The Lung(i) power works at the box office as Chennai Express takes you through a joyous ride
VINAYAK CHAKRAVORTY AUGUST 9, 2013 | UPDATED 19:34 IST
Cast: Deepika Padukone, Shah Rukh Khan, Sathyaraj, Nikitin Dheer
Direction: Rohit Shetty
* * *
He always had the lung power. This time Shah Rukh Khan, in a bid to prove he still remains at the top of his game, is out gunning to score with lungi power.
Chennai Express was always about giving SRK a wacky makeover. On cue, the superstar's latest co-production imagines a set-up he has hardly ever been a part of - loud and gaudy, packaged with all that jazz you expect in a film created Rohit Shetty ishtyle. If Shah Rukh goes for the Chennai Cut (which has worked wonders for Salman Khan, Akshay Kumar and Ajay Devgn lately), Rohit lays out quite a masala gala.
The standard Rohit Shetty film always looks like the script was added as an afterthought, and his latest is no exception. In that sense, Chennai Express is a crafty commercial product more than a film, riding the diligent hype SRK has drummed up over the past few months. The hype will ensure a whopper of an opening, and the circus on screen that uses every trick in the Rohit Shetty book should keep all fans happy. Cars fly. Hero flies. Villains fly. Hero and villains go for elaborate dhishoom doses. The naach-gaana drill has hordes of colourful extras in the backdrop - hordes so large they must have needed trucks to transport them to the scenic outdoors. Yeah, there is the patented Rohit Shetty bag of slapstick gags, too. The director uses it to set up a few spoof tricks, lampooning everything from SRK's biggest films (you won't miss the merry winks at DDLJ, Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, Dil Se or Main Hoon Na) to his own Golmaal films to the stock Rajinikanth image. A witty one about Shah Rukh's advancing age is particularly not to be missed.
Essentially, this film is all about imagining SRK's trademark loverboy Rahul in a new set-up.
He is called Rahul in this film, too. The name, you realise, is Shah Rukh Khan's assurance to fans that he isn't moving away from the image that created his superstardom, no matter the Chennai-style spread all around. He is still very much the nice guy, at heart a lover, as opposed to the rugged macho heroes Bollywood flicks with a South flavour normally peddle.
An energetic first half pulsates with regular laughs, as Mumbai boy Rahul find himself aboard Chennai Express by default. He meets the feisty Tamil girl Meenamma (Deepika Padukone) and twist in Rahul's tale comes with her. Caught in the wrong place at the wrong time, there are plenty of misadventures in store.
If brainless fun needs some brainwork to leave an impact, Chennai Express reveals a lot of it in the early hour. Then, as Rahul and Meenamma find themselves on the run from her extended family of goons, the narrative simply falls flat in the second half. It's almost as if Rohit lost interest in his own film after a point.
Confusion over language difference is a convenient excuse to create gags all through. Puerile as it seems, it works in a way it can only in a Rohit Shetty film. Rohit has always operated with a mantra of excesses, arrogantly snubbing all intelligent criticism it may draw. He doesn't reveal any overt ambition to redefine the Bollywood comedy with this film either. Chennai Express banks largely on its lead pair to keep going.
Shah Rukh is full of vim as ever, and you will love his madcap ride if you are willing to discount the odd ham bursts. Deepika's Meenamma adds a cutesexy charm to the film. She gets the full o' beans vibes about her act just right though her accented 'accented Hindi' could seem slightly taxing.
They make a smashing duo in the supercharged Lungi Dance, though almost all the other songs are glossover fare.
Chennai Express is a loud and crazy experience, so what if you might just forget all of it even as you hit the exit door after the show. It's got the lungi power while it lasts.
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