Khajoor Pe Atke

*ing: Vinay Pathak, Manoj Pahwa, Dolly Ahluwalia, Seema Bhargava

Rated: 5/10

Small budget movies like this one have started dotting an expanding Bollywood with their small stories, gentle humour, serious issues and contemporary themes.

Khajoor Pe Atka, unfolding on the shoulders of talented actors Manoj Pahwa and Vinay Pathak, is a take on a usual middle-class family full of pulls and pushes but extreme concern and togetherness on the face of it. A brother is dying and all are called. But when the khandan gets together, rather reluctantly, a lot happens that should not. But such is life and the director does well to show it up without saving any punches. There is bromance but with unsaid property concerns in between; there is sisterly love amid the brothers’ wives but not without unhealthy competition, jealousy; there is even boredom around waiting endlessly for a patient who is refusing to die; a saga around healthcare bills and the difficult decision of pulling the plug in the face of depleted funds.

All this happens all the time, as do the undercurrents of aspirations within the family. The film shows all this with a reality rug around it so manages to eke out your interest in the proceedings. But it could have been more replete with an insert of humour and pathos which are both there but in slim forms.

The veterans do well but the film, sadly, is as run-of-the-mill as the situation it tries to showcase.

Source: The Pioneer, 20 May, 2018