Sharmaji Namkeen movie review: Rishi Kapoor shows us how to live in this delightful swan song
There are numerous males like our Brij Gopal Sharma. Too younger, at 58, to be given a golden handshake and turfed out of his office. Too lively to ‘chill’ in his modest house and watch endless soaps the place nothing ever occurs, or lounge within the park, the place the aged gang will get collectively for yoga lessons and neighbourhood gossip.
The one distinctive factor about Sharmaji (Rishi Kapoor) is that he loves rustling up finger lickin’ meals, and he’s the one, as a single father, who has lovingly fed his sons, now grown, one with a job, one other in school. How does somebody like him go the time, as the times cling heavier and heavier?
‘Sharmaji Namkeen’ attracts a portrait of middle-class ‘mohalla’ Delhi ( West Delhi, for probably the most half), preserving its ‘working class hero’ entrance and centre. At two hours, it will get stretched. Half an hour into the movie, it’s nonetheless occurring about how Sharmaji is continually being chivvied by his sons, and instructed learn how to stay out the rest of his life, earlier than permitting him a pleasant respite, which includes a bunch of jolly, giggly, middle-aged ‘kitty aunties’, within the want of a break themselves.
It’s a Delhi we have now seen earlier than, in Dibakar Banerji’s early movies amongst others. Additionally it is a Rishi Kapoor we have now seen earlier than, in Habib Faisal’s Do Dooni Chaar, 2010, which was additionally set in middle-class Delhi, with its crowded DDA homes, nosey neighbours, and ‘tuition uncles’.
However in contrast to Banerji’s edgier West Delhi, this one is extra affectionate: previous pals bicker, utilizing delightfully salty Punjabi expletives, but in addition look out for one another. Fathers and sons argue however the bond between them stays rock stable – ‘badaa ladka’ Suhail Nayyar works in a shiny Gurgaon high-rise, has an higher class girl-friend in Isha Talwar, and is determined to turn into upwardly cell; youthful son Taaruk Raina will get a ‘compartment’ in his exams, however is blissful in his dance group.
The most effective elements of the movie, which flattens often, are the parts which deal with the shy Sharmaji shedding his reluctance and discovering straightforward companionship with the women who kitty-party their boring afternoons away, taking part in naughty dumb charade video games, or dancing to Yeh Duniya Pittal Di: Sheeba Chaddha, Ayesha Raza Mishra are hoots, and Juhi Chawla makes us smile, particularly in these elements the place she and Rishi Kapoor share display screen area. You would like the movie had him escape on the dance flooring too, taking us again to a time once they had been younger and twinkly-toed, danced and romanced, and swept us off our toes.
You watch the movie as a tribute to Rishi Kapoor. When he left us in an premature style, he was doing every kind of roles, from kohl-eyed baddies to cantankerous grandpas. This one, his final, has a message tucked in its telling: embrace change, exit of your consolation zone, the place surprising pleasures could await.
He had fallen gravely unwell through the making of the movie, and Paresh Rawal stepped in for him. The movie’s editor will need to have had fairly a process, splicing scenes with the 2 actors, making them move. Paresh Rawal’s Sharmaji, togged out in Kapoor’s trademark checked sweater and muffler, is environment friendly. However Rishi Kapoor is actually namkeen, exhibiting us how it’s finished, gentle on his toes, gentle in his eyes, a will to stay. Jeena isi ka naam hai.
Sharmaji Namkeen film solid: Rishi Kapoor, Paresh Rawal, Juhi Chawla, Satish Kaushik, Suhail Nayyar, Isha Talwar, Sheeba Chaddha, Ayesh Raza Mishra, Taaruk Raina
Sharmaji Namkeen film director: Hitesh Bhatia
Sharmaji Namkeen film score: 2.5 stars
