Producers-Prithiviraj Sukumaran, Karan Johar and Akshay Kumar
Director- Raj Mehta
Star Cast- Akshay Kumar, Emraan Hashmi, Nusshrat Bharuchcha, Diana Penty, Meghna Malik, Kusha Kapila and Abhimanyu Singh
Genre- Social
Platform of Release- Theatres
Rating- **
Breezy Entertainer!
Jyothi Venkatesh
Last week, Kartik Aaryan hit the screens with his film Shehzada, the remake of Allu Arjun’s Telugu film Ala Vaikunthapurramuloo and the disappointment was just as massive as the hype the film had generated. Now, Akshay Kumar and Emraan Hashmi have teamed up for the remake of the Malayalam film, Driving Licence. Titled Selfiee, having watched Driving License on an OTT platform, I can vouchsafe that this one has actually managed to capture the essence of the original and can be termed a decently made remake, to cater to the national audiences as against the original Malayalam version.
Selfiee comes in the wake of at least two incidents involving celebrities, who were hounded and almost manhandled by fans seeking to be photographed with them. A remake of the Malayalam critical and commercial success Driving Licence, Selfiee has at its core centre superstar Vijay Kumar (Akshay Kumar) and one of his most ardent fans, Om Prakash Aggarwal (Emraan Hashmi). A film shoot brings Vijay to Bhopal, and then to the RTO, as he needs a new driving licence for the climax shot. That also brings him to Om, Bhopal’s sole RTO Inspector.
The fact that Selfiee has taken the good parts from Driving Licence and given it a touch of its own, with many more commercial ingredients, is what makes this remake a good watch as well. Om Prakash Aggarwal requests for a selfie with the super star at his office because he is a huge fan. The superstar, who feels Aggarwal is a genuine fan, goes to meet him, but sadly things go awry and horribly wrong as the media turns up in huge numbers and things are blown simply out of proportion, with massive egos coming in the way of things between then superstar and then honest RTO officer.
Akshay Kumar is as usual effective when it comes to portraying the character he is playing with effortless ease while Emraan Hashmi proves to be the perfect foil to him. The track of Vijay’s contemporary actor Abhimanyu Singh and the tarot card reader Kusha Kapila has been handled callously and looks more like mockery. Nushratt Bharuchcha is good as the housewife while Diana Penty has hardly any role worth the salt. Mrunal Thakur in a cameo role in a film within the film shows a lot of skin perhaps for the first time, while Meghna Mallik has been wasted in an inane role.
To sum up, this entertainer is a ‘do or die’ break for Akshay Kumar, whose films have not been doing well at the box office