Thai Massage

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.

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.

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!!

Thai Massage is almost another 'Badhaai Ho' for Gajraj Rao, with the core idea of the movie being a taboo but relevant issue. From the messaging aspect, one can say that the movie has its heart in the right place, but as far as execution is concerned I would say that it's a mixed bag. 'Thai Massage' is entertaining in parts but also quite dull at certain points. Even at two hours, the movie feels a little long but looking at the supporting characters and their underdeveloped subplots, one feels as if the director wanted to make a much longer film, perhaps a series!

It was wonderful to see a movie being made with the protagonist being a sixty year old man, a genuinely bold move made by the creators of the film. Gajraj Rao is a terrific actor and has done a beautiful job of shouldering the responsibility of carrying the entire film. It's just shocking to realize, that an actor like him who gives a nuanced performance every single time, has been around for more than 25 years but it's only now that people are noticing his talent.

I was quite surprised to see Divyendu Sharma portraying an extremely underwritten role in this film. Divyendu is an amazingly talented actor and by now quite a few people are aware of him thanks to 'Mirzapur', so it felt a little odd to see him play the role of Santulan in this film. Divyendu has acted very well in this film, but it never became clear as to why he was doing what he was doing in the movie. At certain points it felt like he was trying to make a fool out of Atmaram, but then he was also genuinely concerned for him and provided him with help at every single point. Also, there was something going on in his personal life with his wife as well, but that topic was just briefly mentioned and then brushed under the carpet before being brought back right at the end of the film.

The writing of the film is quite inconsistent especially with regards to the supporting characters, and you get the sense that the writer had a lot of ideas but couldn't really fit them all in the screenplay. There is also a subplot of Atmaram and his son's, but that also remained underdeveloped. Sunny Hinduja gets a monologue towards the end, which was beautiful but it felt rushed and not organic. The role of Atmaram's daughter-in-law has been played by Anurita Jha, an extremely underrated talent of our film industry, but the writer has given her nothing. There were certain scenes in which I felt that there would be a reaction from her side, but there was nothing; unfortunately she is pretty much a cardboard character in this film.

Alina Zasobina gets a decent amount of screen time in the final hour of the film and has done a pretty good job in portraying the vivacious as well as serious side of Rita. Alina, who has a charming screen presence, not only adds flavour to Atmaram's life but also to the proceedings. Although I loved the messaging of the film and I completely agree that it makes no sense to confine the lives of our elders and expect them to remain forever within the boundaries created by our own regressive mindset, but a part of me also wanted Rita to make a comeback in Atmaram's life; I feel that would have been a happier ending for Atmaram.

Music of the film composed by Amit Trivedi and Joi Barua is quite good, with 'Boom Boom' composed by Amit Trivedi being the stand out song of the album. Sung by Sharvi Yadav and Nikhita Gandhi and written by Irshad Kamil, 'Boom Boom' has been picturized very well and has a lot of repeat value.

In conclusion, 'Thai Massage' may not be able to satisfy you completely, but it won't disappoint you entirely as well.