Raja Rani Raji

A middle-class Bengali family’s youngest son Raja (Bonny Sengupta) is of no use. Flunking exams and naturally unemployed, he usually receives an earful from friends and relatives. Who and what urges him to change? Does he change?

Raja Rani Raji could have been a rom-com, taken you on a joyride of laughter and made the script twist and turn like your stomach does from laughing hard. But watching it will not guarantee such an experience. Two youngsters — Bonny Sengupta and Rittika Sen — are wasted in a half-baked attempt to make them romance each other even when the script is heavily tilted towards the hero and his silly-but-not-funny antics.

Rittika’s character is in fact the weakest link in the entire story. She is projected as a beautiful young girl who giggles while giving exams, is always undecided about being strict with Bonny, apologises to him without rhyme or reason and manages to get a job while stalking the hero. She looks pretty like a doll and lacks life and expressions.

Bonny plays the good-for-nothing with so much ease that you keep looking for the heroic entry throughout the film. And you get that too with Yash doing the needful in a guest appearance. But what keeps the actors from making an impression is the ‘mindless commercial film script’ that is a detriment to the success of this genre of films. As much as these commercial films are seen as money-minting productions, an empty south Kolkata single screen on the opening day of the film suggests otherwise.

So, Yash’s entry is wasted too. No whistles, no claps and no tickets sold. And for a romantic comedy, it has too many sub plots and diversions through different characters introduced at different points in the film. There’s hardly any romantic scene between the lead pair. Only some breaking into songs at inappropriate moments. Considering that’s the hit formula, one would have expected better cinematography and lyrics worth humming.

What is really funny is the characters live in plush multi-storeyed apartments, all the while talking about salaries ranging from Rs 15,000 to Rs 25,000!

— DEBOLINA SEN