Movie: Khoobsurat
Director: Shashanka Ghosh
Cast: Fawad Khan, Sonam Kapoor, Prosenjit Chaterjee, Kirron Kher, Rathna Pathak, Aditi Rao Hydari
Rating: ***1/2
It’s a delight to see the right actors getting cast in the right films. Just like Salman was the man for Dabanng, Shahrukh for an energetic yet nostalgic Om Shanti Om, Vidya Balan for Kahaani, you know that Sonam Kapoor’s presence is something, Khoobsurat rightly deserved. Although the film is satisfied in borrowing Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s tender core, it is never conscious of competing with it. The director Shashanka Ghosh brings a relieving contemporary touch to the 1982-release. The freebie-spirited film has just the right balance of madness, comic outbursts and delicate moments to keep us consistently engaged.
Khoobsurat doesn’t give us any flattering potshots of characters to begin with. Sonam Kapoor, as a Delhi-bred Punjabi girl, enjoys being the pampered, spoilt live wire in an urban centric setting, akin to her earlier outings like Bewakoofiyan and Aisha. The vivacious nature of Rekha, if we were to compare with the original, is retained. The autocratic Ratna Pathak Shah, the overtly rulebook favouring Fawad Khan, the sweet-little daughter wanting to act besides a paralytic father, digesting his inability be the head, form a genuine familial unit. With Mrinalini Chakravarthy’s (Sonam Kapoor ) entry into the Rajasthani mansion as a physiotherapist, we understand the very need of the family to mend ways.
Unlike the other films of the season, we see that the underplayed yet striking ways of the maker to introduce regional flavor is unforced. The Rajput blood becomes a matter of discussion casually. Delhi comes into the equation when the girl talks about her unsuccessful relationships in the past. The Jaipur, Bikaner based forts are subsidiary layers, the business deals of the royal family, within the narrative.
Besides, we don’t have namesake sketches. Mili is as messed up as she was and has been, even when the film ends, except for the fact that she has found the love of her life. She is as haywire in the last sequence as in the first, when she nearly trips, making a implicit statement about her pitfalls, mind and its execution. The true find of the film is Fawad Khan’s presence in a part where he comes of age, relieving himself of his cage, gradually picturing his personal transformation to perfection.
Vikram Singh Rathore as the prince taking over his family empire, has interests in shooting, which isn’t a time-filling, cute facet, simply weaved to bond the couple physically. This aspect is justified with a paintball sequence in the climax. In fact, their ever nurturing chemistry is a wonderful assimilation of imperfect and momentary sparkles. They are a modern couple in every sense, who don’t mind sharing drinks with each other, discussing their past with an uncanny openness. Ghosh passes the test, when he withdraws a viewer’s interest in the latter half, whose unveiling only seems a formality when the interval bang strikes.
The teenager’s passion to act, is explored to perfection inspite of the little screen time. The father, in one of the film’s most interesting scenes, kicks his wife to say that his legs are in a working condition. The film ends with the cultural contrast. Kirron Kher enjoys being the modern day mom in this sequence, being the conventional Punjabi as she is effortlessly, mocking at the male protagonist’s attitude of talking less. Khoobsurat, with subtle humor backing its authority, is a rare lightweight film that sustains its fizz on an entirety, mostly because of the enterprising performances of the fresh lineup. Hrishikesh Mukherjee wouldn’t have minded watching this take shape
Review by Srivathsan N. First published in Cinegoer.net