A remake of the Tamil film ‘Naadodigal’, Priyadarshan’s Rangrezz is a harking back to the regressive, Illogical, loud films from the 80s. Two friends – Vinu (Amitosh Nagpal) and Pakya (Vijay Verma) – blindly follow Rishi (Jackky Bhagnani) into a battle they have no vested interest in. When Rishi’s childhood friend Joy (Raghav Chanana) shows up with the problem of a love story that has hit a wall, Rishi and friends decide to drive from Mumbai to UP and abduct Joy’s love. Their motive is to unite the lovers and to fulfill the code of friendship, no matter how many people have to die or risk death along the way.
Why do Vinu and Pakya accompany Rishi on a criminal path for a person they have not known before and when they have so much too lose back home is unexplained. This is one of the many illogical plot points. Another is a child-marriage arranged between Rishi and Megha whose father is obsessed with Rishi landing a ‘sarkari naukri’, the precondition to their marriage.
Eventually the boys realise that lust is often mistaken for love and embark on yet another journey of revenge. In between Priyadarshan punches in a few misplaced songs set to bad music and adds in supporting actors that screech and ham to the hilt. The worst offenders are the actor playing Rishi’s prospective father-in-law, Rishi’s mother and Joy’s mother played by Lushin Dubey who would make any son want to run away from home.
Fortunately the four boys who are central to the story are on the same pitch. Vijay Verma’s performance stands out as the lower middle class Pakya. Santosh Sivan’s camerawork starts with the class you associate with him but quickly turns in average imagery. Rajpal Yadav adds some much-needed respite from the histrionics and faux earnestness.
It doesn’t help that the locations and milieu shift around arbitrarily creating complete confusion for the audience on geography, culture and plot.
The violence is over the top and gratuitous and the dialogue archaic, with words like ainak (spectacles) and a teenager who refers to her prospective father-in-law as ‘sasurji’. Sadly the ‘hero’ Jackky Bhagnani lacks charisma and screen presence essential for holding a scene. And Gangnam Style, placed with the end credit roll, comes a little too late. It’s not enough to stop you from hotfooting it to the exit.
Rating: *1/2
