REVIEW THAI MASSAGE

Producer- Imtiaz Ali

Director- Mangesh Hadawale

Star Cast- Gajraj Rao, Divyendu Sharma, Rajpal Yadav

Genre- Social

Platform of Release- Theatres

Rating- ***

Vegetarian Delight!

Jyothi Venkatesh

After their spouse passes on, one’s life can get lonely for the elderly. They are often denied pleasures — especially sexual — and expected to lead a quiet boring detached asexual life, preferably dedicated to God. With Aatmaram Dubey (Gajraj Rao), the movie tries to highlight this aspect and drives home the message that age has nothing to do with longing for companionship, especially sex.

The film revolves around Atmaram Dubey (Gajraj Rao), a well-respected widower from Ujjain, Madhya Pradesh, who loses his wife after devoting his life to her for 22 years as she battles paralysis and is all set to turn 70 in two days. As the family prepares for his grand birthday celebration, they unearth a secret about his escapades in Thailand. Is the film all about the trip only for sensual pleasure, or is there more to what meets the eye?

Aatmaram is extremely lonely and disheartened when he realises he may have erectile dysfunction (ED) and may not be able to indulge in fleshly pleasures, he decides to commit suicide but, a young stranger, Santulan (Divyendu Sharma), dissuades him, saying he has a solution for every problem. Thus begins a saga of seeking pleasure that brings Atmaram to Bangkok with Santulan’s help.

After Badhai Do, Gajraj Rao once again impresses with his finessed performance in the comic and emotional scenes. Though Divyendu does a good job, too, his character seems to be underdeveloped and half baked. He neither passes off as a mischief-maker nor a sensitive guy, and his motive or motivation to help Aatmaram is absurd.

As Santulan, Divyendu gets the old-timer a passport, a smartphone, and a girl for his ‘boom boom’ but says it’s a prank, whereas he is actually championing the latter. You wonder what on earth made Divyendu who is otherwise a very competent actor agree to do a role like this which does not have any coherence. Rajpal Yadav makes a cameo appearance, which is hilarious to the core though he tends to be a trite too loud.

To sum up, all said and done, though the plot bears a striking resemblance to the Bengali film Tonic which is about a young travel agent coming forward to offer a senior citizen a travel abroad, it is nevertheless a film which h can be enjoyed inspire of its slow pace