It’s Akshay bandhan all the way Starring: Akshay Kumar, Bhumi Pednekar, Seema Pahwa, Neeraj Sood, Sahil Mehta Rating: 2* The film starts...
It’s Akshay bandhan all the way
Starring: Akshay Kumar, Bhumi Pednekar, Seema Pahwa, Neeraj Sood, Sahil Mehta
Rating: 2*
The film starts with a disclaimer thanking Sooraj Barjatya and his inspiration to make this film. It is obvious that “Raksha Bandhan” is just a rehash and gender reversal of Rajshri Films’ emotional hit “Tapasya” (1976) which was later remade by them as “Ek Vivah Aisa Bhi” (2008) which flopped badly. Now Aanand L Rai and Akshay Kumar (after a string of flops) have churned out this over-emotional, over-the-top “Raksha Bandhan” which is an assault on the senses with a dowry angle thrown in for good measure.
The story revolves around four sisters and an adopted brother who has promised his mother that he would not marry till he gets all his sisters married off. Lala Kedarnath (Akshay Kumar) runs a chaat bhandar which goes by the name of Premlata Chaat Bhandar in Delhi’s Chandni Chowk area. All pregnant women patronize his shop’s goodies deliver only boys (whew!). So one can imagine how much the shop is thriving.
Kedar is in love with his childhood
sweetheart Sapna (Bhumi Pednekar) who is desperate to marry him but Kedar keeps
putting her off saying he has to first marry off his sisters. Sapna’s father
Hari Shankar (played by Neeraj Sood) is also in a hurry as he has six months to
retire and does want an unwed girl at home. So Kedar approaches expert wedding
marriage broker Shanoo (Seema Pahwa) to help him. The latter asks Kedar to
arrange for Rs. 18 lakhs as his sister Gayatri’s dowry. Kedar mortgages his
shop and arranges for the dowry. But after marriage, his sister commits suicide
due to her in-law’s pressure of wanting a double-door fridge, which if not
given she would not be allowed to go to her brother’s house for Raksha Bandhan.
He also sells one of his kidneys to arrange for his other sisters Saraswati,
Laxmi ,and Durga’s wedding. After umpteenth songs, Kedar decides to educate his
sisters so much that they will be the ones asking for dowry and not the men they
marry. The torture finally ends with a 60-year-old Kedar taking his baraat to
marry Sapna.
The story is outdated in today’s time (though
there have been a few dowry cases in some states of late). Director Aanand L
Rai makes the film a tad too loud with Akshay screaming his lungs off. Akshay
is there from the first scene to the last and there is not a single scene
without him. Too much actually!
Out and out an Akshay film, it leaves Bhumi
Pednekar sidelined. Yet she does her job, whatever little, well. The sisters
apart from Sadia Khateeb as Gayatri (impactful and stunning) just scream their
way through the film. Sahil Mehta as Gaffar, Kedar’s right-hand man is lovely. Music
by Himesh Reshammiya is a downer.
Akshay needs to be pulled up drastically for
taking his audience for a ride. This reviewer saw the 12-noon show today with
only 5 people in the balcony of a prominent single-screen theatre.
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