Khel Khel Mein
Starring: Akshay Kumar, Ammy Virk, Taapsee Pannu, Vaani Kapoor, Fardeen Khan, Pragya Jaiswal and Aditya Seal
Direction: Mudassar Aziz
‘Khel Khel Mein’ may derive its name from a popular film of the 70s, but is truly an interesting take on how a mobile phone carries more skeletons than the proverbial cupboard. Three couples and a friend join up at a wedding to see their marriages fall apart. How it all gets tied back, either by resignation or maturity, is what director Mudassar Aziz deals with.
Said to be an adaptation of the Italian film ‘Perfect Stranger’, KKM mirrors the factum that marriage is not a celibacy insurance policy. Fortunately, even the pulpit talk gets interestingly subdued. Denominated by contemporaneity, it juxtapositions value systems qua hypocrisies until human shortcomings mirror our own needs to amend our lifestyles and expectations.
Samar (Aditya Seal) is married to Naina (Pragya Jaiswal). The seemingly happy marriage, however, has Naina swallowing pills for her nervous disorder and Samar unhappy at the office with a rude father-in-law. Harpreet Singh (Ammy Virk) is lamenting constantly that his automobile plant is not doing well and his wife Happy Kaur (Taapsee Pannu) has to overcome the constant nudge of her mother-in-law for a grandchild in the family. Dr Rishabh (Akshay Kumar) is a plastic surgeon and a compulsive liar but a charming one at that. His wife Vartika (Vaani Kapoor) tries hard but can’t get her stepdaughter to accept her as her mother. The couples meet along with loner friend Kabir (Fardeen Khan).
Bored at the Grand Indian Wedding, the group move into the luxury suite of Dr Rishab where they decide to play a game. This is where the film begins. Mudassar wastes a good amount of time in establishing the style and characters. Once the characters get into playing the game, things begin to move. Skeletons fall out of the cupboard... or cellphone. First, the three guys are exposed. The Harpreets realise that everything is not hunky dory in the marriage. Harpreet receives a call on his phone after losing a heavy chunk in gambling and some hot pictures. Fortunately for him, the blame is moved on to Kabir, since the phones look similar. We next see that things aren’t smooth in the Naina Samar matrimonial home too. Samar’s commitment to the commands from his lady boss reveals his hot paradise. Rishabh finds himself sucked into the vortex. The doctor who hitherto is playing the balancing act and the sane counsellor of the two too stands exposed.
Post half-time, the accusing wives have their own explanations to give when they too begin to receive anonymous calls. Fortunately, none of the men display the myth of male expectations and double standards. Things turn queer when a caller accuses one of the members of the group of being gay.
The game gets curiouser and curiouser with stereotypical responses to a gay person in the group. Mudassir Aziz deals with the issue with maturity, albeit tangentially.
Uniformly good performances from Taapsee Pannu, Aditya Seal, Ammy Virk and Vaani Kapoor ensure that nothing hurts even if nothing absorbs beyond a point. At one level, the film yet again reiterates that Akshay Kumar has not got his due from his critics. However, the audience turnover at the theatre suggests at least he would get the customary recognition from the Box Office. Luck has deserted him for just too long. With his talent and willingness to experiment with different scripts, success is just one Friday away. Will this be it?
The scene where he deals with his adolescent daughter and the final marriage speech pushes the film up both in terms of semantics and structural credibility. Notwithstanding a slow poor second half, things fall in place. The initial comedy evolves into a film that deals with both matrimony and alternate sex preference and calls for a certain degree of tolerance and honesty in human relationships. Akshay Kumar establishes once again that with a good script, he is always a bankable actor.
‘Khel Khel Mein’ is a good fun film. Don’t expect too much. Yawn a few times, smile a few times, take things in the right perspective with an advisory. It’s all khel khel mein.
