Oops! Was that a story spoiler in the first paragraph? Well, with Anees Bazmee’s Thank You, you can’t dissect the movie without spoiling the story.
Like in most of his films, Bazmee sticks with Akshay Kumar, hoping for a safe landing in the face of comedy, but he misses the reality that comedy lies in between the scripts, not in the characters.
Keeping in mind the fact that the movie is the production of Twinkle Khanna, it can, however, be understood why Akshay Kumar was in the comedy film, again !
Men being represented as dogs, cheating their wives and having the times of their lives, with women still worshipping them and hoping for them to one day come back to them is like an old nanny’s story for any film industry – be it for Hollywood or Bollywood.
Thank You looks like that backhanded odd films of Bollywood wherein the women worshipped their spouses, irrespective of being aware of their extramarital affairs.
Back then, the key elements of the film used to be patience while in Bazmee’s Thank You, it’s the jealousy and revenge that helps our heroines gets their betraying beloved back on track. And the other differences include location and the costumes.
Earlier it used to be “Sati-Sabitri” avatar of women as helpless housewives while in Bazmee’s Thank You, they are sensual women in skimpy attires at the exotic locales of Canada.
Unfaithfulness as a theme is extremely familiar terrain of the film.
Though director Bazmee experiments with different degrees of humor to get you laughing, it’s just Irrfan Khan’s role that makes you laugh, a bit. Irrfan scores the highest when it’s about projecting parody. His witty responses to his wife Rimi Sen create the whole mood of the film.
You’re often put away by Akshay Kumar who tries too hard to tell you when to laugh.
Draping your body with a sari to make an escape from the goons is nothing extraordinarily funny. And acting as a pied piper, teaching three womanizers how to tackle with their cheating husbands, doesn’t make Akki any special.
Akshay seriously needs to take a vacation from the comedy flicks for sometime, even if it’s his own beloved’s production. Similarly, Suneil Shetty’s comeback isn’t at all powerful to make you remember his Hera Pheri days. He rather looks more flummoxed than funny.
Sonam Kapoor needs to concentrate on two “ings” – acting and eating. Ever since her Saawariya days, her acting has remained so plastic.
In addition, if she’s planning to go zero-size competing with other Bollywood actresses, it’s high time for her to realize this that she’s already minus zero, with just the skin and the bones in her body.
Coming back to her acting, designer-wear costumes, shades and stilettos has nothing to do when it’s about delivering your dialogues the right way.
In fact, actress Rimi Sen, though not that celebrated in Bollywood, does more of a show than Kapoor by supporting Irrfan Khan promisingly in the movie, while Celina Jaitely’s presence in the film makes no difference at all.
Sadly, even Pritam Chakroborty’s music has nothing to soothe your ear buds, spare one track “Razia.”
All in all, for a Bollywood kind of masala movie, Thank You may have its ingredients.
However, if we’re speaking about some serious humor, the film lacks smart writing, and sassy dialogues, neat execution, and the handful of performers aren’t rightly used.
Screening at QFX
The writer is Program Officer at Indian Cultural Centre
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