A confused tale of a wasted lad

STORY: When a jobless middle-class boy Adi (Abhimanyu Dassani) realises that his sister-in-law, RTO officer Avni (Shilpa Shetty) has always meant well and cared for him, he starts protecting her discreetly against Vikramjit (Abhimanyu Singh), a rogue businessman who wishes to become a politician. Does he succeed?

REVIEW: Adi (Abhimanyu Dassani) is an aimless young man, forced to live with his bhabhi Avni (Shilpa Shetty), an honest RTO officer. They seem emotionally disconnected from one another, until circumstances bring out the truth to Adi. His bhabhi has always been on his team and is willing to make sacrifices to see him succeed. When a threat looms large on Avni’s life, Adi decides to discreetly guard her.

Director Sabbir Khan’ remake of Middle Class Abbayi (Telugu), starring Nani and Sai Pallavi, aims to present the story of a middle class family, its beliefs, actions and reactions to tough situations. What it eventually does is present a confused tale of a young lad, whiling away his life and family’s money, until he’s made to realise his sister-in-law’s true emotions for him. In a runtime of two hours and twenty eight minutes, the film has very little to offer in terms of entertainment. A few funny lines here and there, and some power-packed action scenes are insufficient to glue the wafer-thin plot together and make it entertaining.

The movie feels way too lengthy for its runtime. The story takes very long to come to its central issue which also seems dated. The film picks up pace at times but loses steam very quickly. One of the film’s weakest points is its story (Venu Sriram), followed by editing and direction. This remake falters at way too many places and defies common sense and logic at regular intervals. Without giving away the finer details of the narrative, it’s suffice to say that the characters and their journeys have not been crafted thoughtfully, although there was ample room to do that. We’ve seen films where a young hero is someone without a purpose in life, and he eventually comes of age and finds his way. Some of these characters, and subsequently, the films have charmed their way into the audience’s hearts but sadly, that doesn’t happen here – largely because the writing is weak.

Abhimanyu Dassani shows promise as an actor but finds no support from the writing and direction departments. Shilpa Shetty Kundra looks stunning and performs well in the limited character that she has on her hands. Shirley Setia is pretty but has very little scope to display any of her wares as an actress. Even the romantic angle between her character Natasha and Abhimanyu’s character Adi doesn’t stick. Actors like Sachin Khedekar, Samir Soni and Vikram Gokhale, and a comedian like Sudesh Lehri have been relegated to bit roles.

The overall look of the central characters seems out of place for a fictitious small-town like Dhaamli where the story unfolds. The film had ample scope for music, too, but the tracks are not memorable, barring the title track, Nikamma kiya, which is the rebooted version of an old song. Overall, the film could have done a lot if the writing was more clearly structured, the editing tighter and the direction a lot more focussed on finer details of the story and characters.