A ‘well intentioned’ and a ‘well made’ film are often not the same. Hisaab Barabar falls into neither category.
Plenty of films have been made in India about corruption in the system- Nayak, Special 26, Raid, and many more. This R Madhavan- Kirti Kulhari- Neil Nitin Mukesh starrer is an addition. But it’s nowhere as entertaining as the films we mentioned before, because it follows the ‘Dummies’ guide to bank scam’ approach- dumbing it down so much, that the film itself becomes dumb.
It revolves around Radhe (Madhavan), a TT with Indian Railways, a righteous man who wants the hisaab to be baraabar in anything he does- from buying oranges and making sure he gets what he pays for, to even finding an error of some rupees in his bank account. He takes it up with the bank, and soon realises there’s a bigger scam at play. The bank in question is owned by Micky Mehta (Neil Nitin Mukesh), who is behind the fraud. P Subhash (Kirti Kulhari) is the investigating police officer in the case filed by Radhe. What happens next is the rest of the story.
First off- not every kind of scam warrants an entire film, from an entertainment POV. The direction by Ashwani Dhar is amateur, to say the least. The story begins with Madhavan spotting that error, then there’s a track between him and Kirti’s character, and the two don’t gel. The track, I mean. And the chemistry too. The over-simplified plot gives way to characters which get on your nerves, and it isn’t the actors’ fault- the writing by Ashwani and Ritesh Shastri is strictly average, making no attempt to make this one stand out from the kind of films we have seen being made in the past.
{{/usCountry}}First off- not every kind of scam warrants an entire film, from an entertainment POV. The direction by Ashwani Dhar is amateur, to say the least. The story begins with Madhavan spotting that error, then there’s a track between him and Kirti’s character, and the two don’t gel. The track, I mean. And the chemistry too. The over-simplified plot gives way to characters which get on your nerves, and it isn’t the actors’ fault- the writing by Ashwani and Ritesh Shastri is strictly average, making no attempt to make this one stand out from the kind of films we have seen being made in the past.
{{/usCountry}}What doesn’t help is that the antagonist, in the form of Neil, is weak, and the makers further lend him a touch of eccentricity- for example, he starts dancing in the middle of a dialogue exchange. He is supposed to be menacing and the head of a bank, for God’s sake. Reducing him to a buffoon is laughable, to say the least.
Characters which lend absolutely nothing to the plot, are aplenty here. Rashami Desai playing a character called Monalisa Yadav, is not integral to the story, and if the makers wanted her to be a comic relief- well, the joke’s on them.
Madhavan tries his best, and his honesty towards his role is visible. Unfortunately he cannot rise above the limitations of Hisaab Barabar’s script. Same goes for Kirti’s character. There’s no suspense, no drama- basically the graph is linear here- you don’t laugh, you don’t cry, there’s no thrill.
For the amount of time I spent on watching this film, I need the makers to vasool my hisaab.