Review : The Film Emotional Atyachar

The Film Emotional Atyachar

Director : Akshay Shere

Writing Credits : Screenplay – ?; Dialogues : Kartik Krishnan

Music : Mangesh Dhadke

Cast : Ranvir Shorey, Vinay Pathak, Ravi Kissen, Mohit Ahlawat, Kalki Koechlin, Snehal Dabhi

What goes for the film : A dream cast, spunky performances, rip-roaring dialogue

What goes against the audience : A tepid screenplay, bad editing and one absolutely gross scene the film didn’t need

Cinemaa Opinion : An entertaining one time watch. Scroll down for a detailed review

Joe & Leslie. The Bollywood equivalents of Beavis and Butthead. Twisted, badass, confident and obnoxious in an endearing way, the two cops have CORRUPT stencilled on their foreheads and of course, their tongues.

Juniorbhai. A smalltime crook with dreams of making it big and balls to work towards it. A modern day Don Quixote. His cronies – the bombastic Goti & the out f place Pichku. They lag behind their leader only in experience, not in wannabeness.

Bosco & Sophie. A dope peddler in the garb of a casino owner & his gold-digging moll. He, an airhead with the airs of a mafia capo and she, a charming seductress who knows how to hide her venomous fangs quite well.

Vikram Jaiswal and Hiten Sardesai. Two businessmen who run into each other under weird circumstances. The former has wizened beyond his age over the last few hours and the latter, a naive do-gooder.

Throw in a bagful of money between this bunch of crazy characters on a dark night and a desolate highway and you have a spectrum of endless possibilities ranging from an absurd wave classic to a cult gem. The Film Emotional Atyachar, with a crew of newbies behind it just about manages to end up on the positive side of the spectrum, and that’s a creditable achievement for sure.

Debutant director Akshay Shere spins a road thriller with dark comedy thrown in for good measure. And more than anything else, its the casting that makes the film cross into the realm of decent. There couldn’t have been a better choice to play Joe & Leslie than Vinay Pathak & Ranvir Shorey. The two share a chemistry that reminds one of Bud Spencer/Terence Hill, or at the risk of unprecedented audacity, Tony Curtis/Jack Lemmon. Ravi Kissen was born to play a tapori and he’s in glowing form here.  Goti is a more carefree version of Snehal Dabhi’s unforgettable Chandu from Ram Gopal Varma’s Satya. And Snehal simply owns Goti’s character. Kalki Koechlin is charming, bubbly and has a pout & smile to kill for. That’s just what is required to play Sophie and Kalki does it with aplomb. Pankaj Kalra (Pichku) and Anand Tiwari (Hiten Sardesai) are smart choices for the respective roles. The casting director even gets away with casting the terribly overrated Abhimanyu Singh as Bosco hardly gets to do anything more than flaunt his physique in body hugging T-shirts.

There are some rip-roaring scenes that stay with you for a long time. Joe and Leslie analysing Tom & Jerry is a riot. Vinay & Ranvir take it to an ethereal level with their execution. Juniorbhai & gang plotting their heist is also great fun with some terrific improvisation in body language by Snehal & Pankaj. The one that takes the cake in the humour stakes is when Goti & Pichku go to buy firearms. A comparison with Carrey & Daniels in Dumb & Dumber won’t be out of place. Dialogues form the soul of the humour in the film and there are dollops of earthy Bambaiyya wit all throughout.

With all this going its way, the film could have well ended up as the surprise sleeper hit of the year. Sadly, it carries the burden of a criminally bad casting decision, a tepid screenplay and some rank amatuer editing. The casting decision I’m talking about is that of Mohit Ahlawat. Wasn’t RGV’s double edged (James & Shiva)  assault on our nervous system enough? Vikram Jaiswal is the character who goes through the maximum tumult in the film. And thrusting Ahlawat’s singular expression of indifference on him was collosal injustice.  The screenplay tries to be unnecessarily complex just for the heck of it. The editing leaves no stone unturned in diluting the quirkiness of the characters. And what the eff was that bullet removal sequence all about?

In the context, I can’t help but remember a favourite film of mine from recent years – Ek Chalis Ki Last Local. Another debut effort, it had the same concept as this one. But it comes across as a far more superior film. It focussed on its strengths – the quirky characters, the outrageous situations, the witty dialogues and the spontaneous performances. It bore the hallmark of a confident debut. Emotional Atyachar has the same strengths, maybe in a slightly higher quantum than its predecessor. But it comes across as less sure of its strengths and tries to rely on artificial props like a non-linear narrative, quick cuts and the likes. That, the way I see it, will prove to be its biggest undoing.

P.S. : I couldn’t get one thing in the film, however hard I tried. What on earth was the relevance of the title? Many thanks in anticipation of an explanation.