Here is the complete film review of ‘Khel Khel Mein‘, directed by Mudassar Aziz starring Akshay Kumar, Taapsee Pannu, Vaani Kapoor, Ammy Virk, Fardeen Khan, Aditya Seal & Pragya Jaiswal. Read on…
Overall Rating : 3/5
Plot : During a dinner party, seven long-time friends who have come to attend a wedding of their mutual friend, decide to play a game overnight which makes them share the contents of every text, email and phone call they receive. As secrets are brought to the surface, friendships and relationships are tested rather soured.
What We Loved : The decision to cast Ammy Virk and Taapsee Pannu together as a Punjabi couple is simply delightful. They both play characters by the same name, ie, Harpreet and the eons old formula of blending Punjabi humor snowballed with questionable English works so well for the both of them. We would love to see them again in a movie together.
What We Liked : The fact that ‘Khel Khel Mein’ is an overnight mad-capper about 7 old friends reuniting to have a good old time which rather emerges into a chaotic night of difficult questions and confrontations makes it engaging. The jokes landed and some fair performances elevated the watching experiences specially by Ammy Virk, Taapsee Pannu and Akshay Kumar.
Director’s Hat : Mudassar Aziz who has earlier directed ‘Pati, Patni Aur Woh’ and ‘Happy Bhaag Jayegi’ uses chaos as his primary tool to give birth to comedy. The inclusion of one’s privacy for their smartphones, infidelity, infertility to even the lack of inclusivity are engrained in a suitable manner. Though there are a few scenes around suicide and mental health which are dealt immaturely and come around very plastic.
What We Didn’t Like : The fact that the film finally becomes preachy from being fun & edgy got to me. A few monologues, confrontations checking the character’s moral-compass and teary-eyed guilty characters took the film to a different direction all together which deaccelerated the drift of the narrative. Not everything has to become sailable at the end despite the fact that the few characters including Akshay haven’t changed their core of being a flirt & his last message on his phone proves the same,
Performances : Taapsee Pannu takes the crown home from being the best performer where she plays a lively Punjabi girl along with Ammy Virk who played an insecure grumpy man run by his male-ego. From pitch-perfect accent to naive nuances, everything lands for the duo. Akshay Kumar as a flamboyant Rishabh who is married to Vartika (Vaani Kapoor) leads the film with confidence and we are reminded of Wicked Sunny at times. He lies with confidence and flirts nonchalantly thus making the character questionable but it works for the film. Vaani Kapoor as Vartika, who is a successful writer is wasted sadly where nothing works for her be it her heavy dialogues where she is let down by her husband numerous times or be it comedy as she hasn’t got any material to make us laugh but just sits there as the initiator of the game as if she is on some mission. Pragya Jaiswal, as the brash entitled brat, Naina does well in her part especially in her scenes where her entitlement is so visible. However, Samar who plays her husband, ie, Aditya Seal doesn’t do justice to a role which could have been played much better given it had shades of arrogance, cockiness and a traumatized past. The actor looked the part but missed on delivering the right shades with a questionable Punjabi accent. Last but not the least, Fardeen Khan who plays Kabir, a cricket-coach who is known to be a casanova, was a delight to see onscreen again after eons doing his usual easy-breezy thing. His character rises in the second half only where Khan does well in comedy scenes but lacks belief in the climax where he has to portray a hidden part of his being. No spoilers indeed!
Conclusion : Khel Khel Mein is a fun-film if you want to see something non-serious, upbeat and mad-capper comedy. We would suggest you to go to a loo-break when things get serious.
