Review of Khichdi 2: Gujaratis continue to make fun of themselves even in a time when everyone is becoming so prickly.
Khichdi 2, a comedy television series about the dim-bulb-loving Parekh family, was so popular that it was made into the first Indian sitcom ever.
Aatish Kapadia, the writer-director, has his work cut out for him because he has to come up with strange scenarios for the Parekh family and lines that have puns flying out of automatic guns like bullets.
The only sane member of the family of cheery idiots is the patriarch Tulsidas Parekh (Anang Desai), who weathers any crisis and emerges unscathed because the opposing side drops its weapons in frustration at the constant foolishness.
Ancestral English was so badly mispronounced by one that the British left in exasperation!
That trait has been passed down to her descendant Hansa (Supriya Pathak), and her husband Praful (Rajeev Mehta), who suffers from memory loss, is her own personal encyclopaedia of oddities.
Although Himanshu (Jamnadas Majethia, the producer) inherits the genes from her somewhat sane sister-in-law Jayshree (Vandana Pathak). He fell in love with a Sikh woman in the last movie, Parminder, who belonged to a clan of sixty-five people.
The Parekhs return 13 years later in Khichdi 2: Mission Paakthukistan, the sequel, looking barely older.
The Parekhs are needed for a mission by Kushal (Anant Vidhaat Sharma), a mishappen intelligence officer.
Praful is a deadringer for the autocratic king of a tiny country called Paanthukistan. The king has not just oppressed his subjects but also kidnapped a scientist (Paresh Ganatra) to make a deadly robot that can destroy the world.
The Parekhs have to go in, switch the king for Praful, and rescue the scientist.
The plan has been explained and rehearsed — they are to pretend to be a film-making crew, though all are dressed in bright, blingy outfits — but Hansa, Praful and Himansu are incapable of doing the simplest task. It is left to Tulsidas and Jayshree to salvage the situation each time.
Kapadia is well-versed in the peculiarities of this affluent class of Gujaratis, including their penchant for majaa (funny doesn’t quite do it justice), their love of food, and their propensity to begin cooking anywhere, be it a desert or a helicopter.
In a cameo role, Pratik Gandhi plays the helicopter pilot, who becomes so irritated with the Parekh family that he consumes chutney laced with cyanide. Why did the chutney contain cyanide? Since pesticide was obviously required after a cockroach fell into it! Thus it continues!
The actors, most of them with a stage background, are hilarious, but Supriya Pathak with her Kathiawadi accent is the pick of the bunch.
By the end of the film, even Kushal starts speaking in a Gujarati accent, not to mention what happens to the world-destroying robot (Kiku Sharda).
Unleash the Parekhs anywhere and they would either start World War III, or stop it from happening.
A semi-coherent plot and poor production values somewhat ruin the effect.
Khichdi would be delicious if slapstick and clever satire could coexist. It needs a lot more masala the way it is right now. However, comedy these days is a difficult genre to be in. Although the Gujaratis might not set buses on fire, you never know what the other people would do if they felt offended.
Recent Post:
- Katrina Kaif picks who would win in a head-to-head battle between Tiger 3’s Zoya and Pathan’s Deepika Padukone
- At last, Shah Rukh Khan and David Beckham’s photo is available! Footballer described by actor as “an absolute gentleman”
- How her father-in-law Sham responded to her Tiger 3 action scenes is revealed by Katrina Kaif
- David Warner becomes first Australian to achieve major feat in World Cup, joins exclusive club with Tendulkar and Rohit
- Tiger Nageswara Rao: ‘Tiger Nageswara Rao’ quietly arrives on OTT
