Laxmii Movie Review

Cast: Akshay Kumar, Kiera Advani, Ayesha Raza Mishra, Rajesh Sharma, Ashwini Kalsekar, and Sharad Kelkar.
Director: Raghav Lawrence
Ratings: 2.5/10

Directed by Raghav Lawrence, Laxmii is a remake of 2011 Tamil movie, ‘Kanchana’, starring meritorious cast such as Akshay Kumar, Kiara Advani, Rajesh Sharma, and Sharad Kelkar. The movie was the perfect Diwali gift required in the post-Covid times, atleast for entertainment.
Laxmii, a mixture of humour and horror, was released on November 9, 22020 on Disney+Hotstar, which seemed to revive the charms of movies like ‘Bhool Bhulaiyaa’ and ‘Stree’. Tracing the movie’s roots back to the Tamil movie, ‘Kanchana’, it appeared that the director wanted to stick to the original plot, leading the movie with its punches and twists to be more predictable and clichéd.

In the movie, Akshay Kumar plays the role of a Muslim man called Asif, who married a Hindu girl called Rashmi (Kiera Advani). After marriage, they visit the wife’s parents in Daman to celebrate their 25th marriage ceremony. On reaching the place, Asif, who does not believe in any kind of superstitions, gets possessed by a ghost of a transgender person called Laxmii, who seeks vengeance from those who wronged her. The rest of the film revolves around this slapstick comedy mixed with thrills and horrors.

Apart from the movie being a perfect delight for entertainment during this festive season, it also issues two of the most important social issues: First, is the importance of transgender in our community, which is often neglected or ignored by the notion of abnormality, and second, the unity and solidarity among humans discarding religions such as Hindu and Muslim.

In addition to this, Akshay Kumar’s performance has been extremely commendable and to the point. He has never been the actor to disappoint the crowd’s expectations and the movie is proof of the same. Kiara is decent in her scenes, but she is no scene-stealer. The movie could have achieved more exciting and positive feedback from the people if it could have brought more newness and creativity into the plot. On a more personal level, the movie seems that it is attempting to put everything under one box, that is, the inclusion of social issues, the feel of thrill and horror, and the episodes of comic relief which makes the movie a bit mishmash of varied episodes.

But it is Sharad Kelkar who manages to steal the show in this movie. His 15min role will win him a lot of acclaims. Had it not been for him this movie would have failed badly.

We did get bored in between. We wish the screenplay & the script was tighter. Director Raghava Lawrence should have kept the sensibilities of Bollywood fans in mind, which is different than that of South film fans.

Don’t forget to share on your views on this bomb of Diwali!

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