Nautanki Saala Hindi Movie Review

When an Indian film maker tells you that he is inspired by a film from France and this is a product of such inspiration you know he is at least honest in compare. So, first a minor salute to Rohan Sippy for being honest about his source. The premise is experimental and imaginative. The takes its principle characters around a play that is being staged and plays their life on a parallel. While the goof up on stage makes for interesting humour the real life happenings give you a birds eye view of contemporary metro life and its bizarre possibilities. Both layers are treated with style if not with robust punch. That is a stance, a decided choice and so be it.
Ram (Ayushmann Khurrana) is living with his girlfriend Chitra (Gaelyn Mendonca). The story is as related to his Shrink. Ram on a monsoon night saves Mandar (Kunal Roy Kapur) who attempts to kill himself by hanging on to a tree on the road. Mandar is a looser who has just been given the boot by his lady love Nandini (Pooja Salvi). He gets the guy home and goes about rehabilitating him and weaning him away from the idea of suicide. This surely does not find enthusiastic support beyond a point from Chitra. Ram also meets up with Mandar’s grandma (Sulba Arya in a brief hamming moment). Ram next targets meeting up with Nandini who is a florist who is now in an affair with Loli (Ruffy Khan).
Ram is busy doing a play Ravan Leela and decides to cast Mandar in the role of Ram to ensure that he has not only found a replacement for the role but also to ensure that this would boost up the confidence of Mandar. Strangely he gets completely involved in all this and the thin dividing line between roll play and real life suddenly disappears. Nay it takes a U turn and often returns to haunt the author with his own creation. Resultantly Ram falls in love with Nandini who begins to reciprocate with enthusiasm, and while Mandar is on a come back trail, Ram looses his balance and guilt gnaws at him. In the meanwhile Chitra walks out on him and the film. Briefly stated Ram looses his lady love, his girlfriend and his friend all in a just a few weeks. Life is about saying sorry and mending fences. With this gyan from the Shrink how he goes about making amends is what Nautanki Sala is about.
Wonder what hang over Rohan has for Kim. Both his heroines have astriking resemblance to the two earlier Kims of the industry (for memory: Naseeb and Mohabatein). While Gaelyn Mendonca resembles the former Pooja Salvi resembles the later. The similarity is not just in the looks and thus you wonder why an intelligent guy like Rohan would cast such non-descript persons for the roles. Apart from the dare and heterodox of Rohan Sippy, the film completely belongs to Kunal and Aayushmann. Kunal as the unkept looser is hanging around with such disdain that he gives the film a high de3gree of credibility. Ayushmann proves that his debut was not just beginners luck. The guy has not just tremendous screen presence but he backs it with good talent and understanding of the media. Surely the symbiotic faith between him and the film maker shows good results. The film is surely watchable for him and him surely.
In case you are unwilling to accept experiment and receive a film that for all its flaws is interesting stay away. Otherwise go for it. The film is not just interesting but a subtle step forward in the context of Bollywood.

L. Ravichander.