Review : Cirkus : Mundane Acrobatics!
It’s said, Comedy is a Serious business and director-producer Rohit Shetty has always proved it by dishing out comic capers one after another. During big festivals, usually big family entertainers are released and during this Christmas, filmmaker Rohit Shetty has brought an out and out family entertainer, Cirkus. It definitely is a one time watch but lacks the rib tickling humour. Maybe the law of averages caught up with Rohit Shetty as his latest offering Cirkus is full of mundane acrobatics. William Shakespeare’s The Comedy Of Errors (TCOE) was adapted into many films viz. Do Dooni Char, which was a remake of a Bengali film Bhrantibilas which was loosely based on TCOE and Sanjeev Kumar and Deven Verma starrer Angoor which was directed by Gulzar. Cirkus takes the legacy of these earlier films and entertains moderately.
Cirkus’ plot is familiar to many. Two pairs of identical twins are separated and years later their lives get intertwined creating confusion, misunderstandings and guffaws. In a Jamnadas (Uday Tikekar) orphanage a doctor (Murli Sharma) interchanges two twins and two set of parents adopt each pair. They are named Roy (Ranveer Singh) and Joy (Varun Sharma), one pair being raised in Bangalore and other in Udhagamandalam i.e. Ooty. Ooty’s Roy is the owner of a Cirkus and is famous as a Current Man as he can withstand electric current and his act of holding live wires kissing each other is quite famous. But while doing that his twin brother experiences the current and so does anyone who touches him during that period. Bangalore’s (not Bengaluru because the movie is set in the 60s-70s) Roy is raised by a wealthy woman (Ashwini Kalsekar). This Roy is in love with Bindu (Jacqueline Fernandez) whose father (Sanjay Mishra) doubts Roy’s intentions as he feels that Roy is two timing his daughter. Ooty’s Roy is married to Mala (Pooja Hegde) who is a writer of crime thrillers of which Bangalore’s Roy is a huge fan. Bangalore’s Roy, along with his brother Joy visits Ooty for some work and the comedy of error ensues. How intermingling events crate confusion to create humour is the crux of the narration.
The screenplay of Cirkus lacks novelty and the dialogues are not as sparkling as are expected to be of a Rohit Shetty film. Though there are comic moments in between but they are not too many. Thus the film doesn’t make you laugh incessantly. The music is passable but Current Laga Re is peppy and Deepika Padukone gyrating on this item number makes it more engrossing and becomes a high point of the film. Rohit Shetty continues with his brand of comedy and does reasonably well. But he has raised the bar for himself and the audience will want much more than what he has offered this time. Ranveer Singh does well in both the characters and he has not gone overboard in any of them. He has incorporated subtle changes in his both portrayals and he doesn’t disappoint. Varun Sharma has done a good job in both the roles but he should have got more funnier lines. Pooja Hegde looks resplendent and doesn’t give a chance to complain about her acting. Jacqueline Fernandez brings glamour with her presence but she doesn’t have much to do in this ‘crowded with characters’ film. Johnny Lever, Mukesh Tiwari, Vrajesh Hirji, Tiku Talsania, Anil Charanjeet, Vijay Patkar, Brijendra Kala, Sulabha Arya and others do a good job. The standout actors in this crowded list is Sanjay Mishra and Siddharth Jadhav. Both have created good humour through improvisation and slapstick comedy.
Cirkus though offering mundane acrobatics is definitely a one time watch with family during this festival season.
***
Keerti Kadam.