IANS Review: ‘Velle’: A must-watch comedy of errors

Director: Deven Munjal. Cast: Abhay Deol, Karan Deol, Mouni Roy, Anya Singh, Savant Singh Premi and Visshesh Tiwari. IANS Rating: ***1/2

Mumbai : Three criminals, a runaway girl, her three best friends, an aspiring director and a star cross paths because of an incident. Will they come out of it for better or for worse?Comedy is one difficult genre and very rarely do you come across a true comedy of errors. But ‘Velle’ is one such release that does not falter on its core strength — it is a comic caper and will make you laugh all through.The film opens with Rishi Singh (Abhay Deol), an filmmaker somehow able to reach out to popular actress Rohini (Mouni Roy) for his low-budget film. He narrates the story of three best friends — Rahul (Karan Deol), Rambo (Savant Singh Premi) and Raju (Visshesh Tiwari), aka R3 gang — who are all slackers, trouble makers and backbenchers with poor grades and chill-mode activation.The R3 gang soon befriends Riya (Anya), the firecracker daughter of their Principal (Zakir Hussain), and the four musketeers call themselves the ‘R4 Gang’.

Riya wants to explore life, she wants to learn dancing and live a life free from her father, who is somewhat of a control freak who keeps worrying about his daughter. The quartet therefore gets cracking on a plan.The R3 will kidnap Riya and demand ransom, which surprisingly is paid off, and just when you think you’ve wrapped your head around the entire plot, there comes a real gang that kidnaps Riya for real ransom. Everything goes haywire just when Riya has the ransom money. The R3 are broke and hurtle from one sticky situation to another.There is not just one but three different parallel narratives at play at the same time, and eventually all of them collide with one another to make an epic colossal comedy of errors.
Karan Deol outshines everyone else with his confidence and charisma. He sticks to his strengths, tickles the audiences, or makes them shed a tear, when needed. He is someone to watch out for, especially because he has succeeded in a genre where many others fail.The rest of the cast also delivers stellar performances, the standouts being Anya Singh, Savant Singh Premi and Visshesh Tiwari. They make the viewing experience new and refreshing.A remake of a Telugu film, ‘Velle’ is choc-a-bloc with twists and turns, and just when you think you have got the hang of the plot, a lot more unravels. It is a clean family entertainer that is hilarious and well-crafted.The makers did not quite explore Abhay Deol’s character. He gets limited time on-screen; had he got more, his performance would have been more impactful. Still, it is a film you cannot afford to miss.

 

 

 

Abhay DeolActorActressAnya SinghBollywoodEntertainmentKaran DeolMouni RoyMumbaiMumbai NewsReviewSavant Singh premiVisshesh Tiwari