O Teri Review

One Line Review: A cheesy shot to show the noire nexus of corrupt politicians and media houses that shake hands to deceit the common people.

Positive Points: Anupam Kher's acting, Salman Khan and Lulia Vantur's grooving dance moves.

Negative Points: Poor direction, Weak screenplay, Non-engaging music, Dull character performances, Not-so-good fighting scenes.

Plot: Two budding television journalists from Delhi, Prantabh Pratap (Pulkit Samrat), fondly called as PP and Anand Ishwaram Devdutt Subramaniam (Bilal Amrohi), aka AIDS, work at NU news channel. Their young and beautiful boss, Monsoon Krishnacharya (Sarah Jane Dias) threatens both of them to fire them from their job, as no interesting news is yet covered from PP and AIDS. Due to fear of losing the job, PP and AIDS begin to hunt some piping hot news, in fact a scam that can save their job.

Bilal Khwaja (Anupam Kher), the politician and the chairman of Asian Olympics game sports committee, arranges a trap and kills CBI Officer Avinash Tripathy, who tries to seek evidences against Khwaja's illegal acts. Kilol (Vijay Raaz) is the competitor of Khwaja, who is struggling to achieve the chairmanship of the games. Kilol tries to open the truth of Avinash Tripathy's death, but Khwaja hides it by altering the post mortem report as Tripathy got killed in a road accident. In the meanwhile, Kilol steals the dead body of Tripathy and unknowingly, Kilol's men put the dead body in PP and AIDS's car. Frightened to see it initially, they come up with an idea to show the dead body of Tripathy to their boss Monsoon to create some boiling news report. They reach to the office with the dead body in their car, but when Monsoon comes to see the dead body in car, it disappears. Monsoon calls them liars and the disappearance of dead body invites loads of questions. This incidence involves multiple two-faced politicians and the tale proceeds.

Direction And Other Technical Aspects: The director Umesh Bist has arrived with a great concept, but the way in which it's implemented, offers nothing new. First of all, the corruption issue in the country is presented multiple times on the silver screen. Other than focusing on the topic, the film goes haywire many times and may distract the audience's attention and disrupts the flow of the narrative. There are a number of flaws in the story, where it seems the things purposefully get interlinked with each other, so they can follow the thread. The first half entertains, however the second half becomes too dull, predictable and it's hard to digest. Nevertheless, the movie does not get the grip, which can narrate the tale in an effective manner. The poor character performances weaken the game and unwanted songs peep in between. Some of the scenes that need to re-think are the smile on the face of a dead body, a gay politician visiting cheap hotel with his male companion and PP talking on phone with his mother on a casual issue, when an emergency arises on his professional front.

The not-so-good screenplay and direction neither presents the film as a political satire nor a comedy flick. There is not much in dialogues and the fighting scenes are not so engaging. One can say it's a movie about a key issue with faulty treatment. The editing and cinematography is average.

Performance: The veteran actor Anupam Kher shines well as a cunning, wicked politician and proves to be the sole show saver. Mandira Bedi has played her part well with negative shades, but with a lot of grace. Pulkit Samrat disappoints to great extent, as his debut performance in the film 'Fukrey' was much impressive than in 'O Teri'. The debut actor Bilal Amrohi fails to impress and his acting seems to be much exaggerated, which makes it unreal. Sarah Jane Dias essays her role conveniently well, although she does not get to play much of it. Vijay Raaz brings some laughter in the hall with his comic punches. Manoj Pahwa portrayed his role in great manner, as usual.

Music: The music could not create any wonders in this flick. The USP of the film is the title track "O Teri", in which none other than Salman Khan sets the stage on fire with the lead stars Pulkit Samrat and Bilal Amrohi. The track proves a real visual delight for all. Apart from this, the track "Butt Patlo" was stuffed with a catchy tune and was watchable with Lulia Vantur grooving on it with the lead actors. Other than these tracks, the other songs seemed to be disaster.

Final Verdict: Albeit, it's a good take on the faulty political system loaded with corruption, it fails to connect with the minds of people, as the film focuses on too many unnecessary issues at a time, thereby leaving behind the key issue. It's watchable only for Anupam Kher's brilliant acting and obviously, Salman Khan and Lulia Vantur, who shake legs on crunchy dance numbers.