Katti Batti

Inspired by the Hollywood Cult Classic 500 Days of Summer, 'Katti Batti' tries hard to adapt the soul of its inspiration, but what is eventually served is a merely average film. Though the idea is great, the execution is uneven!

'Katti Batti' is a romantic comedy that follows Maddy (Imran Khan) and Payal's (Kangana Ranaut) live-in relationship until a sudden turn of events creates a distance between them.

'Katti Batti' has a lively first-hour, where some sequences bring a smile on your face. Its a bit interesting to see the heartbroken protagonist struggle to find his love back & the flashbacks on how the boy & girl met, have a niceness to it. Its the second-hour that fails. The narrative loses energy & the pace drops drastically. Also, the emotional manipulation in the final-act, doesn't work. In short, the first-hour works, but the second-hour spoils the fun.

Anshul Singhal's Screenplay is decent, but only in parts. The second-hour needed to be better! Nikhil Advani's Direction is ordinary. Cinematography is fine. Editing is average. Art & Costume Design are perfect. Music by Shankar Ehsaan Loy is melodious.

Performance-Wise: Imran Khan puts up a sincere act as the heartbroken lover-boy, although he impresses only in some scenes. Kangana Ranaut is monotonous. A stereotypical act!

On the whole, 'Katti Batti' works in bits, not entirely.

This could well be the last film, for both the Director Nikhil Advani and Actor Imran Khan, when viewers will take note of them seriously. The film is targeted to multiplex movie-goers of metros with Hollywood inspired story telling style. The movie opens up well, as was the trailer of the movie which generated some interest among the target audience, but as we move along the story, the viewers feel cheated and deprived of the value for their money. The first half of the movie was so badly presented, trying to copy from Hollywood movies, that the last 15-20 min of the movie which was the best part of the movie helped by fine performance by ever improving Kangna Ranaut, instead of leaving the viewers in tears left them laughing at poker-face of Imran Khan and that is the irony of the movie.

The film is centred around Imran Khan in (500) days of summer style of story telling. The offence of the Director is not just in failed attempt of copying 4-5 Hollywood movies but he gave little interest in character building of both Imran Khan and Kangana Ranaut. The role of Kangana, who is enjoying form of her life giving awesome performance in Queen and Tanu weds manu returns, in the movie except for last 15-20 min was meagre and she was left with only showcasing colorful, out of the world type dresses and ill-make up-ed hairstyles. The direction was good in only parts, trailer being better than the movie, and one wonders whether the movie is directed by some Ad director. Although, couple of song sequence was nicely filmed. The fight sequence in college, a sequence where Imran Khan pushes the bike while Kangana is still seated as pillion and a sequence in which Imran Khan's sister argues using facebook to convince Imran Khan that Kangana Ranaut is not committed to him is laughable, viewers's expect a lot better from the director.

The supporting characters in the film are out of the world with a turtle as pet named Milkha, a south Indian boss who jumps and shouts at a decible which nearly ruptured viewers' eardrums, Imran Khan's sister who just tries to imitate the role of girl in (500) days of summer, college friends who can do anything to save 'not-so-dude' drunk guy from being caught by his parents, a male protagonist's best friend, a female protagonist's friend who is more worried about some Rs. 5 lac toilet seat pot than the condition of depressed Imran Khan and then there is a band group, every member of which is ditched by their better half, named F.O.S.L.A acronym for Frustrated One Sided Lover's Association, some may find it as newly invented word but the name is also borrowed from a not so famous Prakash Jha produced film Dil Dosti etc. The music of the film is average and one soon forget it as he/she steps out of the hall.

The biggest let down of the movie is undoubtedly Imran Khan. The whole movie was centred around him but he gave a very poker-faced performance where he should have tried harder to twitch a facial muscle or two. In many sequences his acting made it look an average scene which should have been emotionally exhaustive scenes. His acting in later, serious part of the movie was summed up by the viewers' laughters in the partially filled hall where the director would have intended the spectators to shed some tears.

Overall, the movie is a big let down and raises the question mark on the future career path of both director Nikhil Advani and the male protagonist Imran Khan.

Love stories often don't work when the people involved in them are ignorant as heck. Katti Batti tries to literally adapt one such story and on the way goes on to define absurdity. Most words and phrases used in this review are selected from the film's idiotic dialogs so that you get a better idea as to what to expect.

For most of the part, a peppy, hip girl named Payal (Ranaut) who is a wandering rebel born to Page 3 celebrities who decided to go all the way on the backseat of a car during a drunken brawl, and who has more than 2500 friends on Facebook is brutally skirt-chased by a baby- faced Maddy (Khan) who makes pursuing architecture look like a short week of R&R, who has just about 500 friends on Facebook including 350 fake profiles that he does't know about, and who has an annoying sister. There is no conviction in the story as it adopts a fair non-linear screenplay. An introduction to the so-called quirky characters using a hand-held shot sequence is all there is to relish in the first half.

The screenplay looks like it has been stitched together using a defunct sewing machine by a one-legged tailor with retina inflammation. There is humor if you look for it, but the slapstick is so bad my senses now have finally learned to smile at Kapil Sharma's jokes.

Love is fine, relationships are fine, even breakups are fine, but you don't want to shell out money to watch grown ups behave like kids, now do you? One should blame the dodgy story for its construction and unbelievability factor for all we see is a mopey boyfriend and a courageous girlfriend who does not like being called a girlfriend. So lets call her a girlfriend just to annoy her.

Ranaut is an active participant in the drama while her co-actor is just a bystander. Since you all have given her the license, she overacts a bit too much in the sequences that required silence. All other characters are running behind our male protag so that he can forget about this "girlfriend" who dumped him without a reason. And the reason for the breakup is stupid, considering we are in 2015, when you know it.

All said and done, the film is surely high on creativity, but is highly low on cake on which this creativity should have been the icing.

BOTTOM LINE: With a turtle called Milkha (the irony!), Nikhil Advani's Katti Batti is what you get when you take relationships too seriously and literally and make a film about it. Wait for DVD; but buy only when its price goes down to INR 49 on Amazon. And why not use the Mobikwik cashback offer on it?

Grade: D-

Can be watched with a typical Indian family? YES

See the movie with your better half. And wait till the end, when all gets revealed to you.

If you like 500 days of summer or something that keeps you interested then a good movie. The actors are just not that professionals to act in THIS serious movie. But the comedy is priceless. 20 min of comedy is in there.

And for what happens in the movie, it all adds up to the events that lead to the the end. Cant push how mush it is necessary to see the end after watching the whole movie

And for the supporting rolls. They are a hit or miss. This movie really forces those supporting actors to play in important roll. Some of the actors are great but some fall short.

Hope you like the movie, me and my wife liked it. But loved the story

Imagine the horror of going to a movie first day first show and getting utterly disappointed with the flick. Yes, katti batti is bad; no the correct word would be 'bore', its a big bore of a movie. The movie switches back into past and present showing a crazy complicated and a tragic love story on the screen and here off the screen i was having a big problem understanding what is happening. The narrative is so shabby and moves in so many different directions that i got intertwined understanding what the director wants us to show. Kangna Ranaut was the one selling point of the movie and she is grossly underused, so there goes your trump card down the drain Mr Nikhil Advani.

The last 15 mins of the movie is were the movie shows its potential as it is heartwarming and sad and might leave a few tears trickling down your cheeks. Music by Shankar Ehsaan and Loy is just top notch and every song stays with you. Special mention to the picturization of lip to lip song as it is very nicely and creatively done. Sadly, only these few things won't save this movie. I wouldn't recommend watching this movie but if you have nothing to do this weekend you can very well watch this movie once.