Arjun PatialaToo Simple Minded To Be Deemed Funny

This attempted comedy has buddy movie pretensions but never quite hits the right notes for success. The affable Diljit Dosanj is back trying to expand his fan base with yet another mainstream Bollywood enterprise but his exertions thereof feel juvenile and rather homely.

The storyline( and script) credited to Reitesh Shah and Sandeep Leyzell underlines a film within a film construct. An aspiring director is narrating a script to a producer (Pankaj Tripathi) but the joke is on the aspirant because the producer is reluctant to hear him out claiming “having made successful films for so many years I’ve never had to listen to a story yet.”

And that’s a statement far more telling about this film than its fictional construct. The audience have little choice in the matter though because the script gets recited and Arjun Patiala (Diljit) is the fictional hero, an aspirant to a spot in the Punjab Police who manages to get in on a sports quota, Onidda (Varun Sharma) is his sidekick and Ritu (Kriti Sanon) is an investigative journalist.

The writing is rather pea-brained, the plotting is indistinct, the humour is decadent, the treatment doesn’t allow for much levity and the casting leaves a lot to be desired.

Kriti Sanon cannot be blamed for the illusionary writing but her essay of an investigative journalist is as filmy and ridiculous as they come. Dijit’s earnestness and Pankaj Tripathi’s sharpness are the two aspects that standout in this sea of immaturity!