-smart and full of swagger, but sexist. Choocha is garrulous and idiotic. Lalli is irresponsible. He also thinks that if a female is being merely helpful/friendly, she’d like to have an affair with him. Zafar is a depressed-looking mope. The best qualities of each wouldn’t make one average man, i.e.; zero redeeming qualities.

Each of these four is cast in the Dilli-wallah cliché. Indeed, if young men of Delhi were of the same low caliber, then that might explain the state of the city/nation. What is annoying though is that we deem this sorry tale of four good-for-nothing lads “comedy”. Slapstick might be comedy; aimless stupidity is not.

There are three female characters in this film. There is Priya (Priya Anand of English Vinglish fame), a beautiful, sprightly, middle-class girl who looks like she might have a backbone and some self-esteem, but apparently doesn’t – she likes Honey, and forgives his stupidity and his irresponsible behavior very quickly. There is Neetu, Zafar’s smart level-headed teacher girlfriend who sees something in the impractical loser that is not visible to the movie-viewers. And there is the Bholi Punjaban (Richa Sharma) a much feared criminal, who inspite of her fearsome notoriety, decides to go very easy of the offending foursome, when some creative punishment was called for – it might have made the film more interesting.

Fukrey has some good things though – it has great atmosphere and attention to detail – the kinds we saw in “Vicky Donor” or “Tanu Weds Manu”. It also has one lovely song “Ambarsariya” – the rest are passable. The cast actually does well with their sorry characters. Pankaj Tripathi is superb as the oily “jugaadu” Panditji.

This film is well-titled; “Fukrey” roughly translates to good-for-nothing loser. When we moan and groan about the state of women in India, we must find a mirror in films like Fukrey. This portrays our laxity towards falling standards – we like our men sexist and stupid and shiftless, ready to laud and forgive transgressions because “boys-will-be-boys”, and laugh it off as “comedy”. Is it any wonder that men deliver on the poor expectations set by society?

Fukrey gets a 1 star rating not because this is a terrible film – it isn’t all that bad really; but it given some common sense it could have been so much better.

Kidwise : Fairly tepid for the average 13+ year old.