Reviews

Poor editing. Lots of continuity breaks. The narration jumps from one extravagant set to another. Cliche and predictable plot. Amateur choreography. Acting is passable. Lots of valuable screentime wasted on unnecessary characters and side plots. Probably sposored by some chinese financiars as the narration and plot points reminded me of all those senseless chinese martial art movies. The female casting is just shallow eye candy. One star for set design and visual effects, thats all it deserves. Priyadarshan was disappointing. Mohanlal was not suitable as the lead actor and I guess the producers chose him just to secure support from his fan base for promotion and hype.

Angrezi Mein Kehte Hain revolves around a middle-aged couple where they spent some 25 years of their marriage believing that it is all about responsibility and love is something that is taken for granted. The movie would resonate with a lot of people especially those who grew up in the 70s or early 80s when love marriages weren't that common in the Indian society.

Mr and Mrs Batra came from different backgrounds prior to their marriage and were too occupied in their responsibilities to introspect on the love for each other while struggling with the social gap between them. Dealing with the daily hardships of an average middle class service worker and homemaker, they sincerely delivered their responsibilities without complaining a lot. They had both accepted it as normal married life despite both of them getting humiliated often either within the family or in social gatherings. Sometimes they were either too afraid or too uncertain about confronting the insecurities of their married life. This aptly depicts the tapestry of a middle class family in the 80s (or may be even now in small towns).

It is only when their daughter challenges the acknowledgement of love in their parent's relationship and defies her father expectations by getting married to her lover secretly, that the family starts to realize the missing love and caring that should have been the foundation of their relationships rather than mere role play. Being confronted with the lack of love, when Mr Batra asks his wife to leave she handles it in a very mature way without creating a fuss. Till this point the film handles this delicate topic very maturely and sincerely, but after that the entire move stoops to a level of cheap drama about expressing love in myriad ways of saying "I love you" like they show in commercial cinema.

All that potential of creating a gem of cinema is lost in the second half when Mr Batra, who in his 50s, is advised to act like a teenager to express his love to his wife. All that solid foundation that was laid in the first half of the movie was lost in forced slapstick comedy of a 50 year-old trying to get back his wife and life together later in the second half. The other two stories of couples simply lacked in narration since the director focused mainly on the relationship between Mr and Mrs Batra.

I can only wonder how this movie would have turned in the hands of a niche and sensitive script-writer or director if they were not forced to address the commercial appeal by adding elements like cliched expression of love and slapstick comedy towards the second half of the movie. I have great respect for Sanjay Mishra as a skilled actor, who even as the main character, unfortunately got stereotyped towards the end of the movie like his other comedic roles which he played as supporting actor. He and Brijendra Kala can deliver a lot of intensity and depth to such roles without relying on forced comedy which has become common in mainline commercial cinema.

This movie is just what it says on the tin - a kabaad of deleted scenes and rejected edits from possibly some other movie. Take any scene from the movie and one would be hard pressed to believe that it was picked up from the dustbin of an editing room of some other movie. This kabaad stinks in every department except for the acting of veteran actors, even all of them together couldn't make it worth 90 mins of viewers time.

Strongly avoid, for the sake of preserving the respect due on these veteran actors.

If you cannot tolerate 90 minutes of christian missionary propaganda and bashing of pagan beliefs and practices to glorify christianity over paganism then this movie is not for you. Anything that conveys that faith in one religion is more powerful than faith in another is nothing but sacrilege.

Very weak script with cliche jokes. Characters are shallow and the whole script and direction just focuses on delivering jokes scene after scene. I felt no connection to any of the characters let alone feel them. Even the silent era Charlie Chaplin short films had better characterization than this. The movie casually trivializes some prevalent socially sensitive issues just to keep the mood light for comedy. By the end I was left wondering what the movie was trying to portray besides delivering jokes.

Watched on Amazon Prime and couldn't tolerate this for 45 mins. Can't imagine how this would have felt watching in the theater with a friend/partner. Full of outdated cliche with repeated and stale humor from its earlier releases. Producers and sponsors just milking the franchise dry. Shame to see Salman degrading into such a pathetic state. I wonder if the kids watching this movie today can ever relate to what made the original Dabangg so entertaining.