Bollywood actor Akshay Kumar’s turn as a man possessed by a wrathful transgender ghost in horror comedy ‘Laxmii’ isn’t just traumatic for those who wronged her, but is shockingly painful for those viewing the bloody spectacle.
Full Article here: https://gulfnews.com/1.75167491
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Full Article here: https://gulfnews.com/1.75167491
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00:00This is Manjusha Radhakrishnan from Gulf News Dubai and I'm here with the review of Akshay Kumar's new horror comedy Lakshmi.
00:11It's out in the UAE cinemas. The movie is releasing in India in an OTT platform but it's a new movie that's releasing in the UAE after a long span.
00:21So as a viewer I was quite excited to actually dig into my packet of nachos but the movie isn't as exciting as the snacks that were given to us.
00:31Lakshmi takes us into the world of Asif played by Akshay Kumar.
00:35He is a Muslim man who is in love and is married to a Hindu girl played by Kiara Adwani.
00:41They elope and get married because their folks resist their union.
00:45They're not happy with the marriage and what you see is after three years finally Kiara's families relent and they call them home for a family reunion.
00:54But once they reach their family home a ghost possesses Akshay Kumar's character Asif.
01:02See as a premise it's quite interesting because it's one of the first few times where a transgender ghost is shown in a horror comedy.
01:10And although the intentions are noble perhaps not to treat them like the other and to represent them accurately.
01:18The story isn't very strong and it does not do much for their rights either.
01:25During the day he's a businessman who dabbles in granite and marble.
01:29But at night in his downtime he's a part of an association where he goes around dispelling myths about ghosts.
01:37But what happens when a transgender ghost possesses his body and he turns into this vengeful person who's out for blood.
01:46And you have then a backstory about why the transgender ghost is out for revenge.
01:52There's of course Sharad Kelkar who plays the transgender woman with aplomb.
01:58This is one of the rare films where you see a seasoned actor like Akshay Kumar one of the most bankable stars in Bollywood seem a bit out of depth.
02:06He looks a bit aged and he looks haggard and he doesn't make a great pair with Kiara Advani.
02:12Their love angle and their romance their union and their relationship makes really very little sense too.
02:18But forget that what really worries me is also the story and the way the wit and the frights are intermingled.
02:26In fact the humor is very very loud and exaggerated.
02:29Somehow most of the scenes don't work and you rarely laugh.
02:33In fact one of the most scariest parts of this film was that there could be a sequel.
02:38Now that's truly a scary part.
02:39Another thing that I found unsettling in this movie is that this movie perhaps had promise.
02:45It's about transgender rights equality it's about land grabbing.
02:49But there were too many issues and the director Lawrence seems to be trying to inject humor, fright, mirth everything into this one film.
02:58And you see random songs that are being inserted into the film.
03:02In fact there's one sequence that is set in Dubai against the Burj Khalifa.
03:06That song although it was a beautiful tourism video for Dubai and Burj Khalifa looked divine.
03:12It did not serve much purpose into the narrative.
03:16It did not head the story.
03:17It just did not accelerate the pace of the movie.
03:20It just you know halted the narrative quite a bit.
03:24In fact songs are inserted randomly too to make it perhaps more popular.
03:28To make it perhaps the action sequences towards the climax was interesting.
03:32But other than that I don't think there was much going for this film.
03:36The truly frightening part as I said is that perhaps there's a sequel to this film coming.
03:41So consider yourself warned.
03:44I've gone with 1.5 out of 5.
03:47For my full review go to gulfnews.com