Directed by: Hardik Mehta

Cast: Rajkummar Rao,Janhvi Kapoor,Varun Sharma,Alexx O’neil

BLUF
Bhaura (Rao) and Kattanni (Sharma) introduce a foreign journalist (Alexx O’Neil) to bridal abductions in a town in Uttar Pradesh where women apparently are picked up by contract kidnappers, to be handed over to the relatives of men interested in espousing them. As the male protagonists are instructed by their boss to pick a woman called Roohi (Janhvi Kapoor who is possessed by a chudail (witch) who rests only when she (the witch, not Roohi) is married. One of them is attracted to her and the rest of the film is driven by his desire to liberate her from her wretched existence as men in mainstream cinema are known to do.

THE MEAT AND THE POTATOES

 Two small-town boys, Bhaura Pandey (Rajkummar Rao) and Kattanni Qureshi (Varun Sharma), are stuck with Roohi (Janhvi Kapoor) under strange circumstances. She seems to be a simple, demure girl, but they soon realize that she has another side to her ‑ her “ghostly” personality, Afza. Bhaura develops feelings for Roohi, and Kattanni falls for Afza. With a strange romance brewing between the trio, Bhaura wants to get rid of Afza, while Kattani wants to make sure she lives on so that he can be romantic with her. Their crazy efforts to find a resolution to their predicament lead them into weird, but hilarious situations, where they confront wacky characters.

 IN THE ZONE

We always thought that Stree was perhaps Bollywood’s most genuine & successful attempt at horror-comedy. Roohi is another such attempt by its Director Hardik Mehta but it falls short of Stree’s ingenuity and intelligence by large.

We are pretty sure that Roohi had very noble thoughts behind its making and smashing some age-old patriarchal tropes about marriage being the goal of a woman’s life must have been one of them. Somewhere along the line, the jokes become unfunny, an allusion to famous dialogues from other movies stop being palatable and the characters cease being affable.

Rajkummar, yet again, pulls off another part that has him playing the small-town guy with colored hair and a ridiculous smile. Though his character may have parallels to his character in Stree, and therefore keeps sending us back to unfortunately drawing parallels with Stree so often,  he ensures that this one stands out with different mannerisms and body language. But one does wonder if this is one role, he is taking on far too many times. Varun shines with his terrific comic timing. Janhvi delivers her part as Roohi and as Afza. The film, written by Mrighdeep Singh Lamba and Gautam Mehra, is brimming with well-authored one-liners, which land effortlessly on most instances.

FWAR

In the film, the three actors at the center of the plot – Rajkummar, Varun, and Janhvi – are in great form and balance each other’s accomplishments. Yet, even, fine actors like Rao and Sharm, who are effortless in parts, seem drawn out in others as the script just takes the juice out of their souls, just because of the lack of any depth in the narrative that would make the audience buy their argument. 

WHAT WE LOVED

A for effort

WHAT WE MISSED

A complete execution