Hottegagi Genu Battegagi

Shyam Prasad is an elderly retired widower, who is forced to take up an internship at a youthful startup due to circumstances. Shravya, who runs this e-commerce business, is a young woman who is fiercely independent and has an outlook towards life that often startles Shyam. What happens when the duo work together?

Does the above theme seem familiar? Well, it must, given that the film is almost completely inspired by Nancy Myers' The Intern. Right from the characters to the sets to situations, they all seem to be directly lifted from the Robert De Niro and Anne Hathaway starrer. While director Narendra Babu has tried to localise the setting and the characters to suit the Indian sensibilities, the film does not leave one with the same emotions or reactions like that the Hollywood one did. Though, there are a few laudable elements that can make it a one-time watch.

The film deals with a widower's tryst with a modern and ambitious entrepreneur and it shows how the two end up inspiring each other with their thoughts and actions. When the retired man decides to work as an intern under this young go-getter, she finally gets to see life in a larger picture, while the former also gets a sense of purpose through guiding her. The film tries to show situations and problems faced by the millennial like infidelity, live-in relationships, stress and burnouts. The story has some relevant messages but the pace of the narrative and the rather jarring editing makes the experience a bumpy ride.

One of the biggest plus points of the film is Anant Nag; the veteran actor is the perfect fit for playing the part essayed by De Niro in the original and he gives the viewer many reasons to cheer for him. His swagger and style can generate many hoots. While Anant's Shyam seems to have a more balanced character, Radhika Chetan's Shravya is written in a rather inconsistent way and it becomes hard for one to follow the emotional graph of her's and the improvisations in the Indian adaptation of The Intern seem to dilute her character majorly. The supporting cast are left to being uni-dimensional and hardly have much to add to the goings on, unlike what one saw in the Hollywood film. The songs seem to be more of a forced fit too.

Hottegagi Genu Battegagi could be a decent watch for those who haven't seen the Hollywood original, but for those who have they will miss the subtleties and nuances that Myers had added in The Intern. This film, though, can entice the Anant Nag fans, for they get to see the veteran performer in a role that allows him to charm his way despite an inconsistent narrative.