Ekkees Toppon Ki Salaami Hindi Movie
They say satire is left best with Shyam Benegal and although many films have hit the marquee within the satire space (read Phas Gaye Re Obama, Peepli Live, Jolly LLB, Matru Ki Bijli Ka Mandola etc.) only few have worked. In more cases than one it's an intriguing concept executed apologetically leading to a bad film.
Ekkees Topon Ki Salmaani falls partly in the latter genre because despite a cracker of a concept for a well thought through satire the film is far from flawless and falls short only because of its hackneyed dialogues and production value.
Ekkees Toppon Ki Salaami starts with a scene that brings in an element of thrill into the storyline. Two men Subhash Joshi (Divyendu Sharma) and Shekhar Joshi (Manu Rishi) dunk a sack, which looks like a dead body, out of train. As the film goes back to flashback, the audience is set on guessing game of what these two may have just dropped into the sea.
There are a couple of things that work for Ekkees Toppon Ki Salaami. First is some impressive characters and the next, is the question that looms at back of the audience's mind while the story progresses.
The story is that of a BMC worker Purushottam Narayan Joshi (Anupam Kher) who could never manage to get the one thing that he yearned for all his life - respect - and the film sees his two sons Subhash (Divyendu Sharma) and Shekhar (Manu Rishi) set out to provide their father some respect, though posthumous.
Embedded into the story is a sub-plot of a corrupt Chief Minister, bringing in the element of a satire that makes for some hilarious scenes.
Each of the characters are independent and have a well charted graph. This is one rare film that does justice to the talent of Neha Dhupia who plays her role of Jaya Prabha with finesse. Both Divyendu and Manu Rishi are brilliant too. There's hardly one can say for the commendable power house of talent that Anupam Kher is. He literally makes his character, that is meticulously etched, appear cakewalk.
However, what performances to do the film, the scripting flaws undoes. Writer Rahil Qaazi lets you down courtesy a loosely held screenplay. The first half, though fun, is used entirely to build the premise for the boys to set out on their adventure. Result is a rather longish pre-interval session. The second half starts on a pace that is dictated by the clever interval freeze-point. But yet again, the pace slips towards the end due to the attempt to bring in an emotional connect. The final moments get high on melodrama which is quite banal.
To sum it up, Ekkees Topon Ki Salaami could have been a flawless film had it been meted out with crisp and intelligent execution. The film however, still deserves to be watched.
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