Chennai Express : Movie Review

Ready, steady … PO !! Get on the train, baby…
Chennai Express Movie Review
By: Prangshu

Cast: Shahrukh Khan, Deepika Padukone, Nikhtin Dheer
Director: Rohit Shetty
Producer: Gauri Khan, Ronnie Screwvala, Siddarth Roy Kapur
Music: Vishal-Shekhar

So finally, the Chennai Express train has arrived and I was aboard watching the premiere show on Thursday. Heck lots of promotions and marketing was done for this film and Shahrukh, Rohit and Deepika were clearly very excited about its release.

Plot: The movie strolls around the life of Rahul (Shahrukh Khan) and how he ‘accidentally’ meets Meena (Deepika) and the biggest twist in his life (probably any ‘common man’s’ life) comes his way. Rahul’s granddad passes away on his 100^th birthday and to fulfill his grandpa’s last wish, he plans to do away the ashes in a small town called “Rameshwaram”, South India. He boards the Chennai Express where he meets Deepika and her four cousin brothers ( or rather thugs). Rahul lands up in an unavoidable, unwanted and unprecedented journey. While Meena has her own troubles with an imposing dad trying to get his daughter married to Nikitin Dheer (who umm has a very uncommon Tamil name), Rahul faces a lot drama from the entire village and eventually plans to escape.

Technical-aspect: Rohit Shetty’s direction has nothing new. His story-telling is senseless with a large dosage of slapstick humour. The action sequences are very well shot and directed, though. The music is awesome, energetic, fun and simply crazy. The dialogues are alright and go hand in hand with Shahrukh and Deepika’s character. Critics have been panning the movie left right centre but guys, it’s really not as bad as some of Shetty’s over-top and head-banging Golmaal series. Yes, agreed that the script lacked strength – but this is Bollywood! Some moments of the film are hilarious (especially the beginning train sequence where Rahul lends his hand out to Meena in true DDLJ style and what follows after that) !

Performances: Shahrukh Khan, as always, is very versatile and supreme. He can adapt to any role with ease and he is King Khan for a reason. Deepika has done good job. She looked stunning and danced superb. Nikitin Dheer has nothing much to do but his tight physique kept him an instigating personality throughout.

Chennai Express is a full-on Bollywood masala flick. Don’t expect it be realistic, intelligent or thought-provoking cinema. It is funny and you are bound to have a good time if you are accompanied by good friends, popcorn and pepsi.

Prangshu also writes for Bollywood.Celebden.com, a premiere source of bollywood gossips, news and bollywood movie reviews.