Laxmii
Cast: Akshay Kumar, Kiara Advani
Director: Raghava Lawrence
Just when you thought life couldn’t get any more ridiculous in the remaining days of 2020, Akshay Kumar breaks our senses with his new supernatural film Laxmii, previously titled Laxmmi Bomb. It also gives Sadak 2 an outside chance to redeem itself as the second worst movie of the year. It’s a total mockery of audience intelligence and a huge blow to Disney + Hotstar’s chances of getting in the way of other major Indian OTT players.
I remember there was a lot of hesitation initially pushing Laxmii for an OTT release, but after watching the movie, it doesn’t seem worth spending money to just watch a movie in happy isolation. It is so strange that even the Housefull series seem classics.
I’ve seen Kanchana (2011), the inspiration for Laxmii and never liked it, but trust me, the remake is much worse than the original. With an overwhelming focus on the transgender community and movie making, Laxmii is so absurd that after a while you can start screaming for no reason, just like Akshay Kumar does in the movie. Logic and sensitivity were never a problem because hardly anyone expected that. What surprised me is how little fun and inexplicable Laxmii could be despite such a low standard!
Asif (Akshay), a rationalist, is married to Rashmi (Kiara Advani, they never bothered to reveal their occupation. They visit Rashmi’s parents who live in a huge bungalow in Daman. Things get complicated when a supernatural power enters the room. Asif’s body. Good so far. There were a couple of typical physical comedy scenes involving Akshay Kumar, but as the central plot takes over, the laughter fades and all you’re left with is half-hunched Advani performing a Totally uninspired dance at ‘Burj Khalifa’.
Despite selling the movie on behalf of a transgender character, it is a joke on the community. This is the same Bollywood vision of seeing the community as a group of burly and violent people demanding justice and simultaneously shedding blood.
Read: Halahal Movie Review
Read: Serious Men Movie Review
The jokes fail and the actors seem clueless. Nobody has anything to do with Kumar and then he also gets rid of the audience. You will also meet some model characters like a benevolent Muslim man, a specially trained downtrodden child, and some unimaginative children. God, they are so annoying.
The director has an established formula: bring a song when you feel like it. He’s so good at spoon-feeding that he writes “the next night” for a scene change, in case you’re not paying attention.
Usually even in a bad Akshay Kumar movie you laugh at some puns, but this one is totally devoid of fun. Don’t let your conscience blame you for the rest of your life. Stay away from Laxmii’s antics. Anyway, we have a pandemic to deal with. Let there be one less problem.
Rating: 0.5 / 5
.
