Coolie No 1 cast: Varun Dhawan, Sara Ali Khan, Paresh Rawal, Sahil Vaid, Shikha Talsania, Jaaved Jaaferi, Rajpal Yadav, Johny Lever, Manoj Joshi, Anil Dhawan, Bharti Achrekar
Coolie No 1 director: David Dhawan
Coolie No 1 rating: A star
In 1995, director David Dhawan had his favorite actor play a cheerful coolie who fell in love with a rich girl. Her arrogant dad who wants ‘only prince-no pauper’ for his beloved ‘beti’ is the obstacle, but no Bollywood dad can get in the way of true love, and loud comedy and singing dance, right?
The combination of Dhawan-Govinda-Karisma-Kader Khan-Shakti Kapoor provided us with a film of its time, laden with jokes bordering on insipidity and dubious lyrics. It became one of the biggest hits of the year, which also landed us Rangeela and DDLJ, as Govinda’s kind-hearted man of the crowd was perfect. Back then, in his prime, he could do just about anything – deviant jokes, crimson suits, and no one could push a pelvis like him, not even his beautiful leading ladies.
But that was a quarter of a century ago, and it seems the filmmakers have forgotten that the world has changed. Bollywood too. When you see Varun Dhawan, who has channeled Govinda much better in many of his films, walks almost the same path, jumps out almost the same lines, there is no laughter, only despair.
Small changes do not ensure freshness. The earlier film was set in a village: Karisma was a ghaghra-clad gaon-ki-gori, Govinda wanted to set up a cement factory. In this the gaon has become Goa. Instead of a factory, it’s a port, and Sara Ali Khan is a city girl in loose minis and pointed stiletto heels. But the folly celebrated at the highest pitch, and the rat-a-tat speed with which the whole thing was performed, something David Dhawan used to do so well, is missing.
The time for making plots on paper is long gone. It is painful to watch reasonable actors go through choppy scenes and horrible laugh tracks. Varun and Sara dance to the still popular songs (“Tujhko mirchi lagi toh main kya karoon”) and take you straight back to the OG. The only one who makes a meal of his character, played by the inimitable Kader Khan in the original, is Paresh Rawal. His heavy-handed dad uses a light touch, which is exactly what it takes in this kind of mindless comedy. Dhawan Jr has fared much better under his father’s baton. And unfortunately the cheerful Sara Ali Khan is just as empty as the script.
We can laugh in these dark times, but not like this, without humor, without flair.