Remakes are part and parcel of the Indian Film industry. But when one story travels from state to state and is remade in 4 languages, the question arises as to what is so special about this film? Not to mention there has to be something extra special for movie buffs to watch the same story again and again. For the film Ready, its blockbuster journey began in Telugu then went on to be a smash hit Kannada and then within one year it was remade in Tamil, seeing huge success there as well. Now it is Hindi’s turn and at the helm Annes Bazmee plus the extra bonus it stars Salman Khan. However, taking a film to Hindi from the South has proved to be a hard task for some directors. Yet it’s not a first for Salman Khan or Anees Bazmee, both as actor-director combo and otherwise. So the question is, was Anees Bazmee able to continue the track record and successfully adapt it to the Hindi audience and their liking?
Let’s start by introducing Prem Kapoor (Salman Khan) A self confessed “bholi shakal kameena“, he is the lovable brat of the Kapoor family living the high life. Like any other family, they want their “laadla” to be settled but he has a specific kind of girl he wants. Here we meet Sanjana (Asin), who is running away from her own marriage nightmares. In series of coincidental events, Sanjana overhears Prem’s plan to ditch a girl his parents’have chosen. She decides to masquerade under the name Pooja and enters Prem’s house to hide from the goons chasing her, at least till she finds a way to escape from them permanently. So while Sanjana successfully convinces everyone, Prem is not impressed. He plots to get rid of her but when he finds out who she is and why, he helps her instead. Having developed a soft corner for her already, the new-found friendship develops into deeper feelings but before either can say anything, Sanjana’s past comes back to haunt her. A past that saw no ordinary goons but it is actually her own family, her uncles to be specific that are forcing her into a marriage all for the sake of money. It’s now up to Prem, with the help of their charter accountant Balli (Paresh Rawal), to not only get his girl without the bloodshed Sanjana’s uncles are accustomed to but also teach them a lesson or two along the way.
To be quite honest, if you’re expecting logic, intense story-telling and powerful performances or anything similar, this isn’t the film for you. Its loud, it’s out there and it has Salman Khan in it. Now he wasn’t the person you would expect in a role that was originally, and in the subsequent remakes, tailored to be a college going youth but that’s not to say it doesn’t work for him. Thankfully, they have taken the college backdrop out of it and just kept the fun. In fact, the role has been re-written to suit not only Salman but his style of comedy that was present in Wanted and Dabanng. The actor aims for your heart and worms his way in whether you like it or not. Both him and Paresh Rawal are sure to have you in fits of giggles from start to finish even though Paresh enters after the interval. At the same time, this isn’t Paresh’s awesome best that we are used but that doesn’t take away from his awesome work. Yet while Salman, and Paresh too, seems to be visibly having fun bringing the house down, leading lady unfortunately, Asin doesn’t make much of a mark. Given that she has major part in driving the story, it’s a poor show from Asin who looks out of place at times and hams badly with some questionable styling and make-up. The entire ensemble playing the Kapoor family which includes Mahesh Manjrekar, Anuradha Patel, Manoj Joshi and Manoj Pahwa are mad fun to watch as they bounce off each other in the later portion. Akhilendra Mishra is a little too loud but is meant to be at the same time. Sharat Saxena is in the same category but scores better as he’s a few decibels lower. Sudesh Lehiri is just about ok. Sunil Patel and Thomas Xavier for cinematography make their presence felt with some decent camerawork while Pritam comes up with foot tapping tracks with Character Dheela not showing any signs of dropping from the charts any time soon. Special mentions are in order for Devi Sri Prasad who makes an awesome debut in Hindi with Dhinka Chika. But the film does have set backs.
Editor Ritesh Soni could have used his scissors more liberally to keep the screenplay a little tauter. But in his defence, the writing has a few speed breakers in it for sure with locations not matching to the screenplay. Plus the lack of chemistry between Asin and Salman doesn’t help the love angle of the story. So where Anees scores major points on his signature fun factors, he loses out when he gets tries melodrama, especially in the climax. Yet with that said, the film does make it up majorly because of Salman and his one liners care of Farhad and Sajid.
So while Ready isn’t rocket science, its Salman’s masala magic science. Take of your thinking cap and you’ re sure to be entertained thoroughly.
