Pawn No. 1
To emit: Varun Dhawan, Sara Ali Khan, Paresh Rawal
Director: David dhawan
David Dhawan at his peak is a tough act to follow. The master of the wild cinema, whose favorite playground was still sham and ridicule, Dhawan had the uncanny ability to turn every scene into a tickle. With the generous help of Kader Khan’s laugh-by-the-minute lines and nimble Govinda’s comedic timing, you were never given a chance to examine the script (there was none) or the lack of coherence. We were ready for the ride, and breathless spontaneity took you away. It’s that spontaneity you desperately miss in Coolie No. 1, Dhawan’s reprise of his success from a quarter century ago. And the original was never a perfect product in the first place, but it was always light on its feet.
Watch the trailer for Coolie # 1
The director’s son, actor Varun Dhawan, is the one who answers this time to the call of ‘Aaaeee Coolie’. Senior Dhawan does not change history, he offers no surprises for those of us who went to a single screen theater to see the original. Instead, you give your set a lick of paint, add some flashy costumes, and voila, a 1995 hit is ready for a whole new audience.
Kader Khan’s Seth Hoshiyarchand is now Goa’s hotelier Jeffery Rozario (Paresh Rawal) whose only dream is to find a rich, stinky husband for his daughter Sarah (Sara Ali Khan). For some reason he is made to speak in rhyme, the first line being ‘Heaven on the Docks man’. Your ear scratches the first time he says it and it never gets better.
Rozario, in his search for the richest man in the country for his daughter, insults matchmaker Jai Kishen (Jaaved Jaffrey, a 2020 version of Shadiram Gharjode from Sadashiv Amrapurkar) who vows to avenge the insult. He brings in a railroad porter, Raju (Varun Dhawan), to play the wealthy suitor Kunwar Raj Pratap Singh. Blinded by the promise of immense wealth, Rozario manages to get Raju to marry his daughter, but soon realizes that everything is not what it seems. To get him off the trail, Raju makes up the story of having a twin, adding more confusion to an already overflowing plot.
Coolie No. 1 has a few moments, due in large part to Varun Dhawan’s enthusiasm and spontaneity. As the ruffian Raju, he manages to channel his love of broad, physical comedy while simulating Mithun Chakraborty, complete with pelvic thrusts. It’s like the strict Raj that you wish had marked all the mimicry of veteran actors. He is surrounded by familiar faces; In addition to Paresh Rawal and Javed, Johnny Lever, Rajpal Yadav and Sahil Vaid also appear. The women, like most of David’s films, have little to do other than show up to the songs and act supportive. Sara Ali Khan is suitable when duty calls.
Although suspension of disbelief is part of watching a David Dhawan movie, Coolie No. 1’s plot is out of sync with today’s time. Men are hit in the gonads and women are victims of casual sexism. Speech impairment is drawn from laughter, as is people’s weight. Even the coronavirus is not spared, as it is used in a rather bland and graceless joke.
Then there are the holes in the crater-sized plot. While everyone carries smartphones and takes selfies, no one bothers to Google this desi Richie Rich before vows are taken and weddings are planned. You squirm in your seat as the greedy father tosses his daughters to the wealthy suitor, forgetting that we live in a different century than the one originally written. Things get to a point all too often in Coolie No. 1 where such inanity is too much to swallow, especially when there is no laugh.
The visual effects sequences in the film can be a basic guide on how not to use CGI. They are of such poor quality that you can tell where the green screen was used.
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David Dhawan has proven beyond any doubt that it is impossible to temper David Dhawan. With the lack of sharp writing and editing, Coolie No 1 is nothing more than a poor facsimile of the original. When the jokes land with a thud, we’re left with just the songs and even there the OGs clearly win. For those who ask you not to compare the success of 1995 to the product of 2020, my one-line answer is that the manufacturers shouldn’t have given us a copy in the first place. This is not a reboot, it feels like a parody and it’s best not to manipulate nostalgia.
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