Beautiful indeed!

Name : Khoobsurat
Cast : Sonam Kapoor, Fawad Khan and Ratna Pathak Shah
Direction : Shahshanka Ghosh
Genre : Drama
Rating : ***1/2
Like : Fawad Khan and Sonam
UnLike : The punch is missing

ot often is it that a romantic remake (call it inspired, salute to the master et al) matches up and even threatens to outclass the original. Welcome Walt Disney. Good and honest take. There are many things going in favour of the film. The sensitivity is the prime factor. It is not very easy to have a 21st century take in a Hrishida film and succeed! That achieved ‘Khoobsurat’ leaves an impression. The film (and its class) slowly grows on you. You slowly get engrossed, laugh with the characters and understand that there is something simplistic about enjoying an afternoon at the cinemas without being insulted of your sensitivity or tested of your sanity.

Like the ‘non-heavy duty’ films, it may have the multiplex at its target, but hopefully it will reach out far ahead. ‘Khoobsurat’ is also an interesting paradigm: that our cinema has its sensitive hues. From the colour, the tale, the narrative style, the music, the script and the performances – everything is balanced, underplayed and very pleasant.

Though the film starts with Rohit Sharma and Lasith Malinga, it is so much of the former and very very little of the latter. No foot hurting yorkers, only languid laid back drives in the V to watch!!

Dr Milli Chakravarthy (Sonam Kapoor) the therapist arrives at the Royal House of the Rathores – a ‘curfew zone’ run strongly by a list of strict negative covenants by Nirmala Devi (Ratna Pathak). Husbandd Shekar Rathore (Aamir Raza Hussain) needs a physiotherapist to get him out of the wheelchair and exorcise him of a past accident of the family. Their son Vikram (Fawad Afzal Khan) carries royalty as his middle name and is ‘naturally stiff upper lip’ – but only till he runs into the in-house (nay in-Palace) physio Dr Milli – chirpy, full of fizz and a rule defying spirit. He holds back – majesty and an engagement to the lady in waiting (Aditi Rao Hydari). Milli’s Bengali dad Prateek (Kaizad Kotwal) and mom Manju (Kirron Kher) are ‘middle-class’ liberal and too distant for royalty.

The entire script of just over two hours is how the spirited Milli gets the rigidity out of the royal family (filmi style!) and woos the Royal Prince. You know from the word go where the script will take you. Surprise is not the virtue. Style is. Actually as Ms Sarabhai would expect it is about ‘class’.

The filmmaker gives it everything he has. There is not a moment when anything is overstated. The mild hues of narration highlight the class of the film and the filmmaker. To take on Hrishida, in his grave, is not easy. To succeed in compare is awesome. The film is not awesome. The effort is!

The cast translate their responsibility with amazing balance and lilt. You may be tempted to put Kirron Kher under the ‘loud’ category – but given the role, she is right. Just right. Aamir Raza and Khaizad Kotwalare adequate. They do not rob moments from the script. Thematically Ratna Pathak Shah is central to the ‘conflict’ in the theme. She is amazing talent, but somewhere stops short of a performance matching the role. No, not even the punch of Ms Sarabhai. Further she suffers the disadvantage of comparison with mom Dina Pathak who was brilliant in the original ‘Khoobsurat’. Fortunately it does not work as a drawback. The focus is resultantly marginally shifted to Fawad who is wow! The Pakistan star of the small screen fits the role. His grace, charm and underplayed interpretation constitute the mainstay of the film. At moments he gives you a feeling that he is the ideal model for Gwalior Suitings. Every time the script requires a caress filled punch, he is there to deliver. Sonam is called to revisit the award winning performance of Rekha. The one who has not had many successful outings has a good opportunity to be noticed. She doesn’t disappoint. She is surely not as spontaneous as Rekha but surely has the verve. Bubbly yet propah the film may help filmmakers go to her doorstep with scripts and the moolah.

The filmmaker (Shashanka Ghosh) decides to keep things simple and that becomes its USP. Unpretentious, simple and honest. A good two hours spent at the theatre.