After Dream Girl and Dream Girl 2, you know what to expect from a Raaj Shaandilyaa comedy: Childish jokes leading towards social commentary. His Vicky Vidya Ka Woh Wala Video resembles an Ayushmann Khurrana message movie. It has the genes of the Dream Girl movies. Once again, a promising idea is covered with lame humor, one-joke characters, underutilized actors, and a sense of disposable quality. Dream Girl deals with a man who can speak in a female voice. The movie doesn't take this concept to the heights of either drama or comedy. Rather, it becomes a chore to sit through due to the repetitive jokes and flat, cartoonish stereotypes. Vicky Vidya Ka Woh Wala Video leaves you with the same feelings. A sex video - a suhaag raat waali CD - goes missing, which leads to all kinds of comic situations. This selling point is equivalent to Dream Girl's "man talking in woman's voice." Go in expecting cheap gags, and you might not be terribly disappointed. You will laugh at Vicky's grandfather's (Tiku Talsania) wedding venue choice (his glasses are amusing), police officer Laadle's (Vijay Raaz) flirting skills, and Archana Puran Singh, who plays Vidya's mother and a pan masala addict (don't bother robbing her safe unless you, too, are a pan masala addict).
Shaandilyaa knows how to generate the perfect comic mood for his low-hanging fruits. He is at ease when he hits us with a continuous stream of silly one-liners, most of which, like Laadle's "Meri jagah koi aur hota toh aise bolta" remark, become stale quickly. In one scene, Shaandilyaa manages to take his comedy to deliriously absurd heights but then spoils the mood through the "it was just a dream" trick. The writer-director doesn't aim high - he's content with immature quips. But perhaps what's so frustrating about him is that he leaves some of the jokes undeveloped on the screen. There is a kid who says "fa" instead of "sha," so "shaktimaan" turns into "faktimaan" through his lips. It's established that Vicky's grandfather walks in his sleep, but no fantastic joke is derived from this thing. The scene where Laadle mistakes a maid for his lover and uses flowers to woo her ends prematurely, and weakly. And when Vicky meets the real thief and mistakes him for being a police officer, you keep waiting for a hilarious explosion, which unfortunately never arrives.
Rajkummar Rao brings dignity and sweetness to the video shooting scene. He is good even in clunky films. There is also some pleasure in watching Vijay Raaz playing an invisible guitar and romancing a heroine. But Shaandilyaa makes some ridiculous decisions that leave you stupefied. He sets the story in 1997 and gives us a Wakanda reference. Does Vicky have a time machine? At one point later in the film, the characters find themselves in a graveyard along with - wait for it - the female ghost from Stree. Does she have a time machine? One can make vague connections to digest these choices. Vidya (Triptii Dimri) believes in the curse of Mata Rani, so this superstition gives way to this supernatural graveyard scene. Or maybe Stree is here because, like that Amar Kaushik horror comedy, Vicky Vidya Ka Woh Wala Video also deals with "you go girl" messaging.
But, like Stree, the message here lands unconvincingly. Movies like Vicky Vidya Ka Woh Wala Video and Stree contain flat female characters, spend all their energies infusing life into the male characters, and then wave the flag of female empowerment like an attention-seeking kid who does what he does for the sake of congratulatory comments and likes. The women in this film are seen as the butt of poor jokes (that maid) or eye candies (Mallika Sherawat's Chanda Rani). Vidya, too, is nothing more than a stick figure whose main job is to either scowl at or seduce her husband. She initially rejects making the video but then agrees after seeing pictures hanging on a rope and a foreigner making memories with a Polaroid. That's all it takes for her to change her mind? Later, when Vidya comes to know that the CD has been stolen, her angry reaction is channeled through some throwaway lines. Vidya comes across as an expendable object. Dimri, after Bad Newz, once again stars in a film that showcases the talents of the male actor while paying lip service to women's issues.
The villain of Vicky Vidya Ka Woh Wala Video is revealed to be a politician who secretly records sex videos of married couples and sells them to a sheik in Dubai. He, in other words, treats women as objects, which is something you can say about the director of this film. The politician sells women as sex objects, while Shaandilyaa sells them as catalysts for sexual humor or connects them to sexual things. Vidya is a doctor but is only concerned with the sex CD. Chanda is introduced as a progressive woman who hates weddings but is eventually colored with shades of sexual promiscuity. The other Chanda is also used for a sex-related pleasantry. Vicky Vidya Ka Woh Wala Video tells us to respect women, though it treats them regressively. Perhaps Bollywood should stop empowering women and start making good films.
Final Score- [3.5/10]
Reviewed by - Vikas Yadav
Follow @vikasonorous on Twitter
Publisher at Midgard Times