Crazy Cukkad Family Review {2/5} & Review Rating
It's a universal fact that with money... comes greed and with greed... comes selfishness. It's only a handful of people who can resist money and the temptations that come alongwith it, whereas others tend to 'walk that extra mile' to get (read 'grab') the money by hook or by crook, caring a damn for emotions and feelings, even if it means walking all over their own siblings or family members.
With this week's release CRAZY KUKKAD FAMILY, the debutant director Ritesh Menon has tried to tell a similar kind of tale. How much does he succeed in the same? Let's analyse.
The film starts off with the introduction to the madcap and dysfunctional Beri family. They are Pawan (Swanand Kirkire), Archana (Shilpa Shukla), Aman (Kushal Punjabi) and Abhay aka Chotu (Siddharth Sharma). They all gather at their grand family home to know what their bedridden father (who goes in coma for the third time) has written in his will regarding the distribution of his property. Even though the four are frustrated strugglers in their respective lives, they don't reveal their personal goof ups to the family. That's why they all land up putting a false face before the world. Father Beri's will reads that, till the time all of his children get married, the will cannot be read. This is when the family members behave bizarrely and are ready to do anything for property. Abhay announces that he is gay and is married to his boyfriend in New Zealand... and that too when he is just a few seconds away fron marrying a local village belle. Amidst all this, there 'exists' Archana's meek husband Digvijay (Ninad Kamat) who is his wife's pet and has a secretive 'dual personality' disorder. There comes a time when everyone's demons come out of the closet and creates a ruckus.
Will the family ever be able to read their father's actual will, ultimately who will become the heir of the multi crore property, does the selfish and self centred family members of the Beri family ever improve in their lives and save their dying father... is what forms the rest of the film.
Even though this is Ritesh Menon's debut film, the film looks promising in parts. While he succeeds in keeping the first half of the film tight, it's the wavering second half that acts as a disjoint to the film's flow. The film could have been made a bit stronger in its direction. Even if he had changed the (bizarre) climax into a more believable one, things would have been a bit different.
As far as the performances are concerned, it's the multi-talented Swanand Kirkire who leads the film ever since the word go. His comic timing and screen presence is really endearing to the core. Same applies to Shilpa Shukla, who plays her part really very well. Her broken English and her craving to be a 'high society lady' is something that needs to be seen and heard to be believed. Ninad Kamath as the estranged husband does total justice to his character. The rest of the cast help in carrying the film forward.
Even though the music (Siddharth Suhas) of the film is not praiseworthy, the film's background music (Aditya Bedekar) keeps up the tempo of the film. The film's writers (Suhas Shetty, Kushal Punjabi) touch upon the age old story which is in accordance to the modern times. The film's editing (Shakti Hasija) just could have been tighter. While the film's cinematography (Sojan Narayanan) is just about average, the screenplay (Suhas Shetty, Ritesh Menon) could have been a bit more crisp. Full marks to the film's dialogue writers (Puneet Sharma, Suhas Shetty) for having come up with some wonderful one liners that really invokes laughter.
On the whole, CRAZY KUKKAD FAMILY is decent one time watch.
