Patna Shuklla Movie Review: Raveena Tandon’s Makes You Wait For Her Moment To Turn A Hero But Never Arrives To Justify Why Is She Named After An Entire City!
Patna Shuklla Movie Review Rating:
Star Cast: Raveena Tandon, Satish Kaushik, Anushka Kaushik, Chandan Roy Sanyal, Manav Vij, Jatin Goswami, Raju Kher
Director: Vivek Budakoti, Rajendra Tiwari
Patna Shuklla Movie Review Out: Raveena Tandon Shines Despite Not Arriving ( Photo Credit – IMDb )
What’s Good: The honesty and the simplicity with which the tale is narrated.
What’s Bad: The over-dramatization and the lost opportunity to cater to some important conversations.
Loo Break: I’m not sure about your bladder system, but you would complete this with a lot of pauses.
Watch or Not?: Read and decide for yourself; probably should for Raveena Tandon’s on-screen persona.
Language: Hindi
Available On: Disney Hotstar
Runtime: 125 Minutes
User Rating:
Women, in general, have to fight with an age-old bias to date. How worthy are they outside of the kitchen? If an average working professional is a wonderful cook, then she probably belongs to the kitchen better, according to her colleagues. Maybe if a woman is dressed in a saree on a day-to-day basis, then she is supposedly a homemaker. If she welcomes guests with her home-cooked food, then other women assume she is a housewife like them. Tanvi Shukla deals with all these biases on a pro-rata basis. Her husband oscillates between respecting her in the bedroom and demeaning her in the living room. The only distinction here is Tanvi’s voice. She knows to speak for herself, and she knows to stand up for herself.
However, Patna Shuklla seems to be a strategic blend of the two stories we have seen recently. Raveena Tandon‘s Tanvi is a long-lost cousin of Bhumi Pednekar’s journalist in Bhakshak. Meanwhile, the plot and the storyline find similarities with Salman Khan’s niece Alizeh Agnihotri’s debut film, Farrey.
Produced by Arbaaz Khan, Patna Shukla slowly gains an important voice. But the film is a lost opportunity on what could be a simplistic small-town tale that is relatable and generates pathos at a maximum level.
Patna Shuklla Movie Review Out ( Photo Credit – DisneyPlus Hotstar / YouTube )
Patna Shuklla Movie Review: Script Analysis
Written by Vivek Budakoti, Sameer Arora, and Farid Khan, Patna Shuklla picks up pace in its second in a somewhat predictable tale until the climax arrives. The film has a rocky journey with some good scenes and a good setup, but it gets lost in translation from its journey from paper to screen. But who is at fault, the writing or the execution? Probably both in parts.
Some points want you to root for the cause and the film, but you cannot collaborate your voices with the protagonist, for she is very loose in some parts and overpowering in others. You cannot connect with any of the other characters of the family, nor the father, or the son and the husband, for that matter!
The sense of urgency in Patna Shuklla is so lost that despite having a subject as strong as an education scam mixed with political agendas in Bihar, it keeps crumbling throughout.
Patna Shuklla Movie Review: Star Performance
Raveena Tandon plays a gutsy lawyer with a voice in Bihar’s capital, Patna. While her Tanvi Shukla is bland, Raveena tries her best to be relevant. However, her struggle is clearly visible in the absence of an author-backed role.
Apart from Raveene, none in the film have a strong arc to prove their mettle as artists. Right from Manav Vij, who plays the husband, to Anushka Kaushik, who becomes the central point of the entire story of the film, even the late Satish Kaushik, who acts as a judge in this courtroom drama, does not have a moment to shine. Chandan Roy Sanyal gets wasted as the opposition; meanwhile, Jatin Goswami, as the antagonist, struggles and succeeds to some extent with his rawness.
Patna Shuklla Movie Review Out ( Photo Credit – DisneyPlus Hotstar / YouTube )
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Patna Shuklla Movie Review: Direction, Music
The shakes between its aspirations and efforts. The major problem with the direction is the treatment of the story, which is confused between what it is and what it wants to be, settling for somewhere in between. The social courtroom drama highlights a single issue – corruption in the education system- but while it mingles with political agendas, it never strongly delivers a dialogue on any of its causes.
Apart from this social narrative, the film is already confused about the gender politics of the society, and while it makes clear efforts to put forth the debate, it surrenders to the shoddy script that never lets the dialogue breathe, despite the absence of a single preachy dialogue in the film.
The music of the film does not seek any attention or disruption. There are times when the background score reminds you of the stereotypical sounds and music that are used to depict the middle class and tier-two cities on screen. Honestly, it’s disturbing and loud at times.
Patna Shuklla Movie Review: What Works
Despite all these issues, Patna Shuklla still works in small parts. This is solely because of Raveena Tandon’s honest effort to make her Tanvi Shukla believable. Raveena is the Lone Warrior in this script, which does not even cement her with a powerful arc. Tanvi does not shine, but Raveena does. Even the climax of the film, with its expected twist, overcomes the shortcomings of the last two hours in the final minutes, pulling you back to engage for one last time.
Patna Shuklla Movie Review: What Doesn’t Work
The major flaw is the title Patna Shukla, which never establishes the how and why. Tanvi’s journey to becoming Patna Shukla is so frivolous that there never comes a wow moment when people suddenly start calling her Patna Shuklla, failing the motive of the title disastrously.
The film keeps passing opportunities to shine. Be it Raveena Tandon’s decision to fight the most awaited case of her career, be it Anushka Kaushik’s determination to fight the system, be it Manav Vij’s journey from demeaning his wife’s profession to being proud of her, be it the father-daughter bond between the two sets of fathers and daughters in the film. Every single opportunity is wasted.
Chandan Roy Sanyal’s failure to control his dialects and mocking of the dialect scenes also fails to engage. Satish Kaushik’s problem with balance never finds poetic justice, which I was waiting to conclude in the final verdict.
Patna Shuklla Movie Review: The Last Word
While the film could fulfill a lot of promises, it gets sandwiched between drama and raw emotions, failing to deliver any of them. Courtroom drama generally offers a powerful writing set with the climax monologue, but Raveena Tandon’s Tanvi Shukla and her overdramatic scene at the closing of this courtroom drama disappoint.
The mediocrity of this film, probably working in parts, is the only saving grace apart from Raveena Tandon’s diligent effort throughout to make Tanvi believable as a woman hungry enough to fight for her identity. The major problem is Tanvi’s appetite, which makes her not hungry enough! This film could have stood tall in the line of Do Dooni Chaar, The Lunchbox, and other perfect Slice of Life films, but it gets lost, never to find itself again.
2 stars.
Patna Shuklla Trailer
Patna Shuklla will be streaming on Disney Hotstar from 29th March 2024 onwards.
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