Produced by –Aamir Khan Productions /Viacom 18
Directed by –Advait Chandan
Cast-Aamir Khan, Kareena Kapoor, Mona Singh, Manav Vij, Naga Chaitanya
Censor Rating-U/A
Running Time-163 Minutes
Rating-***1/2
An official remake of the Hollywood classic Forrest Gump, this is a gripping tale of an individual whose sense of understanding of things happen at a moderate or even a slow pace! A role that was enacted brilliantly by Tom Hanks in the original has been customized and presented in his own inimitable style by Aamir Khan who simply sleep walks through the role; but the fact remains that he is seen going overboard at place reminding the audience of his style of portrayal in PK, some time ago!
He being slow-witted doesn’t impact his life much as far as Lal is concerned as his Mom (Mona Singh) lives his life too, figuratively and virtually taking full responsibility for his life too!
Time rushes past and the boy blossoms up into a lad (Aamir Khan) whose apple of the eye is Rupa (Kareena Kapoor), his childhood sweet-heart!
Not before long, Lal joins the Army where he is befriended by Bala (Naga Chaitanya) who is desirous of opening up a manufacturing unit of males inner garments ; he even invites Lal to join him in partnership!
Lo and behold, war breaks in and Bala gets killed, leaving Lal injured!
Soon after getting discharged from Army, Lal returns home to his Mom while he keeps meeting Rupa time and again who is now an aspiring screen star who is forced to ‘compromise’ a lot!
Lal’s Mom dies owing to age-related diseases and after a while Rupa joins him only to leave him while he is asleep!
Time hurries fast and Lal manages to balance between his family-business of agriculture as well as his manufacturing unit of inner garments, ably supported by Mohammed (Manav Vij) whose life Lal had saved during the War.
A communication from Chandigarh forces him to rush there as he is promised a surprise on arrival the rest of the narration leading to a slow-paced, uninteresting, predicable climax!
The references to BJP and its leaders who find place on the screen in this period drama-what is the significance, one doesn’t exactly decipher!
A good attempt of remaking a cult Hollywood classic but Atul Kulkarni appears to be ‘Indianized’ the theme a shade too much bringing in religious references too! Also, the length of the film could have been pruned a bit which would eventually managed to hold the attention of the audience a little more effectively!