Nanu Ki Jaanu – It’s funny but not entirely
Rated: 5/10
The last spooky comedy the Indian audience enjoyed was Go, Goa Gone in which the Over The Top Saif Ali Khan had quite a romp. Ever since, there has been little to cheer about in this genre which, incidentally, is full of potential.
Nanu Ki Janu amply proves that you can have quite a laugh when the spirits are moving around. Much like the main protagonist Abhay Deol the movie, too, is a rare one. It is hilarious but in parts. It is fun, but in parts. It was, indeed, full of possibilities which it fails to exploit to the hilt. But then when was it that we had a full-blooded hearty comedy coming out of the Bollywood coffers?
Not that one can remember, so this attempted one comes across as a scatter-brained, meandering, sometimes directionless but funny nevertheless film which could have been oh so better. Abhay Deol as an aspiring goonda with a band of sidekicks does well, as always. He is a master of two-bit roles but in this one he does his best to stitch up the fun element despite being a bored ganster of sorts grabbing flats from vulnerable people for the unseen, unknown land Mafiosi.
He drinks, he dances, he intimidates, he goes pubbing and then he drives back in his black SUV to spend another beer night at one of the grabbed flats which he is yet to hand over to the big land shark. But life changes after he tries to save an accident victim lying in a pool of blood on the roadside. He does manage to save her but only till she reaches the hospital. She dies on the stretcher and that’s when the funny buddies and their leader have a change of life.
There is nothing in the film apart from the fun element. So, the fun element needed to be much more than director manages in the film which stretches towards an end which is chaotic and goes astray. A two-bit comic skit in the last shot brings back the fun, leaving the audience to long for more such in the entire movie.
An okay film for a lean week or if you are not doing anything better.
Source: The Sunday Pioneer, 22 April, 2018