A few weeks before when I was told that the upcoming film TOTAL SIYAPAA is an official remake of a Spanish comedy ONLY HUMAN aka SERES QUERIDOS (2004), I eagerly watched the original and was in big doubts as the script required a great amount of transformation suiting our Indian mindsets. The film had its entire story progression based on a typical element of foreign humour which essentially demanded a complete Indian makeover undoubtedly and therefore I was excited enough to see that how they are going to do that in TOTAL SIYAPAA. Moreover since the film was written (adapted) as well as co-produced by Neeraj Pandey, the mastermind behind A WEDNESDAY & SPECIAL 26, along with Eshwar Niwas being there as the director, I was expecting it to be at least a decent entertainer with some fresh interesting faces brought together.
But unfortunately what the team offered in those approximately 110 minutes was way below the mark or hugely disappointing, with the main culprit being the writing only, which is nothing but a scene to scene adaptation of its original Spanish film using the same elements of foreign humour, weirdly. In short we only get the nationalities changed here to Indians and Pakistanis, whereas the rest remains almost the same with only few minor additions by the makers. And certainly that is the reason why one feels like hugely disconnected while watching it and doesn’t get what was promised by its exciting promos in terms of family confusions, lovable fights and enjoyable humour served well in the short duration of less than 2 hours.
Talking about a family set in London, the film begins on a very routine note with a melodious love song coming in its first few minutes itself. A predictable, forced in sequence involving a Mr. Bean look-alike policeman comes next, which simply fails to generate any kind of laughter at all. And then the immensely likable Kiron Kher is there with some good entertaining sequences in the first 30 minutes. But soon, she also falls in the same trap of ‘tough to relate foreign humour’ after a while and the film starts moving on a downward swing from here on. Actually what hurts you the most, while watching TOTAL SIYAPAA is that the film never picks up post its initial good moments and stays in that same state of 1st or 2nd gear only throughout. The screen says interval in just about 50 minutes and the veteran Anupam Kher actually makes an entry in the second half.
The visible disconnection with the happenings on the screen continues to be the major drawback of the film, especially post interval and one doesn’t feel like enjoying its any supposedly funny scene in reality. The soundtrack does have a few melodious tracks such as ‘Palat Meri Jaan’ and ‘Nahi Maloom’ but they make no contribution in the overall impact of the film at all. Following a very questionable pattern, the director strictly follows whatever is there in the Spanish version as it is, like the problem created by the soup bowl, a little girl posing as pregnant, the father’s experience with the hookers and even the colleagues playing kinky in the office shown in the exact manner, which fails to make any kind of impact on the audience. Moreover even the Cinematography & Background score departments also take a lot of inspiration from its original source, probably skipping the tougher path of trying something new.
In the performance section, Ali Zafar suits the role perfectly and he tries his best looking fresh & involved. Kirron Kher once again delivers a polished but routine performance of a Punjabi mother and Yami Gautam leaves a positive impact as the gorgeous young lady in her second film too. As the blind grandfather, Vishwa Mohan Badola could have been used in a better way. Anuj Pandit Sharma gets nothing much to do playing the brother-in-law and Sagar Arya (Brother) overacts in his short role. Surprisingly Anupam Kher gets utterly wasted in a very silly kind of character and he is just there in few scenes towards the end only playing the lost father.
However the one actor who simply catches your attention right from her first scene itself remains Sara Khan, playing Yami’s elder sister. In fact her act rightly proves that apart from the looks, its only the writing which can bring forward any single character out of a whole bunch of actors in a particular scene. The girl looks stunningly attractive and I truly found it amazing that despite Yami Gautam being there, my eyes were still searching for Sara Khan as she did manage to reach out to the audience much better than anyone else on the screen unarguably.
In all TOTAL SIYAPAA is a big letdown, particularly when it is coming from Neeraj Pandey and I was really surprised that its entire screenplay was not re-written but just adapted as it is from its Spanish original without putting in any serious thought, resulting in such a mediocre product.
Rating : 1.5 / 5 (Including 0.5 only for its 2 melodious songs)
Tags :
TOTAL SIYAPAA Review By Bobby Sing, Total Siyaapa Movie Review By Bobby Sing, Total Siyapa Film Review by Bobby Sing,New Hindi Films Reviews By Bobby Sing at bobbytalkscinema.com, Bollywood Movies Reviews at bobbytalkscinema.com, Bobby Sing Bollywood Reviews, New Bollywood Movies Reviews, New Bollywood Movies Released, 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 b
