Happy Journey



Director – Sachin Kundalkar
Cast – Atul Kulkarni, Priya Bapat, Pallavi Subhash, Siddharth Menon
           
            At first let me congratulate Sachin Kundalkar for making a trash film. If his Aiyya annoyed the Hindi audience now comes the time for the Marathis to bear his shit in ‘Happy Journey’. It is unrealistic and exaggerated to such an extent that even a Bhojpuri film (with all its vulgarity) will fare better when compared. 

            It tells the story of Niranjan Naik (Atul Kulkarni) who returns to India after the death of his sister Janaki (Priya Bapat). Janaki never got a chance to spend quality time with Niranjan. As such her ghost pops up (literally!!) and coxes her brother to complete her unfulfilled wishes. 

            Don’t be misled by my summary of the story. Kundalkar has taken supreme effort to spoil it. The ghost loves beer, bathes (yes bathes) like a human being, is fond of expensive lingerie and cannot resist the temptation to drink tea as soon as it wakes up (Do ghosts sleep?) At least, Mr Kundalkar should have seen Ramsay brothers’ work to understand ghosts or read Bhagwad Geeta to understand what happens to the soul after death. 

            Thus he ends up making a fool of himself. It is difficult to accept it scientifically, philosophically, logically or even for the sake of it. Ok, accepted; that other than Niranjan, no can see the ghost. However, it is difficult to believe that no one can hear the sound of the vanity van’s horn (the ghost constantly blows horn to call her brother).  

            The film kills you in the second half when Niranjan tries to woo his childhood love Alice (Pallavi Subhash). It is overly stretched to the point of boredom with unnecessary subplots. The humour gets on your nerves and spoils the seriousness of the film. Happy Journey was promoted as a film on a brother-sister relationship. Can a sister have strong emotions for her brother who left when she was just a toddler? I give up!!

            Atul Kulkarni has given the most confused expressions in this film. Priya Bapat and Pallavi Subhash look good on screen. (Oh!! I forgot the ghost also loves make-up). Ignore their acting. Menon is good but his role is negligible. 

            I am going with a generous one out of five stars for Happy Journey. If you ever meet Mr Kundalkar in please ask him for my 150 bucks which I ended up wasting on this film. You can keep them!!

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