Pintu Ki Pappi – Review

quick review:

A collection of one bad scene jerkily stitched to another, adding up to a mess of a film. An intriguing plot—kiss-as-a-service—but you can’t help being wary because of the potential to be sleazy. Indeed, it is borderline creepy and goes full throttle into boring you.

Review

What if your superpower was that your cheek-kiss gets the kissee married to another person in the next week? What if you made a business out of it? What would the unintended consequences be? Well, as a film, one intended consequence is low-hanging fruit, right? To make it sleazy. Thankfully, they don’t go all out, but my muscles were in a state of cringe from the opening sequence, right till the end.

The red flags begin with the opening sequence’s orange flags and other in-the-face religious notes. Why is that a red flag? As I watched the ridiculously placed, worded and executed, even if well-choreographed, song-and-dance sequence that the film starts with, the vibe guaranteed that religiosity had nothing to do with the rest of the film. It existed, just because.

And this irrelevant over-arching theme of religion continued throughout the film. This wouldn’t have been an issue if it was somehow related to what was going on in the film or told us something about the characters. And if it told us that they are oh-so-devout, you then see them doing something that no religion could condone, in the very next scene.

Maybe, may… be… it’d have been fine if this was the only problematic theme in the film. But oh-boy, it is not! Where do I begin? Let’s see…The film’s very premise is that the only role of a woman is to be married. Education secondary, job…”what job?” Then, the film goes ahead and shows soft-support for the dowry system. As in, the characters speak about it matter-of-factly and with pride that they are willing to pay a dowry.

Then, of course, there is the standard trope of a woman in Indian attire is a better person than the one wearing western outfits!?! Also, what world is this film set in? Strangers ogling at women doesn’t creep the women out. They are comfortable with it. I want to live in a world, where advances made towards women aren’t creepy.

Moving on to the next problematic take—body-shaming, both subtle and overt. I can imagine someone being repulsed by the idea of kissing someone, even if it is a peck, who they don’t want to kiss. But the implication here was clearly that the body’s shape was a problem.

Then, of course, you have sexuality-shaming. Not only is the only evidently gay person in the film, super-sleazy, but there is a wrongness attached to being anything other than heterosexual. Sure, there is space given to the trans community, but it is restricted to the norms associated with them.

It is a shame that these were the makers’ choices given a premise that could have made you laugh and cry with even half an attempt at basic storytelling. Instead, the effort is spent on over-written lines that go out of their way to make the sentiment at hand relatable to current times.

So, you have words and concepts such as OTP, emoji, buffering, RTGS, virus, and quarantine force-fitted into scenes. At other times you have lame puns and of course, the least shocking of them all—absolutely yuck, cheap humour. Thankfully, there’s not too much of that, but whatever is, is more than enough.

The one bit in the writing that is sorta, kinda redeeming, is the signature line Jaggu dada (Vijay Raaz) resorts to. But that is clutching at straws because it is repetitive and used rather unimaginatively.

While we look for things to appreciate in a haystack, there is some creativity in the song and dance sequences. I can see some of the hook-steps catching on in dance parties. But that is only if the songs reach the clubs. Some are so loud, they seem off-key. Others aren’t snazzy enough.

I noticed something about the beat-lyric combination though. There is something about the lyrics that you don’t miss a word. For one, it could be that they use contemporary language, even if, again, it feels forced. It could also be because of the rhythm and how well the poetry fits, that you follow the lyrics effortlessly. So, sure there is some creativity there, but not all ingenuity is appealing. And it certainly is not enough.

When a film becomes amusing because characters suddenly resort to logic isn’t really selling itself. In fact, within the first 10 minutes, I felt like if this is what makes it to the big screen, maybe I could make one too. Especially given the resources and exposure that the makers have in the industry. Wish I had half the confidence that Ganesh Acharya or Sushant have. The former is loud, the latter lacks the charisma to pull something like this off. Murli Sharma and Vijay Raaz are wasted here. We can’t tell much about the women’s skills, especially, Jaanyaa Joshi, because they are used as props.

I was done with the film in the first 20 minutes. But, of course, I watched through. It made me realise my problem with star-centred masala films. It encourages films like these. And I think I “get” the star system a bit. Some actors can pull off such absurdity, at least for their fan-base. Others can’t even create a fan-base.

– meeta, a part of the audience

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