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You can give it a miss

A dance number from ‘Krazzy-4’

Film: Krazzy-4

Cast: Arshad Warsi, Rajpal Yadav, Juhi Chawla

Direction: Jaideep Sen

Fun hurts. Particularly the kind pedalled with such unapologetic relish by debutant director Jaideep Sen. If the Hindi film industry takes half a step towards maturity with “You, Me aur Hum”, “Krazzy-4” proves that madness – no pun intended – is never far away. Ostensibly talking of four patients of schizophrenia, the film does such wilful injustice to the theme that you wonder if commercial filmmakers have a licence to lampooning, in utter disregard to the feelings of the affected or their families.

Never high on details, here Sen gives a go by even to the bare minimum as he spins together a masala entertainer with all the ingredients to make the cash registers jingles. And the sensitive souls squirm in their seats. He starts off with the story of four guys in varying stages of mental illnesses: one of them, Rajpal Yadav, lives in the past, the other, cannot get a word through. The third one is a doctor who has lost the prescription of life. And the fourth loses control over his temper in the face of simple provocation.

Knowing before hand that it is a commercial venture with three item numbers and a music score that’s in news for plagiarism, one does not expect a “Dard ka Rishta” or even “Tera Mera Saath Rahen” kind of treatment. Even being prepared to make concessions to over-the-top handling and addition of songs for entertainment does not help. Sen’s film is so completely bereft of sensitivity that it could as well have been the story of anybody suffering from forgetfulness or even somebody with speech impairment. Either way, Sen would have used the condition only to raise cheap laughs. That he succeeds in doing as the masses often clap with glee every time the lead characters falter.

Which given their illness is often. Here the four patients go out to watch a game of cricket with their doctor, played with usual aplomb by Juhi Chawla. Along the way, the doctor goes missing and four mentally ill people are out on their own on the road with predictable consequences. They don’t have a penny in their pocket, not an address in sight but have to save the doctor who has been kidnapped. Throw in a conspiracy angle with a couple of halts at dance floors, and you have a film where the director leaves nothing to chance. There is plenty of below-the-belt humour along the way as a sad story becomes a comedy; before giving way to a thriller. And ultimately devolving into nothingness.

Saving point? No, not Shah Rukh’s item number boy jig. He is flat and listless, not helped much by a music score. The redeeming feature comes from the quarter least expected, Rakhi Sawant. In her mandatory song and dance grind, she is a delight, with all the right pauses and pouts, the lower-than-the-upper navel skirt, a single string, bare-backed blouse and lots of tattoos. Makrand Deshpande as her co-dancer is suitably lecherous, obviously enjoying himself in a different role.

That is a little footnote in a film that is crude, even hurtful. That it might just get better response at the box office only adds to the agony. If you have got scruples and are not ready to ignore them for a few cheap laughs, you can skip this one. “Krazzy-4” leaves you yearning for a work of sanity.- Z.U.S.

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