Chennai Express

When it’s a Rohit Shetty film, you are not supposed to take your thinking caps to the theater. Chennai Express from Rohit Shetty and Shahrukh Khan is a perfect entertainer for this festive season. And compared to the slap stick comedy filmography of the commercially successful director, this one has some interesting varieties to surprise you.  It’s not that Rohit Shetty has totally changed or something, but some minute changes in treatment here and there makes a difference from his previous comedy tracks.

The plot here has the 40 year old bachelor Rahul who lives along with his grandparents.  After his grandfather’s death, his grandmother asks him to carry his ashes to Rameswaram and do the rituals. But the fun loving Rahul plans to go to Goa along with his friends. On his way to Goa he happens to help a girl Meena Lochni aka Meenamma and this deed totally changes his tour plans. With the girl being kidnapped by a bunch of people who interestingly is the relatives of her, the “common man” Rahul is in a difficult situation.  What happens to the Rameswaram journey of Rahul after the entry of these characters is what Chennai Express all about.

Jeeps are supposed to spin and the cars are supposed to explode when it is an entertainer from Rohit Shetty. But surprisingly these typical elements are quite less in this film. Unlike many Shetty films we can see a more down to earth hero. The guy never fights back and even in the desperate climax fight, the character is getting beaten up badly by the gigantic villain. The real USP of this movie is the chemistry of SRK and Deepika. We are familiar with this category of humorous dialogs, but with these lead actors rendering them with that little extra something, the humor gets enhanced.

On screen, after a while we get to see that vibrant Shahrukh Khan and I must say that they have used his funny act to its best. Deepika Padukone shines in her role as Meena and she maintains the accent quite smartly. But hearing her Tamil was a bit disturbing as it lacked fluency. Much like Deepika, Nikitin Dheer also disappoints with the awkward Tamil. Sathyaraj is convincing with his presence as the harsh Durgeshwara Azhagusundaram.

In the making as I said, Rohit Shetty has made some minute changes in his style. He has lessened the degree of typicality that’s evident in his film making. The storyline is quite a silly and predictable one that doesn’t have anything to claim as fresh and the screenplay also just goes on without much surprises. The extent of non-veg in the dialogues is less. Better stunts are there to entertain you and I enjoyed the climax fight where they showed some respect to Newton and his findings. Good music from Vishal and Shekhar. VFX is just about convincing and the cinematography is also a good one.

Overall, Chennai Express is perfect when you look at it as a festival cracker. If you have seen the director’s previous films, there is no need for me to tell you what to expect. My rating is 3/5 for this slightly improved comedy film from Rohit Shetty.