Film Review: Aankh Micholi”: All is fair in love, war, and family...

Rating: Two and a half stars

Producer: Ashish Wagh and Umesh Shukla

Author: Jitendra Parmar

Director: Umesh Shukla

Cast: Paresh Rawal, Divya Dutta, Vijay Raaz, Sharman Joshi, Grusha Kapoor, Abhimanyu Dassani, Mrunal Thakur, Abhishek Banerjee, Darshan Jariwala and others.

Duration: 2 hours 24 minutes

Umesh Shukla, the creator of successful films like 'Oh My God', 'All is Well', and '102 not Out', this time brought a comedy film 'Aankh Micholi' which talks about 'everything is justified to save the family'. The basis of the story of the film is a bitter truth. Every parent wants their children to get married and their children's future should improve, for this, they do not hold back even in telling lies, and it is natural for them to feel self-conscious. This bitter truth is presented in the form of a comedy film. In doing this, filmmaker Umesh Shukla lacked somewhere.

Story:

The story of the film 'Aankh Micholi' is about a rich family in Hoshiarpur, Punjab, whose head Navjot Singh (Paresh Rawal) is an Ayurvedic doctor but he suffers from amnesia. His elder son Yuvraj Singh (Sharman Joshi) is deaf. Younger son Harbhajan Singh (Ashish Banerjee) stutters while daughter Paro Singh (Mrunal Thakur) cannot see at night, that is, she is night blind. Yuvraj Singh gets married to Billo (Divya Dutta) by lying to her. After the marriage, on the wedding night, Billo learns that due to the fall, his ear was so injured that he became deaf. Famous jeweler Bhatti (Vijay Raj) is angry with this marriage because Bhatti wants to marry Billo. It has been ten years since the marriage of Yuvraj Singh and Billo. They have a son, Goldie. On the other hand, Paro goes to Switzerland with her friends, where she accidentally meets Rohit Patel (Abhimanyu Dasani) on the road. Here Navjot Singh talks about the marriage of his daughter Paro Singh with an NRI boy Rohit Patel. Rohit Patel from Australia comes to Hoshiarpur with his maternal uncle (Darshan Jariwala) and maternal aunt (Grusha Kapoor) to see another girl besides Paro. Bhatti wants to get his sister married to Rohit Patel. Navjot and his son lure Bhatti with the help of business so that they can send him to the shop and bring Rohit and his maternal uncle to their home. These people reach at night. At that time Paro can't see since she is night blind. But the whole family makes such a plan so that Rohit and his maternal uncle and aunt do not suspect that Paro is a patient of night blindness. Rohit had already seen Paro in Switzerland, so the marriage was fixed. But Paro Singh does not want to marry on the basis of lies. Paro agrees to the marriage on the condition that her father tells the truth to Rohit before the marriage. On the other hand, Rohit also can't see during the day. Rohit's maternal uncle and aunt hide this thing. Now whether the truth of Rohit and Paro's illness will be revealed or whether they will get married or not, for that, we will have to watch the film.

Review:

The kind of humor that filmmaker Umesh Shukla made his mark as a director, as well as a creator of humor in Gujarati Theater and Bollywood, is not seen in 'Aankh Micholi'. Umesh Shukla has raised the issue of women's generosity and doing everything for the family in his film, but it is wrong to make fun of a person's disability. At least the filmmaker has said in the disclaimer at the beginning of the film that he doesn’t want to hurt the sentiments of the victims who are suffering from physical disability.

There is a very old saying that “All is fair in love and war.” But now filmmaker Umesh Shukla has said in his film through the narrator (Arshad Warsi) that everything is fair in love, war, and family. The filmmakers could not even showcase the cultural heritage of Punjab properly in their films. Along with the cliché script of the film, its dialogues are also trite and old. Two proverbs have been presented together in the form of a dialogue to make people laugh. However, the screenwriter can be appreciated for the fact that Rohit's maternal uncle and aunt are afraid that Rohit's lie might be caught and Navjot Singh is always afraid that his lies might be caught. There is always curiosity among the audience as to when Paro will see Rohit Patel's face.

On one hand, the writer and director talk about the family, while at the dining table, the brother-in-law is seen pulling his sister-in-law's scarf and wiping his face with it. Rohit's aunt calls Paro's brother a driver. This shows how insensitive the writer and director is.

The filmmaker has also raised the issue in the film that "If something happens to one of the husband or wife after marriage, will both accept each other?" Probably yes, because in our society the bond of marriage is the bond of seven births together.'' But he could not explain it very well even in two and a half hours.

The editor needed to tighten this film on the editing table.

Acting:

The relationship between actor Paresh Rawal and director Umesh Shukla is well known. But in this process, he failed to select the right actors as per the characters. Paresh Rawal's acting is good, but he does not look like a Punjabi at all. Divya Dutta has to cope with a heavy Punjabi accent but is careful not to turn her character into a caricature. Vijay Raaz in the character of Bhatti makes an honest effort to get the Punjabi accent right. Abhimanyu Dassani disappoints in the role of Rohit Patel. Every character in Sharman Joshi's film looks the same. The acting of Abhishek Banerjee, Mrunal Thakur, Divya Dutta, and Grusha Kapoor is fine.

- Shantiswarup Tripathi