Movie Review: Laali Ki Shaadi Mein Laaddoo Deewana

First published: Follo.in

There is a good reason why supporting actors are called so. At times they support a film much better than the script itself. Like in the case of Laali Ki Shaadi Mein Laaddoo Deewana (LKSMLD)! It makes me shudder to think how bereft of entertainment the film might have been without actors like Saurabh Shukla, Sanjay Mishra, and Darshan Jariwala.

LKSMLD is aimed as love story wrapped with dollops of comedy. Laaddoo (Vivaan Shah) is a young guy who wants to make it big, fast. He befriends Laali believing she is rich before realizing she belongs to a middle-class family too. They fall in love, get intimate and Laali ends up getting pregnant. Laaddoo, however, has aspirations, which he believes would be compromised if he gets married. Hence, he dumps Laali. In a turn of things, Laaddoo is disowned by his parents, who adopt Laali as their own and then look for a groom for her.

In essence, LKSMLD has a great story with scope for some kickass comic scenes. The emotional quotient could have ensured a broader audience base. Writer-director Manish Harishankar even tries to get experimental with the screenplay that goes back and forth. However, he fails in getting to very important aspects right - the flow and coherence. In between the flashbacks and forwards, he loses reasoning a little too many times to keep the audience interested.

To makes things worse, his lead pair – Akshara and Vivaan – fails to create any chemistry on screen. Akshara looks awfully young for her character and fails to be convincing in her portrayal of Laali. Vivaan in the meantime seems to rally between confidence and confusion in his attempt to play the ridiculous Laaddoo, a chap so engrossed in his desire to become richer, he does not mind his boss touching his girlfriend the wrong way if that keeps the boss happy! Gurmeet Choudhary is the lead actor who seems to know what he is up to, comfortably filling the shoes of Veer. He has done the adorable, good guy too many times to get it wrong. 

The best scenes in the film are incidentally left for the Saurabh Shukla and Darshan Jariwala. And they do not let down.

Director Manish, who earlier directed Chaarfutiya Chhokare, has trained under Rajkumar Santoshi, assisting in films like Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani. And the way he has shot the film reveals it too. He likes to make things grand. He manages to show the grandeur of the locations he has shot in, which include a breathtaking palace in Rajasthan. His production values are in place.

It is a shame hence that he does not make a compelling film. LKSMLD is just over two hours but feels much longer. Plus it’s far too chauvinistic a film to actually be taken seriously. This laddoo isn’t edible, let alone be tasty.