An incoherent screenplay makes this Kapil Sharma-starrer a mind-numbing affair. Here’s our Firangi movie review

Firangi
Director: Rajiv Dhingra
Cast: Kapil Sharma, Ishita Dutta, Monica Gill
Rating: 1/5

Kapil Sharma leaves his forte of comedy to don the role of a village simpleton, Mangatram, who wants everyone to be happy. His character is supposed to be innocent, honest and loving.

Firangi is the love story of Mangatram (Kapil), an innocent man who takes up a job, earns money, commits a few mistakes and tries to rectify them. But he goofs up in the effort and then puts his life at risk to undo those bloopers. All these for the sake of marrying the woman of his choice, Sargi (Ishita). Monica Gill plays the typical good woman in white men’s camp who ends up helping the protagonist in his endeavour.

Written by Rajiv Dhingra who has also directed the movie, the story may not sound wonderful, but it had the potential of a sweet, fun-filled and warm film. However, the boring narrative, an incoherent screenplay and mismatch between milieu and discourse in certain scenes of the film make it an extremely mind-numbing affair.

Manga, who is supposed to be a naïve person, is also shown shrewd enough to fool the villagers and devise ways to manipulate them and his British employer, Mark Daniels (Edward Sonnenblick). Daniels is a British government official who likes to play by the rules and befriends the local King to ensure smooth functioning of the British system. He also falls for the king’s daughter, and is ready to kill for her sake. However, both Daniels’ character and the film meet a roadblock when Mahatma Gandhi makes an appearance. Suddenly the guns are dropped and Daniel almost runs away from the spot. Why? Did Gandhi threaten with any kind of protest? No. Simply because he’s Gandhi. You know, his mere sight made the British tremble and run away.

While there is a visible effort to make the film look like set in the pre-British era, the characters often slip in the modern-day lingo– “Tu to star hai yaar!”

Ishita Dutta, who plays Manga’s love interest, Sargi in the film, is not required to do much except smile and make faces at the hero. Rajesh Sharma plays her dad in the film, a blacksmith who is more worried about his family than the freedom struggle that his father is passionate about. Inaamul Haq plays Kapil’s friend and the character is such a waste of his talent. He is only supposed to perform antics in the film.

Kumud Mishra plays one of the few well-etched characters– that of the conniving, cruel king. Raja Sahab is the only one who can boast of a smooth character graph. He is the typical king who may not be the ruler anymore but does not want to give up on his luxuries. One of the initial scenes in the film shows a discussion between few British officials and the king. The king reads out an agreement which says the revenue will be increased by 40% and the king can “only marry 25 times”. While Kumud initially objects to the clauses, he agrees with it when the British increases his number of wives to 30. Kumud stays true to his character throughout the film and does not waver, unlike others in the film.

If there is one positive thing that emerges from the movie – Kapil flaunts his acting skills and proves he can play the serious, sincere man as convincingly as the charmer he mostly plays on his shows. It is sad that Manga’s character is not well-etched, rendering Kapil’s act and efforts useless as the film turns out to be tedious and monotonous.

Source : hindustantimes.com