Batti Gul Meter Chalu Movie Review: Too Much Of Thehra & Bal Make The Interesting Story Dull!
Shahid Kapoor delivers a power-packed performance. He's just in his role from frame one and his stupendous energy is visible on screen.
Batti Gul Meter Chalu Movie Review Rating: 2.5/5 Stars (Two and half stars)
Star Cast: Shahid Kapoor, Shraddha Kapoor, Divyenndu Sharmaa, Yami Gautam
Director: Shree Narayan Singh
What’s Good: Just like Shree Narayan Singh’s last movie Toilet: Ek Prem Katha the major good thing about the film is that it’s tackling a relevant social issue, Shahid Kapoor impresses yet again!
What’s Bad: The editing is so bad that it’s annoying! What clearly could’ve been a film of just about 2 hours has been stretched for 40 minutes more.
Loo Break: Not whenever Shahid Kapoor is on screen, minus him there are way too much of unnecessary scenes you can opt for it in any of them!
Watch or Not?: 2 reasons of why should watch it, 2 why you shouldn’t – Good intent – Shahid Kapoor & lazy editing – too much of ‘Thehra’, ‘Bal’!
Located in New Tehri, Batti Gul Meter Chalu is a story of three best friends Susheel Kumar aka SK (Shahid Kapoor), Lalita Nautiyal aka Nauti (Shraddha Kapoor) and Sundar Mohan Tripathi (Divyenndu Sharmaa). The first half of the film, confusingly, roams around for one and half hours exploring the love triangle of all the three. SK & Tripathi love Nauti while she’s not very sure of whom to love as both are very good.
It’s just at the interval point the movie comes to it senses & finally the writers decide to serve for what the audience are really in for. Tripathi sets up a factory and faces immoderate bill cycle. He decides to take the help of SK but because of their confused relationship among-st themselves SK denies to help him. Tripathi decides to take an easy way out, suicide which can help his family to tackle the problems of the factory. What he does and how it changes SK is what the rest of the story is all about.
Batti Gul Meter Chalu Movie Review: Script Analysis
What was said to be a movie tackling issues of load-shedding or corruption in the electricity system gets lost in the first half while building up a connect with all the three characters. This is Chup Chupke meets Jolly LLB and that’s what take the novelty from the script. Sidharth-Garima have done a very average job on screenplay. Roaming around the bushes, they take too much time to say for what the film is made.
Very tacky VFX brings the production value down but they’re still better than Shree’s last film Toilet: Ek Prem Katha. The words Thehra and Bal are used excessively which might be an issue for some. Personally, after a point of time I was into their dialect and didn’t mind the language. But as many people have dissected that it’s a poorly researched film, some may have an issue. If the pace would’ve been taken care of, it’s a nice film with good performances. Shahid Kapoor’s speech in the climax is undoubtedly the best scene of the film.
Batti Gul Meter Chalu Movie Review: Star Performance
Shahid Kapoor delivers a power-packed performance. He’s just in his role from frame one and his stupendous energy is visible on screen. He has changed the way he speaks in a drastically good way and it comes out very well. Shraddha Kapoor starts off on a very hamming note but gets into the character with each passing scene.
Shraddha is beautifully presented as Nauti and overall her charm works. Divyenndu Sharmaa, on a very different note, carries forward his unique sense of choosing scripts. He has mentioned why he didn’t want to get stereotyped and this movie is the answer to that question. He’s good in comical scenes & does well in emotional ones too.
Yami Gautam highly impresses in her short role as Advocate Gulnaar. She looks and talks like a lawyer also sharing some fun scenes with Shahid Kapoor in such little time.
Batti Gul Meter Chalu Movie Review: Direction, Music
Shree Narayan Singh has improved since Toilet: Ek Prem Katha but unfortunately he doesn’t get that level of script as his last film. He has shot many dead scenes which do nothing but increase the unnecessary additions. The movie’s intent is good but is told in very chaotic way. The courtroom sequences evoke some laughs and are well presented.
Anu Malik’s cameo with Gold Tamba and the recreation of Dekhte Dekhte work big time with the audience. Arijit Singh’s Har Har Gange is also very well placed and it’s escalated by Shahid’s brilliant acting in it. The background score, at times, seems really very over enthusiastic but is good overall.
Batti Gul Meter Chalu Movie Review: The Last Word
All said and done, Batti Gul Meter Chalu says a very important thing but the treatment messes all up. It’s high time Shahid Kapoor gets his due in Bollywood but this is not that film. Watch it for its intent & Shahid Kapoor!
Two and a half stars!
Batti Gul Meter Chalu Movie Trailer
Batti Gul Meter Chalu Movie releases on 21st September, 2018.