Kaafi Kachchi. Review on Toh Baat Pakki Movie

Toh Baat Pakki, is based on the ancient formula of boy-meets-girl-they-fall-in-love-face-obstacles-but-finally-love-triumphs. The movie does attempt one small twist, by casting Tabu as the spanner in the works. But this twist is also diluted because Tabu could not have played an out and out villain. And once her character is justified, there is so little drama in the plot that the movie becomes a yawnathon.

But to begin at the beginning, Tabu is shown to be a manipulative and scheming elder sister who is on the lookout for a suitable husband for her younger sister, Yuvika. Sharman literally bumps into her on a road once, and while she is initially angry - she soon realises that Sharman is an engineering student, and hence is good husband material for her sister. After some oversimplistic scheming by Tabu, Sharman and Yuvika conveniently fall in love with each other and are on the verge of getting married.

That’s when Tabu runs into Vatsal, who is a wealthier boy with a steady job. So, Tabu decides to dump Sharman and now schemes to get Vatsal married to Yuvika. The movie is fairly tolerable in the first half, and the scene in which Sharman explains an ‘eclipse’ is a surprising flash of competence. But, things go completely out of whack in the second half. Assorted relatives and characters pop up, and some incredibly silly scenes and situations are unleashed. In one scene, because of bad cell reception, the mother thinks her much married elder daughter wants to get married to her younger daughter prospective groom - Really? Which 70s movie is this scene borrowed from? By the end of it all, let alone how, no one is even interested in knowing who gets the girl.

Director Kedar Shinde must have roots in television, because even in its best moments, Toh Baat Pakki never gets better than an afternoon soap. Large parts of the movie have been shot in Ooty, and the art direction , choreography, etc seems outdated, not by years, but by a few decades. The cinematography is also ordinary, and does not do anything to highlight the dramatic points. The music is also singularly unremarkable, and the song choreography would not get past round 1 of any reality show.

On the acting front, Vatsal Seth and Yuvika look good, but the full range of their acting is limited to 2 expressions. Sharman’s easygoing and effortless demeanour makes his character believable, but it does look like he had a really bad hair day - on every day of this film’s shoot. Similarly for Tabu - she invests a lot of sincerity and dignity, but the script is way below average and even she cannot make this movie work.

Finally, it must be said that apart from a few random dialogues and some decent acting by Tabu and Sharman - there are no redeeming factors for this movie. We give it 1.5 out of 5.