Not long after the glowing success of Toilet Ek Prem Katha, Shree Narayan Singh returned with another drama with an important social message.

Batti Gul Meter Chalu, starring Shahid Kapoor and Shraddha Kapoor, Divyendu Sharma and Yami Gautam is set in Uttarakhand and deals with inflated electricity bills and power theft in rural India.

Trade analysts expect the film to open well, as desi stories usually connect well with the audience. The film is expected to make Rs 5 crore on its first day.

However, the film has been panned by critics, who were particularly unhappy with its long run-time. It remains to be seen if the film witnesses a dip in the
coming days due to negative reviews.

Batti Gul Meter Chalu is expected to perform better than its competitors, Nandita Das’s Manto and Prerna Wadhawan’s Ishqeria, which also hit the theatres yesterday. Morning shows of Manto were cancelled in several parts of the country,  which will, no doubt, make a dent in the business. Meanwhile, there is hardly any hype surrounding Ishqeria.

The film begins in the hills of Tehri with three buddies at its centre – a crafty lawyer Sushil Kumar Pant aka SK (Shahid Kapoor), a wannabe fashion designer Lalita Nautiyal (Shraddha Kapoor) and a simple businessman Sundar Mohan Tripathi (Divyendu Sharma). With both the men in love with Nauti, all is well in their small ‘happy’ world, except for too many power cuts.

But things start to fall apart when Nauti decides to pick one of them, and a corrupt power company starts to send humongous bills to Sundar after he
kickstarts a new business. Tensions escalate as much as the electricity bill, and Sundar tries to end his life. Thus begins the war against the power company, followed by a burlesque courtroom drama.

But wait! Wasn’t all of this already established in the three-minute-long trailer of the socially-relevant drama? It seems Singh wasn’t convinced and decided to stretch this three-minute concept into a three-hour-long bore fest with average performances and a half-baked story.

Having said that, Singh should be lauded for picking up a subject which is a reality in many parts of the country, but it is the treatment the subject is
given that works against it. The filmmaker ends up wasting most of the first part of Batti Gul Meter Chalu establishing a love triangle which is hardly of any consequence to the real issue.

And when you think that the film will pick up steam with the real issue being addressed and a courtroom angle inserted, the director dampens it by infusing humour into this serious debate. Sample this: Yami Gautam says ‘Zara facts aur figures ki baat bhi kar lein.’ To which Shahid replies, ‘Phacts toh sab mere paas hai aur aapke hote hui figure ki baat main kaise karu.’ (And the entire courtroom bursts into laughter. Not sure about the hall though.).

Talking about performances, Shahid Kapoor is the only saving grace in this otherwise dull social drama. The 37-year-old actor does go overboard at times
during the so-called funny scenes, but he manages to keep the hinterland flavour intact with his act. Shraddha, on the other hand, still needs to go a long way as far as her acting skills are concerned. Divyendu manages to win himself a few glances.

source: indiatoday.in/movies