![[Film review] 'Ekkees Toppon Ki Salaami', a smart idea squandered by clunky handling](https://sc0.blr1.digitaloceanspaces.com/large/682871-1d88caee-6d87-4bf4-80e0-13118e8879e8.jpg)
Honesty rarely pays – but it has now started demanding recompense.
Ekkees Toppon Ki Salaami is yet another earnest and simplistic anti-corruption message movie, with thinly disguised references to the Congress Party, Sonia Gandhi and a multi-crore scam (this time the Adarsh residential society scam in Mumbai). When a scrupulously honest municipal corporation employee dies of shock after being suspended on a false corruption charge on the day of his retirement, his sons decide to fulfil his dying request. Joshi (Anupam Kher) wants to be given a 21-gun salute as the ultimate reward for never haven taken a bribe his whole life. His sons Shekhar (Manu Rishi Chadha) and Subhash (Divyendu Sharma) set aside their resentment at their father’s value system and give him the send-off he desires. They are abetted by Subhash’s girl-friend (Aditi Sharma), a speech writer for a chief minister whose corrupt ways help honesty win the day.
Director Ravindra Gautam and writer Rahil Qazi don’t make it easy for their characters to go about arranging for the salute, but they don’t let the audience off lightly either. A smart concept is stretched till it snaps over 140 minutes. The idea of being given a farewell that befits a war hero is taken too literally. The tone shifts suddenly from satire to bathos, and every move is spelt out as if in a television series. The comedy is sub-par Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro and barely convincing as an absurdist take-down of corruption in high places.
Some characters and moments stand out. The better scenes, which allow for some character development, are between the righteous father and his ambitious sons. Divyendu Sharma’s Subhash, in particular, convincingly goes from nasty to noble, and he has a better screen partner in Aditi Sharma's confident and sparkling speech writer than in Shekhar, a poorly written and performed character who is seen bullying his father on his deathbed in one scene and blubbering in the next.
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Ekkees Toppon Ki Salaami is yet another earnest and simplistic anti-corruption message movie, with thinly disguised references to the Congress Party, Sonia Gandhi and a multi-crore scam (this time the Adarsh residential society scam in Mumbai). When a scrupulously honest municipal corporation employee dies of shock after being suspended on a false corruption charge on the day of his retirement, his sons decide to fulfil his dying request. Joshi (Anupam Kher) wants to be given a 21-gun salute as the ultimate reward for never haven taken a bribe his whole life. His sons Shekhar (Manu Rishi Chadha) and Subhash (Divyendu Sharma) set aside their resentment at their father’s value system and give him the send-off he desires. They are abetted by Subhash’s girl-friend (Aditi Sharma), a speech writer for a chief minister whose corrupt ways help honesty win the day.
Director Ravindra Gautam and writer Rahil Qazi don’t make it easy for their characters to go about arranging for the salute, but they don’t let the audience off lightly either. A smart concept is stretched till it snaps over 140 minutes. The idea of being given a farewell that befits a war hero is taken too literally. The tone shifts suddenly from satire to bathos, and every move is spelt out as if in a television series. The comedy is sub-par Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro and barely convincing as an absurdist take-down of corruption in high places.
Some characters and moments stand out. The better scenes, which allow for some character development, are between the righteous father and his ambitious sons. Divyendu Sharma’s Subhash, in particular, convincingly goes from nasty to noble, and he has a better screen partner in Aditi Sharma's confident and sparkling speech writer than in Shekhar, a poorly written and performed character who is seen bullying his father on his deathbed in one scene and blubbering in the next.