Thai Massage

Great Sunday afternoon movie! Welldone to everyone involved, in particular the artist playing the son of main character. He reminded me of my elder brother!! Message is loud and clear, i.e.- Morality, ethics, soul, conscious of right and wrong. These things were never seen in Indian movies, at least for the last 25 years.. These movies are more like a wakeup call as to "Hey, Bollywood is changed", It's quite evident that more emphasis on location/background was analyzed, especially in a quaint way to approach it holistically that catches the viewer's attention, in particular Ujjain's temple and ghats that brought million memories flooding as if Ganges was roaring!! More movies like this please!!

The title is somewhat misleading as the Bangkok "massage" know as Yum-Yum and Boom-Boom can be seen more in-depth on Y/T with lots more explicate scenes. A 70 year old widower, who has never travelled beyond his native village, all of a sudden realizes he is Old" and wants to have sex, just one more time. He tells some relatives who either "judge" him or ridicule him in a cruel was, behind his back. He gets brave and travels to Bangkok Thailand in search of a sex partner. First he gets tricked in to just seeing a stage play. Then hires a hooker but falls asleep while she is showering which prompts her to just leave without any "action" taking palace. He then meets a beautiful Russian girl who is travelling around, just SEEING the world. Realizing that he hasn't really LIVED, he decides to join her in her travels. Now he is starting to really live and enjoy the time he still has on earth. Aside from the happy ending, the rest of the movie is all about ridicule and extreme "judgement" by his entire family. The sooner he gets away from all of them the better. The loneliness of being single in old age is explored throughout the movie. I didn't find much to laugh at but I suspect is was made as a comedy for Indian audiences.

The graph of the film just goes on dipping after the initial promise. The fabulous character of Gajraj from Baddhai Ho has been picked as it is but here he has nothing sensible to do. The film looks like it was not made as a creative expression but as a pot boiler. The makers have no clue whether they wanted to entertain audience, critics or themselves. Extremely disappointing, by the end I was left high and dry. No message, no storytelling. The so called comedy is stuff for the sick. The film kept on finding new lows. Pretty similar to the writer director who started with a bang with Tingya and the films have kept on going downhill.

The storyline of this movie reminded me of the movie " Good luck to you Leo Grande " which I watched last year in which a 60 plus lady hires a young gigolo to experience orgasm after many long years. Here we have a lonely, naive, confused 70 year old widower ( Gajraj Rao) from an orthodox town Ujjain who is troubled by his depleted libido. He has a problem of erectile dysfunction and is desperately seeking solutions. A clever young guy ( Divyendu Sharma ) takes advantage of the situation feigning sympathy, gets him treated by a local quack and packs him off to Thailand for fulfillment of his carnal desires through the popular "boom boom" process there.

Director Mangesh Hadawale gives a simplistic treatment to the story and the narrative stumbles along in a slow pace. It does get boring at places but recovers soon. A better storyline was required to make it gripping. The comedy scenes don't actually work and Rajpal Yadav in a comic role could not do much to salvage the situation. It is basically a serious movie and Gajraj Rao does well as usual. He faithfully projects the loneliness and confusion of the character of the widower. A number of seniors of that age group may find his bumbling, shuffling and lurching behavior relatable. In a not so well written role Divyendu Sharma is passable as the crafty young man who takes advantage of the simplicity of Gajraj Rao. A Russian actress Alina Zarobina has given a nice performance. There are some attractive visuals of the sights in Thailand and some more similar scenes would have made the movie still better.

Weekend watch: Thai Massage ( Hindi film streaming on Netflix) #sanjuzzreviews #netflixindia #thaimassage #GajrajRao #DivyenduSharma This is a dramedy where a Sanskari babuji type septuagenarian, Gajraj Rao realises that he has erectile dysfunction and might not be able to have sex anymore, especially since he is a widower and is expected to conform to the rules set by conservative society in the small town of Ujjain.

In comes Divyendu Sharma, a stranger, but takes up the old man's cause and makes a secret plan to send him to Thailand for some much needed " BOOM BOOM"🙂. This clandestine trip is discovered 3 yrs later accidently by his children and that's where the fun begins.

A light hearted film which will definitely invoke spontaneous laughter especially due to the great on screen chemistry between the lead actors Gajraj Rao and Divyendu Sharma. Both of them are too good. Rajpal Yadav as well as others in the cast have shown grt comic timing in their small roles to add a lot of humor all throughout.

Most of you might not have caught this film in Nov 2022 when it released in theatres.

Definitely worth a watch on OTT though !!

Going with 3/5 for this one.. Adios 🙂!!