Hello Charlie

 STORY: Chirag Rastogi aka Charlie (Aadar Jain) lands up in Mumbai from Indore with no concrete plan. His late father was debt-ridden and so the enthu cutlet with no skill set must find a way to repay the family’s loan. As a quick fix, he takes up an assignment to deliver a gorilla from Mumbai to Diu. The money is good but there’s a catch.

REVIEW: The animal in question is actually a fugitive dressed in a gorilla suit — industrialist Makwana (Jackie Shroff). After duping various banks, the banana hating fraudster wishes to secretly flee the country, and so the ‘clever idea’. Things obviously don’t go as planned as he gets mixed up with a real circus gorilla on the loose, following a random plane crash. Does Makwana manage to escape or not?

Writer-Director Pankaj Saraswat tries to present a clean, family friendly, old-school comedy. However, what you get is an unfunny, outdated and unamusing series of events that entertain less and annoy more. A hare-brained Charlie’s job seeking antics still manage to keep you moderately interested, but once the gorilla track begins, it all goes downhill. Poorly written lines like ‘You don’t like banana, Mr Makwana?’ don’t help either.

Charlie and Makwana’s exhausting road journey from Mumbai to Diu in a truck, could have made for a decent watch, had there been some chemistry or awkward camaraderie between the two. All you see is Charlie having a verbal diarrhoea and Makwana rolling his eyes inside the furry suit. Along the way they face multiple obstacles and meet various forgettable characters that stretch the story and test your patience. You know what direction the film is headed right from the beginning and yet, you hope that it can get better. Sadly, it doesn't and stays painfully clichéd.

Here’s the thing about humour — you cannot force it. Clever writing and comic timing cannot be compromised in a comedy. In the absence of either, if the other element is strong, it can still camouflage a predictable plot. Indra Kumar’s Dhamaal, Rohit Shetty’s Golmaal and Anees Bazmee’s No Entry didn’t have unique stories per se, but the comedy of errors stood out for their spontaneous execution. The performances had the ability to elevate an ordinary story and make silly sound hilarious. The Vinay Apte-Arshad Warsi ‘car scene’ in Dhamaal for instance, isn’t spectacular idea-wise, but the execution made it memorable. Two characters bouncing off each other are absolutely essential in situational comedies. An over-excited Aadar and an uninterested Shroff (rightly so), aren’t the protagonists you root for.

Last but not the least, more than Jackie, if anyone needed to take their mask off, it’s Aadar. The actor is easy on the eyes and can do much better if he gets rid of his Ranbir Kapoor hangover. The voice, mannerisms and facial expressions are similar to his cousin and even if unintentional, it doesn’t go in his favour. Elnaaz Norouzi is decent in her brief role. To cut to the chase about the film, it’s high time Bollywood stops monkeying around.