Super Nani Review {2.5/5} & Review Rating
Bollywood films had and will always have its audience for every genre. There is something for everyone here. While the last week we saw the multi-starrer HAPPY NEW YEAR which was a visual extravaganza, this week will see the family drama SUPER NANI, a film which announces the 'comeback' of the ageless wonder cum diva Rekha, who will be seen in a central role after a long time.
Based on the hit Gujarati play 'Baa Ae Maari Boundary' by Imtiyaz patel, SUPER NANI is about the protagonist who is constantly being scorned and taken for granted by her full family. This film is about regaining one's lost respect and that too in front of one's own family members. Will SUPER NANI find its place in the hearts of the viewers and will it be able to garner 'respectable' position at the Box-Office, let's analyze.
SUPER NANI starts off with an NRI Mann (Sharman Joshi) teaching the value of 'Mother' to young candidates through the 'medium' of an interview. Even though he resides in the overseas, his heart is very much Indian and he understands the value of family, mother and most importantly, his 'Nani'. His 'Nani' Bharti Bhatia (Rekha) is a selfless lady who has only been sacrificing her life for the sake of her own family members, without sparing even an iota of a thought for herself. Her family consists of her superbusy business tycoon husband R.K. Bhatia (Randhir Kapoor), son Suketu (Rajesh Kumar) a wannabe share market expert who believes that 'There are indeed shortcuts to success and earning money'. Besides them, there's her daughter-in-law Aastha (Shreya Narayan) who holds sky high aspirations to become an actress, so much so that, when it comes to 'adjustments', she can even 'adjust' herself to act opposite a duplicate of Shah Rukh Khan, despite being promised the original. Lastly, there's her daughter Gargi (Anchal Dwivedi) who is loaded with ultra modern values and someone who will not even blink an eyelid before saying yes even to marry a man who is already in the process of undergoing a divorce and with two children. For her, even the concept of live-in relationship is more appealing and acceptable than her own mother's simple, traditional Indian values.
Life becomes miserably monotonous and stereotyped for the 'never-say-complain' Bharti, who remains mum despite all the tortures done to her by her own people within the four walls. All is not well, till the time her grandson Mann decides to come to India in order to shoot a documentary on Indian heritage. But when he witnesses the inhuman behavior that's been meted to his favorite nani, he decides to take things in his hands and give her a much-required transformation (read ' makeover) with the help of Sammy aka Bamboo (Anupam Kher), Bharti's long lost childhood friend and also a proud owner of 'Seven Continent Advertising agency'. The duo of Mann and Sammy leave no stone unturned to transform 'Mother Mary into Maa Durga', despite opposition from everyone in the family.
What is Mann and Sammy's actual motive to transform Bharti from a simple housewife into a supermodel, will Bharti become a supermodel at sixty years of age and will she win back her respect from her very own family members is what forms the rest of the film.
SUPER NANI not only marks the return of Rekha, but also the return of director Indra Kumar to his family drama genre after films like DIL, BETA, etc… With SUPER NANI, he has tried to visit the eras of the late eighties and nineties where morals, values, family and traditions were the key words. Since the film is in the hands of such an experienced director, it doesn't lose its momentum, except for the song and dance sequences, which could have been shot in tune with today's time and age. He also tried to infuse some humor angle with Rekha doing 'take offs' on Amitabh Bachchan, Nargis, Madhubala and likes. While there is no question about his direction, what one really wonders though is what made him incorporate scenes which are straight lifts from popular videos on youtube, or add dialogues that are famous SMS forwards and also the infusion of a 'gay Yamraj'!
Of the cast, no prizes for guessing as to who is the star of the film. It is indeed Rekha's film all the way, right from the word 'go'. She has really put in her everything in this role. The film totally rests on her shoulders and she does full justice to her role, except that the word 'beta' could have been used a lesser number of times by her. Sharman Joshi as her grandson looks the part and also does reasonable justice to his role. If only the makers of the film had done away with his 'gender-blender' language, his character could have come across a bit more believable. Randhir Kapoor, on the other hand, looks convincing as a CEO, although he brings nothing new to the role. Shweta Kumar, despite being the 'heroine' of this family drama, hardly gets any convincing screen space, except for the song and dance sequences. Her presence in the film makes no difference to the film's plot. The 'head-nodding' Anupam Kher brings nothing new to the table. The rest of the cast, which includes the likes of Shreya Narayan (do not miss her hilarious audition of 'ek chutki sindoor'), Varsha Usgaonkar (effective cameo), Rajesh Kumar (stereotyped by now), Anchal Dwivedi (who, for some strange reason, comes across as Rakhi Sawant in some places), Vishakha Subedar (as the domestic help) put their best foot forward to justify the film's storyline.
The music of the film (Harshit Saxena, Sanjeev-Darshan) is lackluster and suffers the same fate as its lyrics (Sameer, Sanjeev Chaturvedi) and the background score (Raju Singh). Despite the genre of 'family values and tradition' being a time tested formula, it works for SUPER NANI majorly because of its storyline (Vipul Mehta) and apt editing (Sanjay Sankla). As mentioned earlier, the film's songs fail to register in the audiences' mind, which also means that there's hardly any expectations from the choreography (Saroj Khan, Shabina Khan). Cinematography (Rituraj Narain) is average.
On the whole, SUPER NANI is a wholesome family fare, which can be watched once... only for Rekha.
