Khaali Peeli is a typical Bollywood masala film directed by Maqbool Khan and jointly produced by Zee studios & Ali Abbas Zafar.
Childhood friends in a villains den (Mumbai’s Kamathipura in this case) find love & friendship before separated by Yusuf Chikna (Jaideep Ahlawat – Not so impressive attempt post super solid Raazi & Pataal lok).
Fast track Overview – Ananya Pandey (Pooja) decides to escape from the ‘Yusuf Chikna’s kamathipura brothel, with a bag full of money & landed in a taxi of Ishaan Khatter (Blackie); street smart Bombay taxi driver who came to Mumbai idolizing Yusuf Chikna. The sweet yet not so real chemistry between the two for negotiating stolen money, running away from police & goons, trying to trick each other, over the night lands you to interval.
Khaali Peeli is one eventful Mumbai taxi ride towards flashbacks, redemption, reconnection and romance! The series of car chase and escapes over the two days across streets of Mumbai to UP with fast turn of typical expected events.
The movie from opening shot to end is an out-and-out Bollywood masala flick where you would not get any money to predict next sequence.
1. Story & screenplay: 2.5/5 : Predictable yet fast paced first 30 minutes are absolutely packed with style & dialogues to create interest. But as the film progresses; you could guess all without any prizes. Writer has certainly tried hard to inculcating emotional setbacks, drawing connections & romance but unfortunately missed novelty as we have seen it many times in past.
2. Direction: 3/5 : Director Maqbool Khan may not deliver novelty jn story-telling or kind of realism in today’s cinema but certainly gets full marks to recreate Mumbai magic with flicking collars, lighting cigarette in a Rajnikant style ‘tashan’. He may have missed the trick with limited scope but yet kept the pace to deliver ‘onetime watch in this lockdown scenario’
3. Music & background score: 1.5/5 : music could be biggest disappointment as you wud not even remember any song during the film, forget abt after the film. Songs are planted in the movie are just for the heck of it. Background score at times is good but still The film doesn’t have Mark of Vishal-Shekhar.
4. Acting : 3/5: Ishaan is effortless & gets into the Mumbai tone & skin of the character while speaking, the walk of Mumbai’s roadside Romeos and specially, dance sequences. Ananya is confident & a glam girl but may still take time to be natural rather looking in camera. She never looked coming from a dark and disturbing life in the lanes of Kamathipura. The chemistry between The two is not natural or sizzling in comparison to Ishaan & Jaanvi from Dhadak. These days, new comers are much more prepared than this like the child artists playing their younger selves, they have a connect, charm & better rapport than these two. Kids playing the younger ones really leaves an impact & giggles for a moment.
5. Support cast: the support cast delivered solid performances on the grey side like Jaideep Ahlawat as Yusuf Chikna & Swanand Kirkere as a businessman running the brothel. Zakir Hussain as honest inspector and Satish Kaushik as dumb inspector Bhim is hilarious but for a smile rather laugh.
In all, ‘Khaali Peeli’ is a one-time watch in this dry corona impacted movie season with 2.5/5 rating. It will still be manageable if you would not have any expectations. Movie would derail every once in a while and you would get it where & why!
