Last Updated on 15/08/2024 by Arun jain
In the last few years, people have had certain problems with Akshay Kumar and his films. Like, he is not playing roles according to his age, his comedy level is poor and the social messages of his films are confused.
‘Khel Khel Mein’ is a good attempt by Akshay to remove all these complaints. And the good thing is that along with removing these complaints, Akshay’s new film has also succeeded in providing entertainment. Director Mudassar Aziz should also get credit that the level of sensitivity, social message and wokeness in his comedy film has come out quite well. On top of that, Akshay’s role of a father of an adult daughter is also quite ‘age-appropriate’ this time.
Akshay Kumar has a trademark natural comic timing that is loved by the masses. It came from good writing, which Priyadarshan brought to the screen. But after a point of time, directors started trying to ‘create’ Akshay’s natural timing and the films became routine. But the writing of ‘Khel Khel Mein’ is quite intelligent, with funny jokes and punches.
The actors are also amazing who deliver this writing on screen in an effective and funny way. The message given through the story is not delivered like a lecture but the situations of the characters and their conversations appeal to you. However, since the film has a star like Akshay Kumar, there was bound to be a monologue at the end. But this scene is also light and not heavy and is successful in delivering the message.
Three couples and three messages
There are three couples in the story. Rishabh (Akshay) has an adult daughter and after the death of his first wife, he has married Vartika (Vaani Kapoor) for the second time. The marriage of Harpreet Male (Amy Virk) and Harpreet Female (Taapsee Pannu) is a bit mismatched. Going through the conflict of village-city, cool-uncool and English-Punjabi, there is a lot of pressure on this couple to have a child.
The third couple is Samar (Aditya Seal) and Naina (Pragya Jaiswal). Naina’s father is a big businessman and also Samar’s boss. He is constantly working hard to prove that he has reached the top not only because he is a son-in-law but because of his good work.
These couples are friends and have come to attend a wedding. They have another friend Kabir (Fardeen Khan) who is divorced and was supposed to come with his girlfriend, but has come alone. In the course of conversation, they discuss how men keep all their and their friends’ secrets hidden. From here, a new game is made that everyone will keep their mobile unlocked and in front of everyone for the whole night and whatever message or call comes will be heard/read in front of everyone.
In this game, the mobile becomes the lamp from which different types of jinns start coming out. And it becomes very interesting to see how these jinns turn the heaven of a good marriage into hell in a few minutes. But the story does not only have the boring married life of married couples.
Through the story of three couples and Kabir, the film explores in an interesting way the changing personal behaviour of people amidst a fixed social pattern. Such topics have been raised in films before as well, but the specialty of ‘Khel Khel Mein’ is that the film’s opinion on these topics is very clear and ‘cool’. There is no unnecessary confusion. Watch the trailer of ‘Khel Khel Mein’ here:
Amazing actors, amazing social message
After a long time, Akshay Kumar is seen very comfortable and in his prime form in a film. The magic of his comic timing, which seemed to be disappearing, is once again setting the screen on fire with ‘Khel Khel Mein’. But in this film, his co-actors have also carried the comedy burden equally.
Although Akshay’s character is the lead in the film, all the characters have got their share of time and moments to shine. Fardeen Khan and Taapsee Pannu left no stone unturned in capitalizing on this moment. Whatever they were given to do in the film, they did it with complete honesty and while enjoying it.
Aditya Seal and Pragya Jaiswal have also played their part of comedy and serious moments well. Vaani Kapoor has captured the character of a slightly serious and intellectual writer well and among all things, Amy Virk has played the character of an awkward Sardar well. Chitrangada Singh has a funny cameo in the film.
After watching this film of Akshay, one understands how interesting its title is. The film ‘Khel Khel Mein’ treats three serious issues with laughter and love. When Akshay’s character guides his daughter to spend ‘quality time’ with her boyfriend, it becomes a learning lesson for every adult child and his parents.
In the story, the sexuality of a character also becomes a medium of message. The maturity with which the film treats it is less expected from mainstream Bollywood films. Due to a misunderstanding in the film, a straight character is initially considered gay. But when the truth is revealed, everyone is stunned and the same ‘friends could have told me’ refrain starts. The film questions the need to make this information public. There is a very important dialogue that ‘If you became gay for half an hour, your whole world turned upside down’. This scene has also been presented very well.
However, the film stereotypes some characters and their behavior, which becomes a bit over the top at some places. But this will not distract the audience in the theaters too much. The songs are good but even if they were not there, not much would have been lost. In fact, the songs slow down a film with a crisp timing. The film also fails a bit at one place in dealing with mental health. But Mudassar Aziz has treated everything very seriously and has taken full care that in the entire film, there is not a single 10 minutes in which there is no punch or comedy on screen.
‘Khel Khel Mein’ from the very beginning keeps showering one after another naturally treated, perfectly timed comedy scenes and keeps the atmosphere alive. This can be called Akshay’s best comedy in the last many years. In this long weekend, one can definitely go to the theatres to watch ‘Khel Khel Mein’ to spend fun time with family and friends.
Source (PTI) (NDTV) (HINDUSTANTIMES)