What’s the difference between film-making and cocktail mixing? In the
latter, the mixologists have made mixing drinks an artful endeavor and their
adroitness of how to shake, stir and pour churns out a perfect blend. But,
alas! This skill goes missing in the film-makers who never think twice to make
a film on an age-old template. We can’t even call them ‘an old wine in the new
bottle’, ‘leave your brains at home’ etc., as these phrases, like our formulaic
films, are getting into the folds of clichés with their repetitive usage.
Yet again our hero Venky (Gopi Chand) is a happy-go-lucky guy who is
always there to help and is very effective than any ‘Public Grievance Redressal
System’. He helps his friend to runaway with his loved one and, for this
valiant act; he earns the wrath of the girl’s family. Let’s call it a Ready
or a Rabhasa.
Hero falling in love with villain’s sister can be attributed to a Mass
or a Dhee. This time it tilts more towards Dhee as the tone is
comical. Wait, our hero asks her to spend a day with him so that he can make
her realize his love. The end result arrives in the form of a text message – ‘Hi’.
That’s strange. That’s Mass.
Our hero enters the college and tries to woo the girl by pretending as a
police officer. This can trace back to a Vishal starrer Malaikottai (Bhayya
in Telugu). Not only that, he also learns her hobbies through a friend and
makes her dance! Even Gopi Chand’s Ontari had a similar spin-off And
when she realizes that our hero is not what he pretends to be, she asks for an
apology and the regular teasing, singing, dancing routine starts. During these
episodes, there’s lot of eye candy painted on the screen and Rakul Preet looks
drop dead gorgeous. All thanks to her styling, but she needs more meat to her
character.
There are many illogical and unwarranted scenes in Loukyam, which
do no good for the screenplay rather than offering some throwback to
Gopichand’s previous films. May be the writers wanted to pick few good scenes
that may work out effectively for this hero and put the audience’s grey cells
in active mode. Yes, they need to identify which scene is from which movie.
Here, the regular mould of Kona Venkat gets a slight tweaking as the villain
and his henchmen visit the hero’s place post interval. That’s a structural
reversal.
Though the entire film looks like a bag of borrowings, the high point of Loukyam
comes in the form of comic playoff. Brahmanandam as Sippy and ’30 Years’ Prudvi
as ‘Boiling Star’ Babloo pack so much of humor ranging from cheesy, slapstick,
situational and lots more. The Legend spoof comes as a relief package
towards the end. So, the fact can be reiterated that the comedians can only
anchor a movie and keep it afloat amid turbulence. Loukyam also tries to
blur the difference between a villain and comedian. This time around, Gopi
Chand mellows down the action quotient and stays close to the safe zone of
comedy.
Loukyam treads a path
where comedy overpowers creativity and peels a layer of irreverence when the
hero believes that a journey to a woman’s heart is not through roses or
exchanging pleasantries but a tight slap on her face. So, where has all the respect
and susceptibility for women gone. Although few bits-and-pieces of comedy and
the film’s rich texture drives you to buy this product, a sickening blend of stale
ingredients makes it a cringe-worthy cocktail that leaves a bad aftertaste.
My Rating: Expectation - 6/10; Reality - 4/10
This review was originally written for Metro India newspaper.
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