Movie review: Kuku Mathur Ki Jhand Ho Gayi is a damp squib

There's a lot of comic potential in Punjabi Delhi and Bollywood has been using it to the hilt for a few years now. Band Baaja Baraat, Fukrey, Vicky Donor being just a few examples of how it needs to be done. Kuku Sharma Ki Jhand Ho Gayi, alas, is not one of them.

There's a lot of dramatic and comic potential in Punjabi Delhi and Bollywood has been using it to the hilt for a few years now.

,

,

being just a few examples of how it needs to be done. Kuku Sharma Ki Jhand Ho Gayi, alas, is not one of those films.

Delhi is an intrinsic part of it, of course. The title being a dead giveaway. Both the name Kuku and jhand (a loose translation in English being 'taken for a ride') are both intrinsic to Delhi. The setting is middle-class Punjabi Delhi and we get the look spot-on.



Each and every cliché that Bollywood associates with Delhi is there too - a shot of Metro, an all-night jagran with (lol) bhajans, the city's lingo and funny Punjabi names. What we don't get is the soul of the city that the above named films managed to capture.



We should blame the story for that. We should also blame the story for why the film never gets off the floor despite a few interesting situations and some titter-worthy dialogues.



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The story goes like this: Kuku (Siddharth Gupta) and Ronnie (Ashish Juneja) are chaddi-buddies who go their separate ways post Class 12 results. Ronnie has a flourishing Geeta Colony saree business to fall back upon while Kuku is limited by bad exam score and a government servant dad. A rift between the two makes him follow the advice of his cousin (Amit Sial) from Kanpur, which lands him in a mess.



There are a few side stories which add colour to the film - how Sial gets one-up on his rival in love, the love story of a couple from Bihar and shooting of a Facebook song for a seedy film.



However, besides this, there is little to say for this Aman Sachdeva directorial venture. The film starts dragging and loses the fizz somewhere midway. A few more nuances, tighter editing and more polished jokes are sorely needed.



Gupta and Juneja are alright and Sial's UP mannerisms are interesting. Simran Kaur Mundi doesn't get much of screen space. The music is jarring and lyrics defy sense.