Lafangey Parindey Movie Review: Deepika And Neil Nitin's New Film

Movie Review: 'Lafangey Parindey' Deepika Padukone And Neil Nitin Mukesh New Film- After making us all weep (for one reason or another) with his tear-jerking Laaga Chunari Mein Daag, which had Rani Mukherjee crying out buckets, director Pradeep Sarkar changes lanes and steps into a territory already trodden by the likes of Vishal Bhardwaj and Anurag Kashyap.

Lafangey Parindey The Movie

Lafangey Parindey  is a story set in the maze of Mumbai’s chawls and has foul language aplenty. While unlike Vishal, Pradeep abstains from the expletives of the BC and MC standard, there’s a lot of street slang like ‘phat gayi’, ‘keeda’, ‘chaddi’, and not to forget that Deepika dialogue that got wolf whistles from the front benchers: “Aisi jagah laat maroongi, puri zindagi pakad ke baitha rahega”. Ouch! That almost felt.

The point is - if you are intentionally trying to adopt a style that’s not naturally yours, like stepping into a pair of sneakers that don’t fit you right, you are sure to fall with your face to the ground. That’s what Pradeep Sarkar does - try to tell a story that’s not his forte. The result? A movie that works only in fits and starts, but mostly leaves you in a fit of yawns. YOL!

One-shot Nandu (Neil Nitin Mukesh) is a local fighter of Tilak Wadi. He fights his opponents blindfolded, and often takes a lot of beating. But one deadly blow from him smack dab on the jaw of his every opponent makes him the undisputed winner who, at the end of every fight, gets a wad of money from his godfather Usman.

Pinky Palkar (Deepika Padukone), on the other hand, thinks she doesn’t belong to the lowly Tilak Wadi. She’s a talented dancer and has the dream of winning a talent show with her nifty roller-skating skills, a dream that’s cut short after an accident that leaves her blinded for life.

She’s blind as a bat, and he’s wild and guilty. Will Pinky’s dream of becoming famous come true? Will Nandu find redemption and love? Frankly, after the intermission you don’t even care to know these answers.

A smacking pat on the back for Neil Nitin Mukesh, who not just looks a heartthrob even when beaten up black and blue, but also acts well. Deepika, though never beaten save for being knocked high in the air by a speeding car in a scene, looks lovely and throws herself headlong into her role. And boy! how she dances! That patli kamar of hers swaying gently (as if swinging an invisible hula hoop) and her lissom legs weaving intricate swirls as she skates her way to glory - if it was special effects, the VFX team deserves an award. If not, Deepika is the Indian Idol we never had. Any which way, it’s the leading stars of Lafangey Parindey that make the movie watchable. Else Pradeep Sarkar had left no kasar in lulling the audiences to sleep.

The director commits hara-kiri with aplomb. For a moment, even if we discount the forgettable songs and the deliberate slang in the dialogues, it’s hard to be blindfolded to the flaws in the script. The dance competition sequences are a major bore and there’s an absolutely dispensable sub-track involving a police officer who’s investigating the case of Pinky’s accident. When the cop and his subordinate doggedly solve the case and have the clinching evidence to nab the bad guy Usman, the cop cops out because of the love story between Pinky and Nandu, who was supposed to be his prized catch. “Toh yeh love story hai?” the cop wonders and tells his subordinate, “Chal, rum lagate hain.”

Coincidentally, I felt the same after watching Lafangey Parindey.