Review
Naukar Vahuti Da
Movie
Naukar Vahuti Da is a freshly released Punjabi film that stars Binnu Dhillon and Kulraj Randhawa in titular roles. Actors Gurpreet Ghuggi, Jaswinder Bhalla, Upasana Singh and others are seen playing important characters. Directed by Smeep Kang, this one is produced by Rohit Kumar, Sanjeev Kumar, Ruchi Trehan, Ashu Munish Sahani and written by Vaibhav and Shreya.
Release Date: 23 August
Written by: Vaibhav, Shreya
Director: Smeep Kang
Synopsis: The story of Naukar Vahuti Da (NVD) revolves around a couple which isn't in a happy space and after an argument, part ways. The wife moves to her parental house with her daughter and the husband is left behind to live on his own. A songwriter by profession, the husband keeps visiting producers for selling his songs but all goes in vain till one day, finally his career gets on the right track. Sulking and missing his family, the man decides to disguise himself as an old man in order to get the job of a driver at his in-laws' home. He succeeds and finally gets his wife and daughter back to his home. This is the main story.
Review: From the trailer, we had guessed that the film is inspired by Kamal Hassan's 'Chachi 420' and yes it was. It had the same funda of disguised husband winning over the wife and the daughter finds out the reality but keeps mum and all that but this one was a shoddy attempt.
Having brands like Binnu Dhillon, Gurpreet Ghuggi, Jaswinder Bhalla, the film was expected to give its audiences a burst of hearty laughter but poor dialogues and age-old screenplay written to make this film like Smeep Kang's trademark comedies, made this one fall flat on the face. A bunch of forced PJs (poor jokes) and actors doing characters that were just not meant for them (Ghuggi) made NVD a boring affair.
Binnu Dhillon and Kulraj Randhawa's onscreen chemistry was totally cold. The duo was clearly acting and that too completely unnatural. They were dancing as if they're only following the choreographer and in the opening scene Kulraj is even seen singing the male part!
Actor Upasana Singh has mostly been used in Punjabi films as a relative of the main lead character who falls for someone and then is shown throwing herself onto the man. Same was the case here. Initially, she gets all the attention from Jaswinder Bhalla's character called Professor but paying no heed to him, the unmarried bua Upasana falls for a driver and then is shown molesting her driver! (Wow good choice)
Jaswinder Bhalla is doing what he does best but this time, the bad character writing gave this actor no upper hand. He too was seen struggling with his character to make it more convincing and funny but nothing worked.
Binnu Dhillon has an edge over the other comic actors because of his ease of dialogue delivery and pace of comic throw but these are no more his level of comedies. The man has surpassed such sub-standard films and has created a niche for himself. It is strongly recommended that Binnu turns down these kinds of offers in order to maintain his image as one of the top artists in this industry else it won't be long till he enters the category of just another comedian, yet again.
Kulraj Randhawa needs to do films that suit her onscreen image. These films are just not for her. She is a brilliant actor and can easily carry meaningful family dramas with her skill. After 3 years, the lady has made a comeback and let us utilize her talent for good films than bad ones like these. The actress looked beautiful in the film and has glamorized more. She could fit really well in urban genre films that are being made in Punjabi industry.
The promotional song with Dev and Japji was just not required. We are sure that Dev has two left feet and Japji wasn't looking her best.
Smeep Kang has yet again shown through NVD that he only follows a set pattern in his films and this pattern has now turned boring. He really needs to try new things for his comedy films as he does have a strong comic sense. The wife needs social media commenting was the worst that he could have done in a film.
The choreography was forced and the production design was poor. The film seemed like a cheap project made with minimal budgets.
After seeing the film one wonders why the title Naukar Vahuti Da? The film couldn't even live up to its name. And a question that we wish to ask is - Why did the lady keep her daughter away from the father? Was the man into drugs? Was he drunkard? He was just struggling to get his career in shape and that's no reason to keep a father away from his daughter. (kuch vi yani)
Lastly, Gurpreet Ghuggi is NOT meant for such pathetic characters anymore.
Verdict: A poor comedy which will leave you yawning and falling back on your seat waiting for something that can giggle but the wait will be endless.
