Vishwak Sen’s Laila is a loud, vulgar, and terrible comedy

Direction- Ram Narayan
Rating: 1/5 stars

Hyderabad: After popular actors like Rajendraprasad(Madam), and Naresh(Chitram Balare Vichitram) who donned female getups and tasted success, now it is the turn of young actor Vishwak Sen to turn a pretty lady in ‘Laila’. However, the pathetic plot and amateurish screenplay take the sting out of this comic-caper. In the second half, Vishwak partially impresses in ‘Lady Avatar’, but the director Ram Narayan fails to etch-good role and just relies on vulgar humor. Adding to the audience woes, Abhimanyu Sigh, Babloo, Prudhvi Raj, and Vineet Kumar who play die-hard fans of Chiranjeevi rely on stale jokes and mar the show.

Heroine Akansha Sharma indulges in skin show over performance and falls flat. Because the romantic tracks between Vishwak and Akashana are pathetically written and executed. In simple terms, Vishwak to help his beauty parlor customer, turns into a pretty lady and the consequences he faces thereafter is a wafer-thin plot, so the director fills up the screenplay with four fights and songs and stale Hyderabad Old City humor but the whole packaging is outdated and formulaic and tests audience nerves.

Vishwak Sen made a mark with films like ‘Falaknuma Dass’ and HIT’ but lost his way in trying to become an action hero to deliver films like ‘Gangs of Godavari’ and yet again chose a senseless plot in “Laila’ and pushed his career into risky terrain.

Sonu Model (Vishwak Sen) is a talented makeup artist who runs a popular beauty parlor in Hyderabad’s Old City. His exceptional skills make him a neighborhood favorite, earning him a stellar reputation among the local women. In a bid to support one of his customers and her struggling family, Sonu offers to lend his name as a brand ambassador for her husband's cooking oil business.

However, his well-intentioned gesture soon lands him in unexpected trouble. How did his act of kindness backfire? What led Sonu, a man, to transform into Laila, a woman? And what unfolds when ‘Sonu’ becomes ‘Laila’? The answers to these questions shape the rest of the story.

Coming to films with lady getups, Kamal Hassan’s ‘Chachi 420’ was a good film that evoked humor besides touching upon a few women-centric issues and worked well. Whereas, in this film poor writing and outdated since making a young hero don a female getup and yet failing to deliver one single standout episode, is a major failure, especially for a film, which relies on dark humor which director Ram Narayan would realize sooner than later.