Nautanki Saala!

Inspired from the French Film "Apres Vous", 'Nautanki Saala!' Directed by Rohan Sippy, is A Decent Comedy, that has its share of rib-tickling moments working for it. Even the performances are pretty good.

'Nautanki Saala!' Synopsis: An actor's life changes dramatically when he saves a stranger from suicide.

'Nautanki Saala!' is not a slapstick comedy, its a situational comedy. The first-hour progresses well, as most of the jokes & sequences work. The second-hour, on the other-hand, is stretched & slightly boring. The Adapted Screenplay has its share of pluses & minuses. Rohan Sippy is technically sound. He knows his job well. Cinematography is lavish. Editing is crisp. Music by various artists, is hummable.

Performance-Wise: Ayushmann Khurrana & Kunaal Roy Kapur share a fabulous on-screen chemistry. They both are wonderful in their respective parts. Pooja Salvi needs proper grooming. Gaelyn Mendonca is excellent. Abhishek Bachchan has a funny cameo.

On the whole, 'Nautanki Saala!' offers humor.

I saw Nautanki Saala around 6 years back and I liked it then, so much so that I saw it again today when I personally believe I have a much better capability to appreciate a well made film.

The movie is far from perfect, but attains its targets by being a really different romantic comedy buffed up by amazing performances by all the actors involved. Apart from a bit irritating characters like the producer of the theater and the girlfriend of Ayushmann, the movie holds pretty good over the audience.

The sad part really is that such movies are often box office failures, despite being much more reality driven compared to some blockbuster flicks.

NAUTANKI SAALA is a romantic-comedy film starring Ayushmann Khurrana, Kunal Roy Kapur, Pooja Salvi and Gaelyn Mendonca. It is directed by Rohan Sippy and produced by Rohit Sippy.

The film revolves around the life of Ram Parmar (Ayushmann Khurrana), preferably called RP. He is an actor who works in a Ramayana play called Raavan, directed by him. One day after his show, he's on his way home where he comes across Mandar Lele (Kunal Roy Kapur) committing suicide in the middle of the road by hanging himself. In a quick heroic act, RP manages to save him, and comes to realize that Mandar is a very depressed person and feels that he's a burden to God and on Earth. He's a very pessimistic person. He also finds out that Mandar is depressed due to a recent break-up with a girl named Nandini (Pooja Salvi) who he loves very much. Feeling sorry for Mandar, RP decides to help him out, thus beginning a huge friendship between the two.

Okay, so when I saw the trailer for this movie, I couldn't make out whether it was a good movie or not. The only thing that caught my attention was Ayushmann Khurrana who had recently become one of my favorite actors after Vicky Donor. It was surprising to see Kunal Roy Kapur in a serious role after Delhi Belly. But anyways, apart from the two of them, I didn't know what the movie had in store for me. Finally, I decided to see it, only to see what it contained and I was pretty sure that Ayushmann would justify his role and the movie would be pretty watchable. At the end of the movie, I can say Nautanki Saala was pretty much what I expected- a rom-com film with a couple of laughs here and there, some mushy romantic stuff and some song and you've got your movie. Now from what I just said you'd probably think this was movie was really bad, although it actually wasn't. I really liked some of the jokes. It did it's best not to be slapstick but to make sense. And the songs weren't much. Whatever was added to the movie from the soundtrack was cut to be made as short as possible. The only problem was the ending, which was SOOO clichéd, but the film put the same point through in an indirect way; a different way from the other rom-coms.

Performance-wise, even though Ayushmann Khurrana is our big star here, I would have to give the trophy to Kunal Roy Kapur. Don't get me wrong over here, Ayushmann is one of my favorite Bollywood actors and his acting was really great, but somehow I felt Kunal Roy Kapur's role was more sophisticated, and while you would think that an actor who played a constipated guy's role in his first break-through film, it would be impossible to see him play a depressed guy coping with his life's destiny. He played his role so well. The way he expressed his comedy, his emotions... it was really great. Pooja Salvi did a pretty decent job. Not the BEST I would say but it's pretty decent. Gaelyn Mendonca's acting was just background. It was unnecessary but just had to be there due to the plot.

The replay value is a few times, but its not extraordinary so you are bound to get sick of it at some time.

I wouldn't give this movie a 6 or a 7 but it's somewhat in between. Nautanki Saala is a 6.5/10 rating for me.

I think that this movie proves that 'The Sensible Comedy Movies' are back. For the past couple of months we have been experiencing a couple of wacky, slapstick movies that are humorous yet mindless. Nautanki Saala proves that a movie doesn't need to have a bad story and a bunch of meaningless jokes for the audience to laugh. Nautanki Saala manages to achieve a good story line, jokes related to the matter and which actually make sense. With films like Jolly LLB and Nautanki Saala, lets just hope with get more like these and maybe an occasional Chashme Baddoor and a Mere Dad Ki Maruti but definitely not a Himmatwala.

With lots of newness comes a film that rarely moves out of the box. Derived from his father's epic action movie, Nautanki Saala! is a very poor entertainer by Rohan Sippy.

Ayushmann Khurrana is surprisingly parallel with his role as a lover-boy from Vicky Donor, only that here the situations are different. He works so hard to keep up with his antics, but the film's blueprint just rejects his help. Kunal Roy Kapur is annoying in the first half and towards the end, his ambiguous character touches puberty only to be "so mature & moved-on." Not just him, almost all the characters have equivocal stances related to them with newcomer Pooja Salvi still thinking she is acting in a TV commercial. Evelyn Sharma compensates for the lack of item-number here. But the song "Life Ki Toh Lat Lagi" is kinda cool.

There is no story, but the plot driven out of it is what makes me rate it 3.5/10. Music is cheerful & so is the screenplay with its own share of some nice dialogs (Marathi ones), punch lines & slapstick. That's all.

With the lead female characters used as love-toys, Pooja Salvi works in a flower shop which entertains only 2 customers, Ayushmann's character wanders here and there. The movie reminds us it is 2013 but fails, abruptly to make it look like it is. Very poor attempt & I hear it is a remake. God! Why?

BOTTOM LINE: The second half is the most ennui-ridden, but if you are fan of any of the factors of this movie, I would recommend you to go for it only for the first part. One ambiguous, uninteresting movie this! And I hear Commando (another release this week) is hopeless.

Can be watched with a typical Indian family? MAYBE

Language: Strong | Sex: No, Implied | Nudity: Mediocre | Mouth-Kiss: Strong | Foreplay: Mild | Violence: Mediocre | Gore: No | Traumatizing Factor: No

Very very surprised by the poor reviews. Just goes to show that subtlety is much too undervalued these days. Just LOVED this film. A comedy that doesn't depend on slapstick/ fart jokes and the likes.

Sure, the story is quite predictable, but its the smaller things that make the film stand out... the sign board on Mandar's gate, Mandar greeting King Janak in the drama with a 'HI'& Janak responding and realizing his folly and trying to correct, RP refusing to support Loli's claim that things happen between men & women, RP's justification by using the 'profile' test, and many many more.

Performances are all above average but its the use of music in this film that shines through. The songs don't feel forced and take the story forward.

The support cast including Sanjeev bhatt as Chandra and Sulabha Arya as Aaji were fantastic. All in all a complete entertainer that left me wanting for more.