Khoobsurat: A Beautifully gift wrapped Bland Story
“Khoobsurat” is the first Offering of Disney in India in association with Anil Kapoor Productions. The producers claimed that it was the remake of Hrishikesh Mukerjee’s 1980’s classic of the same name.
So a fantastic script and a reputed banner which is famous worldwide for making fairy tale romances, you expect a beautiful fairy tale saga. But alas that did not happen. The original story of D.N Mukherjee is adapted and contemporized by Indira Bisht. The story shifts from an upper middle class set up as per the original to a Royal Family of Sambhalpur. The Queen Nirmala Devi is a strict disciplinarian and no nonsense woman whose life is like a time table and she expects the same from her son Vikram Rathod (Fawad Khan), her daughter and her husband the King of Sambhalpur (Aamir Raza Hussain). Things become topsy turvy for them when Dr Milli Chakravorty (Sonam Kapoor) a physiotherapist enters their life.
The screenplay by Indira Bisht lacks the soul which was the main attraction of the original; instead what we get is a run down version of the original. One of the flaw is the pace, it is too lethargic and slow. Secondly the love story between the Prince and Milli just does not pick up. Thirdly most of the characters look unreal and cardboard like. The only good thing about the screenplay is the interactions of Milli with her mother Manju on Skype. In a nutshell till the end the script does not pick up and lacks depth.
Dialogues by Juhi Chaturvedi make the narration a bit interesting with some witty and funny dialogues but even she could not salvage a weak script.
It is the performances by the ensemble cast that keeps the interest level to some extent. Ratna Pathak Shah as Rani Nirmala Devi, a role which was enacted by her mother Dina Pathak in the original, gives a good performance. Kirron Kher as Manju Chakrovorty, Milli’s mother gives a crackling performance and is the highlight of the movie; she makes you laugh and keeps the interest intact. Aamir Raza Hussain as the King does a decent job but his character falls flat because of the weak writing. Fawad Khan the heartthrob of Pakistan who debuts in this movie and plays the Prince, Vikram Singh Rathod, does a good job and shows the spark albeit in his case as well the writing pulls down his performance, but his charm does the job. Now the main character Dr Milli Chakravorty played by Sonam Kapoor is the most inconsistent performance of the movie, in some sequences she goes overboard in her goofy acts, and after some time you are tired. I do not blame her completely but the script pulls her down as well. I think she was a miss cast as Dr Milli Chakravorty.
Shashanka Ghosh after an impressive “Waisa Bhi Hota Hai Part II” and the quirky over the top movie “QuiK Gun Murugan” gives us an unimpressive remake of “Khoobsurat”. I think he went overboard in making this movie into a fairy tale but lost the plot in the bargain.
Sneha Khanwalkar’s music is different but I thought that it did not gel with the concept of the movie; the music should have been frothier for such a movie. Production Design by Shruti Gupte is good and gives a fairy tale touch to the narration. Costumes by Uma Biju, Karuna Laungani and Raghavendra Rathore is spot on, especially Raghvendra Rathore’s designs for the royal family.
Only if a look of a movie was enough for a interesting watch but unfortunately you need a tight script to make the narration interesting, and “Khoobsurat” lacks an interesting script I will go with 2 and a Half stars (Half additional for Kirron Kher’s performance)…..