Khaali peeli
To emit: Ananya Panday, Ishaan Khatter, Jaideep Ahlawat
Director: Maqbool Khan
Congratulations! You’ve found your way to a real review from ‘nepo kids’ Ananya Panday and Ishaan Khatter’s Khaali Peeli, amid a sea of 0-star Google reviews for ‘warriors of justice’. Contrary to what those reviews would have you believe, no, I didn’t think it was the worst thing that can happen to humanity.
Khaali Peeli is a concoction that can only be made in the belly of Bollywood. With one chase sequence following the tail of another, director Maqbool Khan assures that there is not a single moment without his adrenaline pumping up to an 11. But it’s quite surprising how easily one can get bored with the madness as well.
Check out the trailer for Khaali Peeli:
From the characters to the story, from the villains to the cronies, Khaali Peeli could very well have been a product of 80s Bollywood and one wouldn’t even flinch. There are long-lost childhood lovers, a chaotic reunion, a woman on the run, a skilled blue-collar hero, a mob boss taking a child under his wing, a prostitution business, and policemen providing comic relief. . Fortunately, everything seems deliberately kitsch, which I realized after the boy’s name was revealed to be Vijay Chauhan.
Vijay, aka Blackie, is played by Ishaan with a soft tapori that never quite suits him. He tries his best to fire off words like ‘shendi’, ‘kalti’ with the graceful ease of Munna from Rangeela, but in it, he feels like a good convent-brought up Bandra kid trying to look cool to his Borivali friends. He is a taxi driver who abides by his own rules and drives his ‘kaali peeli’ like butter in a hot pan. An opportunist who wouldn’t shy away from ripping off the greedy husbands of pregnant women in labor, his life is turned upside down when Ananya’s Pooja crashes into him.
Pooja is on the run from a group of thugs who are trying to marry her off to a forty-something pedophile (played so disgustingly by Swanand Kirkire) that he remained ‘a virgin’ to her for 10 years. On the eve of their wedding, she steals the party’s money and gold, and her getaway car turns out to be Blackie’s taxi. She is also a street girl and therefore has to speak the same jargon. From Ananya, the words sound even stranger.
In the tails of our hero and heroine are the police and Yusuf Bhai from Jaideep Ahalawat. He plays the mob boss in the rush to groom young women for prostitution. He was the one who separated the lovers when they were children, and his mission is to bring Pooja back to her buyer, even if it means paying for it with his own life or someone else’s. As should have been expected of Jaideep, he plays Yusuf with sinister anguish. He may appear gentle when he puts his arm around a young apprentice, but shows his vile side when he slaps an 11-year-old boy’s ribs hard. Jaideep seems to have fun in this very basic role as he tosses his long hair more than necessary.
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As for Blackie and Pooja, now reunited as adults, their chemistry really sizzles as they argue and fight over the right plan to escape or how to divide the loot between them. Ananya and Ishaan are able to pull off the temperamental scenes, action, and even the lightest moments with ease. However, dramatic flashbacks, emotional gatherings are, at best, ineffective. The romance, though mostly insignificant, is limited to a couple of bad songs, which thanks to the movie being available on OTT, you can skip with a flick of the cursor.
A nice distraction from the ’80s is Maqbool’s treatment of heroin. Ananya may be distraught, but she is not a damsel in need of rescue. Even without the hero’s help, she finds ways to outwit the police, escape from villains, find her way out of tough situations, and break some skulls, and also save the hero a couple of times. Ananya is charming as the fighter Pooja and defends herself against Ishaan.
Khaali Peeli, as the title suggests, is a good option to hang out on a couch this weekend. A popcorn chewer straight from the belly of Bollywood, it’s a movie that won’t ask much of you and sometimes that’s what we need from our movies.
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