I wish I could at least call “Khatta Meetha” a mindless comedy but it isn’t even that. Priyadarshan has thrown in oodles of melodrama and dollops of attempted-morals in a film that is for the most part intended to be a funny political satire. The film has a struggling hero, corrupt elder brothers, sarcastic sister-in-laws, a righteous patriarch and eve-teasing politicians, reminiscent of B-grade Hindi film sagas from the 1970s.
Akshay Kumar is a road construction worker struggling to make it big like his dishonest brothers. Initially it seems like honesty is the only impediment to Akshay’s road ahead but as the film progresses you realize that he is not that honest after all. Then why does he try to reiterate again and again to his elder brothers that they are successful only because they are unscrupulous?
The narrative is all over the place, an item number here, a song sequence there, lots of drama, an attempted suicide, an alleged murder and a brutal death of the villain, and Priyadarshan seems to think his job is done. Where is the finesse with which he made us laugh and cry in “Billu” or the psychological thrill and the seemingly unintended comedy that was there in “Bhool Bhulaiyaa”?
You will manage a few laughs because Akshay’s and Rajpal Yadav’s comic timing is instinctive. But other than that the film seems like a never-ending ordeal. Trisha is a total misfit and her lip-sync seemed off in a number of places. The rest of the cast is the usual ensemble that you see in most of Priyadarshan’s Hindi films. They do a reasonable job considering they can do little to overcome a very bad script.
The film is a remake of the Malayalam political satire, Vellanakalude Naadu (1988) which was a huge success but the problem is something that worked in 1988 has a limited chance of working today unless the director effectively repurposes the original story. It’s a huge letdown from a director who we know is capable of much more.
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