Selfiee Review: Good one-time watch for its entertaining elements and performances despite being a remake
Selfiee Movie Rating: 3 Stars
Just watched Mrs Undercover movie on Zee5 Premium. Let’s focus on the complete details, story, positive/negatives and at last my personal view on this movie.
Cast: Akshay Kumar, Emraan Hashmi, Nushrratt Bharuccha and Diana Penty
Director: Raj Mehta
Release Date: 24th Feb 2023 in Cinemas & 21st April 2023 on Disney Plus Hotstar
Story: It is an official remake of the Malayalam hit Driving Licence (2019) which revolves around a rivalry between an RTO Inspector and a prominent actor.
Set in Bhopal movie revolves around Om Prakash Agarwal (Emraan Hashmi) is an RTO inspector and lives with his wife Minti (Nushrratt Bharuccha) and son Gabbu (Neev Ahuja). Both father and son are big fan of super Vijay Kumar (Akshay Kumar) along with his wife Naina (Diana Penty).
Om’s joy knows no bounds when he learns that Vijay Kumar will be shooting his film in their city. The climax of the film requires certain permissions, which would only be granted if he has a valid driving license. But he has lost his license, and due to circumstances, the new one hasn’t come on time.
A local politician Vimla Tiwari (Meghna Malik) promises to have one made in two days with the help of Om to help Vijay Kumar get the driving license, which the actor has lost. Om readily agrees and expresses the desire to click a picture with Vijay. He requests that Vijay comes early in the morning to the police station as a formality, but the press is tipped off about the visit.
Vijay Kumar is emotionally on edge due to some personal issues, thinks that it’s Om Prakash who has called the press for his 15 seconds of fame. He berates the police officer in front of everyone, even his son. Humiliated, the officer vows to make the star pay for his actions. He accuses the actor of misusing his power and even goes on a fast against him. The media pounces on it all, and it soon becomes a circus. Things go out of hand when the policeman’s son gets hurt after a stone throwing incident.
Now, the superfan is out to get the superstar, who is in danger of losing his popularity and career. How things get reconciled forms the crux of the story.
Positives
1. Performances
2. Climax
3. Direction
4. Screenplay
Negatives
1. Length
2. Remake
3. Music
4. Silly reason of rivalry
Durgesh Tiwary’s View: When I watched the trailer of this film planned to watch this movie on digital premier because it looks good in parts only so skipped theatrical watch.
Bollywood superstar Vijay Kumar needs to get a new driver’s license from an RTO officer. However, a misunderstanding lead to a war of words between the two, eventually escalating into a feud which is played out in front of the entire country.
Selfiee story is quite unusual and the only problem with it is that it seems to the audience that a minor issue has been blown out of proportion. Screenplay is engaging and has some fine dramatic and funny moments. There’s entertaining comedy, drama, melodrama and a fair dose of emotions too. The sequences in which Agarwal takes Vijay Kumar’s oral test and driving test are very exciting. The media circus and the changing of sides by the opportunistic media persons also evoke comedy. The scene of Agarwal revealing what he had intended to gift Vijay Kumar is a tearjerker. Similarly, the scene in which Agarwal’s son, distraught at his father being fired by Vijay Kumar, cowers behind his father, is quite heart-wrenching. Performances are excellent especially by Akshay Kumar.
On the negative side, the manner in which Vijay Kumar assumes that Om was responsible for calling the media seemed far-fetched. Since this was the base of the conflict and takes the story forward, the later developments also don’t seem fully convincing. The second half is a bit dragging and the 143-minute-long film could have been shorter. There are far too many slow-motion shots of Vijay waving to his fans and after a point, it becomes too much. Direction was mediocre as overall impact of them is not effective as one expected it to be. Music is another minus of this film as no songs are good.
Overall, movie is a one-time watch that has entertaining elements in the first half with drama taking over in the second hour of the film. It works due to the plot, performances and face-off between Akshay Kumar and Emraan Hashmi. It is an easy-breezy watch, with some good performances and several laugh-out-loud moments. If you’re looking for a rib-tickling comedy over the weekend, this one could be a good pick. My view on this movie Time Pass but don’t expect much from this one.
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