Dokyala Shot review: Four funny friends keep the film alive

Hindi films generally remake masala action films from down south. Marathi cinema, on the other hand, picks up sensible entertainers from that part of the country. Two recent examples are Shutter (2014) and Half Ticket (2016) which were based on the Malayalam movie Shutter (2012) and Tamil movie Kaaka Muttai (2015), respectively.  

Debutant Shivkumar Parthasarthy’s Marathi film Dokyala Shot is the latest addition to remade content with origins in the south. It’s the official remake of Tharaneetharan’s Tamil movie Naduvula Konjam Pakkatha Kaanom (2012).

Dokyala Shot is about Abhijeet (Suvrat Joshi) who faces a weird problem just a day before his wedding with Subbulakshmi Iyengar (Prajakta Mali) aka Subbu. It was challenging for him to convince Subbu’s father since he was against his daughter marrying a non-Tamilian.

After a lot of pestering from Subbu, her mother and Abhijeet, her father finally agrees and all the preparations are done. A day before his big day, Abhijeet decides to play a game of cricket with his three close friends Ganesh Pandit aka Ganya (Ganesh Pandit), Bhajji (Rohit Haldikar) and Chandu (Omkar Gowardhan). While he is trying to take a catch, he falls off and his head hits a stone.

Abhijeet is safe after the accident, but suffers from Retrograde Amnesia aka short term memory loss. As he had met Subbu just two months before their wedding, he doesn’t remember her. Abhijeet’s friends try to control the complicated situation. How will he get married while dealing with such a situation forms the rest of the story.

There is no doubt that a condition like Retrograde Amnesia is serious stuff. It has been explored in a serious manner in Hindi films like Jab Tak Hai Jaan (2012).

The film’s biggest triumph is that it's an out and out comedy that genuinely makes you laugh for most of its duration. There are some moments or mere gestures that leave you in splits. More importantly, the humour, both situational and sarcastic, is sensible enough to not make the treatment of a psychological condition appear insensitive or in bad light.

The characters of the four friends and their easy and smart establishment is also noteworthy. They are completely different from each other in terms of personalities, but the common bond between them is always felt, even when someone is offended by the other.

Joshi gets an opportunity to showcase different shades of his talent. He impresses in a difficult role where he had to play a person affected by Retrograde Amnesia and at the same time appear funny. Of his three friends, Pandit succeeds in being hilarious without trying much.

Mali is actually the female lead of the film. Although she is convincing, her screen time is too less.

With these plusses, you end up rooting for Dokyala Shot. So, it feels too bad when the narrative goes downhill by the time the film nears the climax. There is a long wedding sequence where the crazy activities of the four friends needed to be more convincing. Instead, the situations lack logic to such an extent that it is impossible to ignore, even when you think of the positives the film shows.

The scenes remind us of the hilarious wedding scene in Anees Bazmee’s Hindi comedy No Entry (2005). Despite it being a silly sequence, you don’t mind since it was more convincing and, more importantly, the film was a mindless entertainer. Dokyala Shot, on the other hand, falls in the much more sensible genre.

Dokyala Shot becomes a case of an interesting premise not being taken to an equally satifying conclusion. Therefore, Dokyala Shot turns out to be a smooth ride till the interval, after which it becomes bumpy. But you still won't regret watching it.