Arjun Patiala movie review: You can see some bright-sparky ideas at work.Arjun Patiala movie cast: Diljit Dosanjh, Varun Sharma, Kriti Sanon, Ronit Roy, Seema Pahwa, Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub, Pankaj Tripathi
Arjun Patiala movie director: Rohit Jugraj
Arjun Patiala movie rating: One and a half stars
How do you wipe out a bunch of baddies in a small town in Punjab? Send in newly appointed thana-in-charge Arjun Patiala (Dosanjh), whose mix of native Punjabi wisdom, expert judo throws, and endearing smiles will magic them away.
This, in a nutshell, is the movie. With Dosanjh’s high likeable quotient, faithful sidekick Varun Sharma’s skills at delivering broadsides, pretty heartthrob Kriti Sanon’s dazzling pearly-whites, and a host of reliable supporting acts, the film should have been much better than it is.
You can see some bright-sparky ideas at work. Animated squiggles, helpful labels like ‘Hero Ka Hero’, ‘Villain No 1’, at each character’s entry, and some imaginative computer graphics raise the technical quality.
But the pizzazz gets lost in this low-rent, tepid attempt at raising laughs. As do some performers who usually add heft to anything they are in. Seema Pahwa as a corrupt local property queen and Ayyub as a knife-wielding thug are wasted. As is Pankaj Tripathi in a blink-and-miss role.
By the time it ends, you’ve forgotten the early laughs. What should have been a rollicking Patiala peg turns into a pointless ‘pauwa’.
