By Princy Jain
Comedy-Action-Drama | U/A | 145 min
Director: Raj Mehta | Stars: Akshay Kumar, Emraan Hashmi, Diana Penty, Nushratt Bharucha, Mahesh Thakur & Meghna Malik
RTO Sub Inspector, Om Prakash Aggarwal (Emraan Hashmi) gets confronted with the biggest dilemma when his Bollywood idol – superstar Vijay Kumar (Akshay Kumar) comes to his town Bhopal and needs driving a license from his RTO. Aggarwal’s biggest dream is to get a Selfiee with his son and actor Vijay who is godlike to him. But certain spin of events pits them against each other, and what could have been a dream-cum-true situation becomes a living nightmare, with entire city & national media embroiled in it.
Selfiee is the remake of the 2019 Malayalam language comedy-drama Driving Licence. The original script has been punched with several new-age gimmicks to add to the comic quotient. While the first film was a commercial success this one could have been more engaging since it highlights several new-age realities, like the hysteria around Bollywood superstars and their sensitive egos, bizarre world of filmmaking, the social media hustle with paid hashtags to fire a propaganda, to sketchy portrayal of news anchors and the effects of paparazzi culture – every frame of the film is laced with it.
However, I found these punches more forced than funny. I’d really like to meet the dialogue writer, who made a rather good-looking actor Diana Penty say lines like ‘tumhari masoodo waali hasi’ in a romantic sequence with her superstar husband or made a seasoned soft-spoken actor like Mahesh Thakur say ‘lita lita ke marunga’.
The supporting cast handles the films well. A special mention for Kusha Kapila, who plays a tarot card reader trying to help a struggling but ageing actor (played by Abhimanyu Singh). Like wise the ladies in the film – Nushrat & Diana – look pleasing for the roles given to them. This is a sort of comeback film for one-time serial kisser Emraan Hashmi, he looks promising and it would be nice to see him more often in this new avatar.
For last three decades Akshay Kumar has been one of the most bankable stars. In 2022, four of his films – Bachchhan Paandey, Samrat Prithviraj, Raksha Bandhan, Ram Setu – failed to churn the magic at the BO – thus putting a question mark actor’s choices. This year, when Akshay stared promotions for Selfiee the big question was, will this film revive the fortunes at the BO or not? Sadly, this one too seems to be going in for an average run. For me, the film does not work for a senior actor like Akshay Kumar. I found the film and the subject too frivolous for the time, money and effort required, to be at the theatre. May be this story and the premise can be a very effective OTT watch. The big-screen requires a cinematic experience which moves you either visually or emotionally.
Sadly, this one just floats all around than making a real impact.
Rating – 2.5/5