Nautanki Saala

A delight

 

            Rohan Sippy’s Nautanki Saala inspired from a French film Apres Vous seems to be a film Sippy had been waiting to make since ages. He makes an intelligent comedy film with a simple yet sensible storyline and excels thoroughly.

                RP (Ayushman Khurana) encounters a confused man with a dilemma, Mandar(Kunal Roy Kapur); then friendships, ladies and comedy of errors in very unconventional ways is what NS talks about. In Hindi movies, the director’s craft is often hidden under the star power of its leads and the the male lead actor easily looks like the captain of the ship. Sippy however is the true hero of the film who writes vivid, unconventional scenes with some fabulous comic situations and keeps the audience engaged in a story which could have got really annoying. He writes a linear screenplay and keeps his story telling very simple yet very intelligent. He cut shorts through many scenes, keeping the run time just over two hours.

 



                Sippy however fails create a totally convincing relationship between his two male leads. The question of why would RP go out of his way to help Mandar who he just recently befriended, getting himself into trouble and having to face financial losses, especially when RP doesn’t seem to be a too liberal person after all, remains unanswered.

                Cinematography is particularly good, and locales of South Mumbai are used brilliantly. The sets and theatres are well shot too. The costumes are young and casual and particularly interesting during the Ramayan play. Music is catchy and compliments the story well.

                Ayushman Khurana yet again shines through the film in an author backed role. It is however Kunal Roy Kapur who creates almost all the laughter of the film and gets the Marathi accent so right. The three girls have little to do, but they never disappoint.

Nautanki Saala is a perfect answer to many commercial 100 crore comedy films with big stars which do nothing but thrive on stupid clichés and often objectify women.

 

       I am going with 3.5 out of 5 for Rohan Sippy’s Nautanki Saala. Don’t miss it!