Before the movie starts, we all saw Akshay Kumar’s recorded message about how it’s dedicated to his fans and how he’s nothing without them, but then he goes on to do movies like this to disappoint not all, but a good portion of them. He plays Vijay Kumar (Akshay Kumar), a superstar worshiped by his fans and one of his biggest fans in RTO Inspector Om Prakash Agarwal’s (Emraan Hashmi) love for him is dubiously termed as ‘bhakti’.
Star wants a driving license for a car shoot, the RTO officer wants a harmless selfie with his favorite star, but things take a turn when Vijay arrives at the RTO office. Who did what and why forms the main crux of the film which revolves around a cat and mouse game played by ‘Khiladi’ and ‘Anari’.
Selfie Movie Review: Screenplay Analysis
Mehta’s trusted writer Rishhabh Sharrma (Good Newwz, Jugjugg Jeeyo) is adapting and editing the script of Prithviraj Sukumaran-helmed Lal Jr’s Malayalam film Driving License for Akshay Kumar’s Hindi remake. Okay, this may sound crazy, but hear me out. The film’s comic relief also comes from Akki bursting with self-deprecating jokes, why didn’t they take it a step further? When you can talk about his ‘massood’ destroying his smile, joke about his determination to do millions of projects every year and get the Doctor to criticize his ‘massod’ sense of the script, why did you limit the story to only the available source material? in advance?
Why can’t this be the story of a story that somehow forgot to renew his passport and with extreme difficulty did not renew it due to his dual citizenship (maybe India and Canada?)? Why not completely rework the project and keep only the soul of the story of a public war between a superstar and his die-hard fan? I know it’s easy to write and difficult to execute, but isn’t that the same as remaking an already popular movie?
Anurag Kashyap’s Rajeev Ravi (Dev D, Gangs Of Wasseypur) keeps it pretty basic in terms of cinematography. Apart from a few routine action sequences, there is nothing to brag about how the film ‘looks’. Ritesh Soni’s editing doesn’t help as he lets the second half drown in oblivion.
Selfie Movie Review: Star Performance
Akshay Kumar’s obsession with his lucky number 9 continues with his character Vijay driving cars with numbers like 4545 or 0909 and even his driving license showing his address as ’27’ Pali Hill. Most of the time, the film’s self-deprecating humor almost makes it seem as if Akshay breaks the fourth wall to talk to the audience. This is something Akshay can do during sleepwalking, the performance doesn’t add to the drawn-out story. He maintains his best self while also delivering some genuinely hilarious lines, but unfortunately it’s not enough.
Emraan Hashmi’s star worship Om isn’t really well built to create a connection solely depending on its performance. It would be really hard for non-fans to fully understand what she’s going through. Om’s transformation from a die-hard fan to a failed father to a vengeful RTO inspector doesn’t evoke any emotion other than “stop it already?”
Nushrratt Bharuccha and Diana Penty as the respective housewives of Emraan and Akshay have nothing to do in the film except to keep their husbands from going crazy. The extremely fit and handsome 53-year-old Mahesh Thakur hardly gets any footage and it will forever puzzle me how you can take someone as talented as him without giving him some meaty jokes? Abhimanyu Singh’s character writing is hilarious, leading to some rib-tickling scenes, so he saves the best for last. The ‘Corporator’ played by Meghna Malik relies a lot on her natural performance which brings out the best in the character. Kusha Kapila is here again.
Selfie Movie Review: Direction, Music
Raj Mehta should stick to original scripts to let his skills flourish. You’ll definitely see bits of it in the comedic parts of the film, but that’s about it, otherwise it’s a pretty generic attempt. I would decipher the above sentence for you, Mehta doesn’t manage the ‘masala’ part of Vijay Kumar but skips Superstar Suraj’s (played by Abhimanyu Singh) gut scenes.
The likes of Tanishk Bagchi, Yo Yo Honey Singh, The PropheC, Lijo George, DJ Chetas, Vikram Montrose, Aditya Yadav, Tarun & Anu Malik (for Main Khiladi Tu Anari remake) came together for songs but failed to deliver a single track. this could be on my playlist for a week. PropheC’s Vibe is ruined by making it a song “for the sake of hook line” (When you hear the original, the song starts with a hook line that brings an early high that the movie version failed to achieve).
Selfie Movie Review: The Last Word
All said and done, Selfiee might be faithful to the original, but that’s also its weakness somewhere. The film shines when it doesn’t ‘try’ to copy, which is why it needed a facelift not only from the outside but also from the inside.
