Keyur Seta
Mumbai, 05 Jan 2018 7:00 IST
Updated: 08 Aug 2019 17:13 IST
The film, directed by ace cinematographer Sanjay Jadhav, falls flat while trying to make you laugh.
Mindless entertainers, done well, give the audience its money’s worth and let the producers sing and dance all the way to the bank.
But done shoddily they can fall flat on the face, and how! And that is exactly what happens to director Sanjay Jadhav’s Ye Re Ye Re Paisa.
In trying to provide a crazy, non-stop entertainer, Jadhav ends up treating us to a loud, nonsensical saga which goes on and on for 158 minutes!
The story revolves around four individuals. Sunny (Siddharth Jadhav) is a ticket tout in love with a struggling actress Babli (Tejaswini Pandit). Aditya Desai (Umesh Kamat) earns a living acting in prank shows online. He doesn’t know Sunny or Babli and just dreams of making it big in films one day. Anna (Sanjay Narvekar) is a recovery agent and gangster.
In trying to help Babli, Sunny becomes responsible for Anna losing Rs10 crore he had recovered. At the same time, the gangster loses another sum of Rs10 crore because of a prank Aditya plays on him. To escape Anna’s wrath, Sunny, Babli and Aditya join hands to recover Rs20 crore.
Ye Re Ye Re Paisa has an interesting plot. But the film struggles with the screenplay, dialogues and presentation. Jadhav surrenders too much to the genre and goes over-the-top. The one-liners, vital for a comedy, hardly make you giggle. And while no one really expects strong logic in such films, churning out one senseless incident after another makes you wonder if the film was crafted by a precocious pre-teen.
Of the many such incidents, a few deserve special mention:
- A court orders a lady to pass on her ancestral jewels to the government. She does so by organizing a grand programme in a big auditorium. Whoever celebrates defeat in a court battle with such pomp?
- Aditya tries to rob a bank manager and fails miserably. But the manager instantly trusts Aditya, a stranger and a would-be thief, with the execution of a bigger crime!
- During a serious court scene, a twist comes about when a lawyer sighs loudly after reading a message on his mobile phone that India has lost a cricket match against Pakistan.
Ye Re Ye Re Paisa doesn’t stop at this. The film is also guilty of mocking dark-skinned Africans, gays, and the idea of rape. It is alarming to see such rubbish being passed off as comedy even in 2018.
Jadhav is known to be a fine cinematographer and his movies always boast of impressive camerawork. But this one is an exception. The background score mostly contains weird sounds that are supposed to make you laugh. They don't. And what is with slogans like ‘Doctor ki goli mooh mein. Anna ki goli...’ repeated every now and then?
Songs are an important component of crazy entertainers. But to our misfortune the three dance tracks in this film are unimpressive.
Thankfully, the performances aren’t bad. Siddharth Jadhav, who has got a meaty role in a mainstream Marathi film after a long time, grabs it with both hands. Comedy comes naturally to him.
Same is the case with Sanjay Narvekar. The role of recovery goon was tailormade for him. But comedy isn’t Umesh Kamat’s forte, though his non-comic performance is decent.
Tejaswini Pandit had an impressive role early on in her career in Mee Sindhutai Sapkal (2010). But she has failed to reach that high since. And this film doesn't help her cause one bit. Mrinal Kulkarni fits the character of a rich and mature lady but doesn’t get a chance to explore the depth of her character.
The film has decent supporting acts from Anand Ingle and Vishakha Subhedar. But the bank manager is simply unbelievable. And that's not a compliment.