Title: Vicky Vidya Ka Woh Wala Video
Director: Raaj Shaandilyaa
Cast: RajKummar Rao, Triptii Dimri, Mallika Sherawat, Vijay Raaz, Archana Puran Singh
Where: In theatres near you
Rating: 2 Stars
Feel free to read the headline again to grasp the notoriety on display in its entirety (blame the makers entirely for both the pun and the fiasco!). RajKummar Rao and Triptii Dimri’s film is promising, with tremendous potential—at least, that’s what it looked like initially (thanks to the trailer and the first half). Raaj Shaandilyaa’s endeavour is quirky, daringly different, and funny, where every line lands to evoke laughter, right up to the interval. However, the second half turns into an absolute mess and culminates in a ‘supernatural’ disaster that even Rao’s earnest efforts can’t save from sinking. Vicky (the mehndi artist) and Bicky (the tailor from the Stree universe, or the reference thereof) get horribly mixed up! No, it’s not funny, engaging, or anything close to it!
Just when you think Rao is set to deliver yet another delectable delight after the success of Stree 2, you get a film that feels like an ‘affair’ hurriedly crafted without much rhyme or reason. The writing is lazy, the screenplay shoddy, and the story structure is horribly disastrous, to say the least.
Don’t get me wrong. The plot is an opportunity (wasted). Vicky and Vidya’s world is set in the 90s in Rishikesh. Vicky is a mehndi artist known for his quick wit, and Vidya is… well, pretty (and a doctor). The two get married and want to capture their ‘intimate’ moments to keep their married life ‘healthy’ (spicy, raunchy, active, interesting, and everything in between, or so we are told). The twist comes when their house is robbed, and the entire TV unit, along with the aforementioned ‘sex tape,’ goes missing. All right, then! What was created to ‘revive’ their marriage has now become a task (requiring retrieval to save themselves from shame and almost impending ‘famousness’). Will Vicky and Vidya get their tape back? Will it land in unsafe hands? These questions are as interesting as they are hilarious. But, in the second half, the viewers are dragged into bizarre and inane subplots, leaving them wondering if they are watching the same film.
What makes it even more complicated and incoherent is the forced attempt to inject multiple subplots into the already overcrowded film. You have Vicky’s sister Chanda (Mallika Sherawat) and the cop investigating the robbery (Vijay Raaz) adding chaos and commotion to the tale. Add to that Ashwini Kalsekar, Tiku Talsania, Archana Puran Singh, and many more, who try to keep the sinking ship afloat. And then, there’s the ‘supernatural’ disaster, ‘meticulously’ created on what seems like a shoestring budget, adding insult to injury. None of it sticks! The audience feels exhausted and cheated. Even the quality of the jokes dips, with characters now being body-shamed, slut-shamed, and age-shamed. None of this is remotely funny or entertaining. What’s worse is the desperate attempt to connect this film to the Stree multiverse. It’s all so nauseating that you wish the ‘woh wala video’ would get deleted forever, or the CD retrieved just to get it done with. In this mess, the film’s mojo is lost entirely.
