No Mega Khan, Kapoor or Kumar in the cast.
No Star son-daughter-niece-nephew-relative in the lead.
No huge publicity campaign influencing the people.
No Big Star backing the project coming on the front.
No major hit song in the soundtrack.
And above all no hugely impressive promos creating a pre-release hype.Still the euphoria I witnessed in the single screen theatre of West Delhi in its afternoon show of Friday was simply unexpected, pleasantly shocking and hugely unbelievable. All because of one man alone, the exceptionally talented boy from Amritsar, the man who re-defined comedy in India in the last 7 years, Kapil Sharma making a debut on the bigger screen after winning millions of hearts of not only Indians and Pakistanis but people of our regions residing all over the world unarguably. In fact last time I heard these kinds of screams, claps, whistles and maddening reception by the audience in a single screen was while watching BAJRANGI BHAIJAAN on its first day.
So the verdict was very clear within the first 10 minutes itself that Kapil was one of their most loved personalities whose big screen debut they were eager to watch and now the next crucial question was that whether the film has got the content to win over the viewers providing the much awaited entertainment or not?
Thankfully the answer to this second significant question also turned out to be positive as KIS KISKO PYAAR KAROON successfully managed to give them a good return of their money spent in its 137 minutes of duration, despite having a clichéd theme and few forced songs incorporated just for the sake of it. In short, though it clearly reminds you of David Dhawan-Govinda’s 1996 hit SAAJAN CHALE SASURAL and even SANDWICH released in 2006, KKPK largely works because of Kapil Sharma, Varun (Choocha of FUKREY) and a pretty decent supportive cast taking you onto a hilarious ride with loads of funny situations and well written dialogues.
The film begins introducing the entire cast intelligently explaining the reasons behind the three marriages (that obviously need to be believed keeping the logic aside) and then presents two average songs in its first 30 minutes (where the initial one could have been easily edited). At first watching the proceedings with a smiling face and occasional laughs, one feels as if its nothing but an extension of Kapil’s TV program with few gags working and few not. But as the film progresses further bringing in the young lawyer, the fourth woman, her father and later Kapil’s own separated parents into the script, the narration become tighter and the team doesn’t give you a single moment to look aside till the emotional climax.
To give you a fair idea, apart from Kapil Sharma performing so confidently with his incomparable comic timing even in the emotional climax of his debut film, we have many other elements working big time in the project making a major contribution to its overall impact that cannot be simply ignored.
For instance here we have Varun Sharma, who comes out as a strong winner playing the young lawyer with his hilarious scientific explanation roping in ‘Newton’ and his scenes together with Kapil are truly a delight to watch. Making another impressive debut in the film is Johny Lever’s daughter Jamie as the Kaam Waali Bai and her every single scene generates an instant laughter, particularly the underwear one. There is Arbaaz Khan having good fun playing the deaf ‘Don Bhai’ of one of Kapil’s wives and Manoj Joshi, who doesn’t ham but gives you a real good time particularly in the shopping mall sequence dealing with all the ladies. Plus among the veterans we have Supriya Pathak and Sharat Saxena taking the important responsibility of creating some fine entertaining situations in the second half.
Coming to the four leading ladies in the film, they all perform decently in their given limited time and do not turn out to be some amateurs bagging a big film. Individually Manjari Fadnis (as the only known face), Simran Kaur Mundi and Sai Lokur perform well but its Elii Avram who seems to be having the maximum fun on the screen quite convincingly.
In the technical department where the camerawork and art direction is just fine, background score really supports the comedy well and it’s the editing that never lets the pace drop making you feel duly entertained both in the first and second half equally without any dragging sequence. Besides it’s the fast paced screenplay and lot of well written sequences and dialogues placed brilliantly that actually save the film from moving into any dull phase right till the end.
As the downers, KKPK has the major drawback of having a stale story to tell that has its own share of big absurdities. Yes, while watching such comedies we are not supposed to bring the logic in, but what many would have loved much more is some fresh and novel concept coming from the team led by the gifted Kapil Sharma surprising one and all. Soundtrack plays another spoilsport in this well paced comedy with nothing great to offer except few catchy hook lines in a couple of songs or the finale track. And had there been even 1 or 2 killer songs to help the film, it could have scaled much greater heights at the box office looking at the initial response. Honestly with Kapil having a great sense of music and melody himself, I was personally expecting a much better soundtrack to enjoy, so was pretty disappointed in this specific section.
Anyway coming to the most sensible players in this safe bet, they are none other than the talented director duo Abbas-Mustan, who have handled the project with an amazing ease, even when it was not of the genre they are known for. As a matter of fact the duo very smartly allowed Kapil to lead from the front and provided him all the experienced support of their vision and a well written script having loads of hilarious situations to play with. And Kapil as a thorough professional, made the optimum use of the opportunity given resulting in an enjoyable product.
However, a related fact to be essentially kept in mind is that this was Kapil’s first film and considering the massive love of people for their comic hero, it was bound to be a safe project in all probabilities, which will certainly not be the case in his next venture. Hence in his second film Kapil will have to be extra cautious in choosing the subject as well as the music providing the much needed novelty to his millions of fans keeping them largely satisfied.
Nevertheless, in the present, just go for KIS KISKO PYAAR KAROON and have a great time remembering those good old days of Govinda and David Dhawan of the 90s with the new age comic stars, Kapil and Varun.
Ratings : 3 + 0.5 / 5 (with the additional 0.5 for Varun Sharma and the dialogue writer for being the other two winners along with Kapil)
