The opening or end credits of FREAKY ALI didn’t have any mention of an official remake (as I could read), but the film was certainly made with Adam Sindler’s HAPPY GILMORE (1996) in mind with similarities in concept, characters and execution too in its various sequences. However since the makers didn’t wish to go for a clear copy (for the obvious reasons), so they decided to turn it into a ‘Manmohan Desai-Amitabh Bachchan’ kind of filmy underdog story with the writing credits claimed by director Sohail Khan himself without any hesitation or guilt.
So this is nothing more than a highly inspired Indianised version of HAPPY GILMORE which desperately keeps looking upon its lead actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui to do some magic on screen instead of any other person involved in its making both on and off the screen (to be honest). But sadly even Nawazuddin fails to come up with anything worth praising this time due to an awful writing full of crude humour, flat jokes, childish sequences and unbelievably silly characters trying to present it as some kind of enjoyable film.
Beginning with interesting opening titles with subtle graphics and music, its first five minutes only clearly convey the absurd way the film has been conceived by the director Sohail Khan (showcasing the over-publicized ‘chaddi selling’). And then a long boring ‘Vasooli’ sequence followed by a ‘gali cricket’ and ‘marriage’ scene further confirm the fact with highly clichéd, predictable and avoidable unfunny stuff continuing throughout the first hour. Post intermission the film goes back to the same old story of ‘an insider’ trying to play some dirty tricks ruining the competition and the underdog still managing to win the game after a usual devotional song at the Dargah (in the typical Desai style).
Revolving around Golf, FREAKY ALI strangely assumes the (mostly) middle and lower class viewership of our nation to be well aware of the rules and progression of the game largely associated with the ‘Rich and the famous’, which precisely remains the reason why all the game related sequences turn out to be completely dull and unexciting, far away from being anything entertaining.
Accepting the great potential in the inspired concept, no doubt Nawazuddin was a perfect choice to play the lead role of a less educated small time gangster invading the ‘high class society’ in their golf clubs. But that cannot be the only reason the makers can expect the film to work without any solid writing or enjoyable humour presented in its two lengthy hours without any appreciable music. So where at one end Nawazuddin keeps delivering the witty one liners in his own individual style, the sub-plot of a foolish gangster (Nikitin Dheer), the plain blank looks of Amy Jackson, the imbalanced over-the-top act of Jas Arora and an irritating portrayal by Arbaaz Khan do not work as per the requirement in even a single scene, also wasting a powerful performer such as Seema Biswas in a small unimportant role.
In short, the only positive thing about FREAKY ALI is Nawazuddin playing a solo, light hearted romantic comic role for a change, giving us something other than those dark, (repetitive) twisted crime based characters in his majority of films. However I wish the writer-director had adapted the subject in much more hilarious and entertaining manner ‘taking it seriously’. Because in the present form the film frankly seems to be one of those cleverly made projects just to show big losses in the account books generating a balancing impact.
Rating : 1 / 5
Tags :
Freaky Ali Review by Bobby Sing, Freaky Ali Film Review by Bobby Sing, Inspired film from HAPPY GILMORE, Copied film from English hits, New Hindi Films Reviews, New Hindi Movies Reviews, New Hindi Movies Released, New Bollywood Reviews, Bobby Talks Cinema Review, Reviews By Bobby Sing, New Hindi Films Reviews at bobbytalkscinema.com
