Comedy, barring slapstick maybe, is probably one of the most difficult genres to crack. Yes, there have been numerous comedies that we have seen, the ones that have been well-made, but now makers are venturing into something different. After the well-made horror comedy, Stree , I think makers just wanted to experiment, which is why they came up with a spoof comedy this time- Arjun Patiala . But can we really call it a spoof comedy though?
Well, if you ask me, i would pretty strongly disagree. It is a self aware comedy at the most but spoof? What were the makers even trying to spoof? I am not sure about the answer. But what i know for sure is that this movie tries too hard and finally fails to reach to a point.
The film starts off on a promising note, with two brilliant actors in special appearance and the disclaimers, but then it just goes haywire, like every aatma in any Bollywood film ever! This film is about Arjun Patiala, a judo champion who wants to get into Police, and he does that super successfully. Then he wants to fulfill the dreams of his hero- to make his area crime free. It is about how he manages to do that while winning the love of his life. Well, they do put all the cliches, and makes the audiences realise that these are cliches indeed, like having Sunny Leone, but then it does not culminate into wholesome entertainment.
There are so many loose ends in the film that your attention would flicker (that reminds me, what has happened to Diljit Dosanjh really?). In fact, the very few people who were in the theater were checking their phones way too many times and i was tempted myself.
This is not to take away the fact that Arjun Patiala has some genuinely fun moments. But these are lost in the sea of underwhelmingly made sequences.
The performances are pretty good. In fact, Varun Sharma is completely in his elements and and Diljit too is good. Kriti Sanon tries hard, but she does need to up her game. She has become flat, and i really can’t differentiate one of Kriti’s character from the other! This film is a waste of too many talented stars- Seema Pahwa, Ronit Roy and even Zeeshan Ayyub.
Well, we can laud the effort at the max. But this is a failed attempt. You can watch this film when it releases on Amazon Prime, on a day when you have nothing better to do, but i would not recommend to spend money on this one, unless you are going for something else in the theaters, if you know what I mean.