The biggest star of Punjabi Cinema (Diljit) playing a character he is best known for, one of the most innovative directors of 'music videos circle' with some huge projects in his repertoire (Gifty) making his proud film debut, the nostalgic narrow lanes of old Delhi used as an immensely likable colourful backdrop and a comic theme revolving around cunning property dealers (vaguely inspired from the basic plot of KHOSLA KA GHOSLA), certainly seems to be an exciting premise for an enjoyable Punjabi comedy film tilted MUKHTIAR CHADHA along with some catchy upbeat tracks raising the expectation level.
But sadly, the above mentioned potential elements appear to be great only on paper, as the film simply fails to present them all in any collective enjoyable form disappointing many, particularly the family audience expecting some great entertaining cinema from Diljit and his team post SARDAAR JI.
In fact such is the substandard, upsetting result of this big project (reportedly stuck in the making for a long time) that one wonders that did they really had anything in hand as a storyline or script to shoot their various sequences at all? Because the film is just like a sum of many poor gags put together in a silly rush and all we have is the lead character and nothing else to be precise in the name of story progression or plot line heading towards a clumsy climax.
In exact words, here we have a Hindi speaking friend who keeps annoying right from the beginning quite pathetically, a leading lady (Oshin Brar) unable to make any connection with the viewers whatsoever and a big display of overacting from the'Mama Ji' along with the typical mother played by the veteran Kiran Juneja. Besides there are many deliberately added 'over the top' characters too like the thin funny gangster (Khyaali), a poetry loving land-grabber (Yashpal Sharma), a big well-built person with a girlish voice and a middle aged Bihari man being repeatedly fooled on the phone, that are unable to generate any laughter in the theater ruining all the big expectations from the film. Moreover it's the clichéd sequences of a funny Ramlila being played on stage, a 10-faced Ravan riding a scooter (straight away reminding you of Akshay Kumar's scene in TASHAN) and the ridiculous machine gun firing in the climax, that strongly pull down MUKHTIAR CHADHA to even below the level of mediocre to be honest. However the biggest shock comes post intermission, when we get to witness the weirdest scene of a 'graphically created girl' inserted without any reason at all, simply forcing you to ask, 'What the hell they are really up to as a creative team?"
In the technical department, the songs as well as the cinematography do keep trying to give the film its much required lift sincerely, but the background music keeps ruining their noticeable impact adding all kinds of variety sounds in its distinctive sequences. In short there is only one enjoyable element in MUKHTIAR CHADHA and that is the performance of its leading man Diljit Dosanjh alone, who just marginally saves the film from being a complete disaster.
However as fans and enthusiastic viewers of Punjabi movies, everyone was certainly awaiting a much better, polished, well written and maturely directed product from the team of Diljit and Gifty together.
