Skip to content Skip to sidebar Skip to footer
Home / Khaali Peeli Movie Review - A Half-Baked Wink To Old Bollywood

Khaali Peeli Movie Review - A Half-Baked Wink To Old Bollywood

Post a Comment

Yet another wannabe masala film which uses the tropes for easy convenience without understanding the context. 


A lacklustre script, two well-known faces and too much of obsessive nostalgic porn. What could go wrong? The answer lies in Maqbool Khan's Khaali Peeli, an ill-conceived call to an era of big pictures and masculine heroes. Much like Milap Zaveri, Khan uses the "masala tropes" to fulfil his inner fanboy who does not understand the logistics behind the said tropes. Both directors treat it like an expensive toy they play around with. In a way, Khaali Peeli is a film Zaveri would have made if he used at least some part of his brain. Not much of a compliment here.

Khaali Peeli's linearity is broken by flashbacks. In a film where double-crossing hangs on the head of its characters, this unreliable narrative works in some places. Khaali Peeli opens with Vijay (Ishaan Khatter) walking out of police station. With cigarette tightly pressed between the lips, his swagger is interrupted by Pooja (Ananya Panday) making a circular stop with a taxi. Before anyone can ask, we move 10 years back to Shivpur. Here, a young Vijay, aided by his Babuji (Anup Soni), loots a shop. When caught by the police, he reveals that the whole operation was his idea. His father seemingly has abandoned him. Within the next few minutes, he escapes from the police and runs into adulthood. We are now in Mumbai, 10 years later. Vijay is now a taxi driver playing Fast and Furious: Mumbai Drift. He is cunning, greedy, opportunistic and a bit ruthless. During the strike, he manages to squeeze an amount of Rs 5000 from a couple in an emergency. The wife is pregnant, and the hospital is a five-minute walk away. Vijay manipulates them into riding with such a considerable amount. 

Writers Yash Kesarwani and Sima Agarwal create some lovely characters, but the story doesn't know what to do and how to use them. I liked Vijay's devious charm. Coming to Pooja, a villain declares he has fallen in love with her innocence and Ananya does have that sweet innocence he talks about. Though her performance has more downs than ups. She worked well in Pati Patni Aur Woh because the role, of a seductive mystery, suited her. In Khaali Peeli, she is asked to do more than being a doll. She delivers in places where she comes out of her stereotype. Like when a group of bad guys surround her, she slaps one and manages to escape. In a well-staged scene, she pulls out a gun from the bag and points at an inspector. More such scenes could have benefitted both Khaali Peeli and Ananya Panday. Jaideep Ahlawat carries a monstrous zeal that belongs to another film. He is not used as menacingly as required. 

The problems with these "ode movies" are that the films they inherit would move mountains to earn your emotions. With grand schemes, larger-than-life heroes and melodramatic dialogues, those films knew how to move you from within. In comparison, these rehashes want to be nostalgic without making any significant efforts. They merely check the boxes as they proceed. So a dance routine is inserted just because there has been none till now. Romance is stirred only because there has been none till now. Action is placed just because...you get the idea.

I have heard people say women take a lot of time in the restroom. Khaali Peeli will show you how long it is. Vijay drives away, makes a deal and returns to the pump station while Pooja remains inside the restroom. The most awful scene happens at a "Mela" (fair). Let's first examine how we reach there. Easy. The traffic is jammed near this mela, and so they decide to make a visit. I wondered what would happen if the traffic resumed? There is no one in the taxi to move it. Disaster follows when the inspector, who was earlier kept at a gun-point, also makes an entrance in the fair. Savvy are both Vijay and Pooja who plan to hide from the police by dancing on the stage. I mean, what better way to evade than attracting attention towards oneself. Right? If this was not enough then wait. Let me mention here that Pooja and Vijay know each other since childhood. He was known as Blackie and she as Red Riding Hood. Something, something, something happens, and they separate. Returning to the fair, something, something, something happens, and they separate (temporarily). Vijay goes to the missing persons counter and "miraculously," when asked for the name, he tells Blackie instead of Pooja and realizes after a few minutes that the person is calling the wrong name. INCREDIBLE! Cue reconnection of old love, cue slow claps. 

There is naive Inspector Bhim who says Sholay was a flop because the police, in the film, was shown in a silly, comedic light. This might very well be Maqbool himself acknowledging the failure of Khaali Peeli. The final showdown is stretched beyond limits. As a result, even the somewhat interesting bits fall flat on the surface. Vijay and Pooja plan a happy ending for there story. How do the characters know an incident will play out in flashbacks right down to the positions of the people? But even the greater mystery remains about the sketch drawn to perfection of an adult Pooja by someone who only saw her younger version. Wow. Alas, Khaali Peeli doesn't excel in any of the threads. Even the mentor-disciple angle between Vijay and Yusuf is disposed of in the corner. There is not enough meat to chew on. Should have used some from the mutton Yusuf was making earlier. Sorry but these are the kind of thoughts that spring on my mind on such uninspiring occasions. Alas, matchstick is lighted but is not followed by a full-blown fire or explosion. The ending recalls the one from Mard Ko Dard Nahi Hota. Only this time, I was not interested in going any further. 

Find Me On:




               

Location:

Post a Comment for "Khaali Peeli Movie Review - A Half-Baked Wink To Old Bollywood"