I had not decided to make a purported effort to watch the film but then when the opportunity arrived I thought 'What the Fukrey' and dashed to the theater. The ‘Dilli wali film’ has become somewhat of a trend in Bollywood. You have smart dialogue, actors speaking in a Punjabi accent and chase sequences in the bylanes of old Delhi.
Mrighdeep Singh Lamba’s “Fukrey” falls in the same mould – the story of four young men who come up with a convoluted idea to acquire some quick buck, so that three of them can get into the coolest college in town , knowing very well that merit is out of question.
Pulkit Samrat and Varun Sharma play Hunny and Choocha, two friends who would rather spend hours fantasizing about how beautiful their college life will be; without worrying about attendance or studying; They have just one aim in college: GIRLS. Hunny is the street smart charmer while Choocha the idiotic and garrulous character whose dreams start the entire mess. Choocha is a gifted dreamer who dreams a random sequence where his dearest friend Hunny is being battered by some animal or the other and Hunny is the only person who finds some logic in those dreams and comes up with some number which they use to buy a lottery ticket. To help achieve their goal of getting into the coolest college they find a willing accomplice in Panditji (Pankaj Tripathi) who promises to get them the papers, provided they cough up the money.
They come in contact with Lali (Manoj Singh); who has a similar need to get into college so that he can be a part of his supposed girlfriend's gang and Zafar, played by Fazal Ali, a melancholic musician whose career is not going anywhere. The film just drags along until the arrival of Bholi Punjaban (Richa Chaddha) whose range of businesses would even put 'Bhai' to shame. the riot that follows even though entertaining gets more and more unrealistic.
The film overall continues to get the laughter out of you even though it is through fillers and not the actual plot. The elderly gentlemen in the park who are a part of a laughter group. The drunkard who keeps on robbing parts of Lali's bike only to turn out to be a wealthy gentleman with a heart of gold. The love stories between Hunny and Priya and also the triangle between Zafar and his former girlfriend and Lali could all be done away with. None of these carry the film forward.
Lamba peppers his film with smart lines and extracts good performances out of almost all his cast members. But he does loosens his grip on the proceedings at several places and the script does waver time and again. Ram Sampath’s music also sets the right tone though it isn't that exemplary. The film is watchable thanks to superb performances by Richa and Panditji and Choocha which i felt was loosely inspired from Alan's character in the Hangover series. In fact apart from Pulkit none of the characters define the title of the film 'Fukrey'.
“Fukrey” doesn’t have any big stars or glamour, but coming from the Farhan Akhtar house of production I was left a tad disappointed.
