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'Firangi' review: Big ambition gone awry in a deadpan hero

Dubai - While Firangi's premise is cinema-worthy, Kapil Sharma's insipid performance makes it a tedious film to sit through, writes Deepa Gauri

If you expect a Peter Sellerseque style rollicking comedy in Kapil Sharma's yet another attempt at acting, Firangi is going to let you down with a thud. Ok, let us blame ourselves for our expectations and trust director Rajiev Dhingra in his attempt to make the next Lagaan.

The very least he should have done was to ignore his friend Kapil, and get an actor who could have delivered what the script demanded - play a simpleton living in pre-Independent India, falsely accused of being on the side of the British, and taking it on him to correct the public perception.

With Firangi and his pandering to Kapil's actor-ambitions, Dhingra not only does injustice to the audience but also to a group of talented actors, who give their heart and soul to the film.

The film has a decent premise. It takes you to the villages of India, and even successfully depicts how common people reacted to all that was happening around, including Gandhi's call for non-cooperation and non-violence.

But this film is centred on Kapil, who plays Manga, the man with a golden soul aspiring to be a policeman. Manga is roped in as an orderly by a British officer suffering from back spasms that can be relieved only by having Manga kick his back. Well, whatever.

Manga is living his dream even as the local king has other plans. Plotting with the 'foreigners,' he wants to build a factory, which would have a village evicted. Manga attempts to fix the issue, more so to prove a point to Sargi (Ishita Dutta), the girl he loves and her grandfather. Things go awry, and Manga is now seen as a traitor. How he addresses this issue forms the rest of this 175 minute long film that goes on and on and on.

Firangi has a simplistic script that befits a school drama. And it has a performance from the lead actor that is utterly one-dimensional - the one dimension being deadpan. Sample this: The whole village is clamouring for his blood, and Kapil stands there, not an iota of an expression on his face.

Not to be faulted, for the first half hour, as a man besotted by the beauty of Sargi, and totally in love, Kapil does act. But that means, staring at Sargi and breaking into a grin. This staring, grinning act is so relentless you wonder why Sargi doesn't look elsewhere and spare the man the trouble.

It is all so sad because Kapil is a great television host. He brings an effervescent charm on the small screen. But in Firangi, with its grand ambition and scale, he is a misfit. The least the film needed were some witty one-liners. There is no relief on that count either, as we watch the proceedings, progressing as snow as a snail.

Much resource must have gone into making this film; thousands must have slogged on the sets. The money thrown into costumes must have been enough to make an independent film. But when big ambitions are not matched by realistic notions about one's ability as an actor, we get such films that you must endure in the name of entertainment.

No, this is not to pan Kapil; this is a reminder for star-aspirants that acting does not mean grinning into the camera.

FIRANGI

Starring: Kapil Sharma, Ishita Dutta

Directed by Rajiev Dhingra

Rating: 1/5

Now playing at theatres in the UAE