Batti Gul Meter Chalu review: It is a mash-up of an activist tract, a love triangle and courtroom drama

Director: Shree Narayan Singh

Cast: Shahid Kapoor, Shraddha Kapoor, Divyendu Sharma, Yami Gautam, Ashrut Jain

Rating: 2 stars

The film begins with an archery competition in Uttarakhand. What is the prize, you ask? The one who hits the bull’s eye gets enough fuel to keep the neighbourhood community centre’s generator thumping for six months. People who have grown up in small towns or villages of India will relate to the scene.

The film makes a sharp comment on the mirage-like ‘badhiya din’ – we all know what that is a euphism for. Before that, there is an endless love triangle between Shahid Kapoor-Shraddha Kapoor-Divyendu Sharma. The film, just like the subject it deals with, fluctuates wildly before it stabilises. It aspires to be a slice-of-life drama.

Shahid plays the role of a crafty lawyer who will happily break the law to earn extra money, with Divyendu as his straight-as-an-arrow friend, Tripathi. Shraddha is searching from a groom and since the trio has been buddies since childhood, she decided to choose between one of them. She dates them both for a week each and obviously this leads to friction between the friends. As the second half progresses, the films turns from a love triangle into activism.

There is a 20 minute segment that flows smoothly and you feel that the movie has resurrected itself. Unfortunately, the promise fizzles out pretty quickly as all you see is overly chest-thumping dialogues from Shahid Kapoor.

The songs too seem out of place, but at least, they give the viewer an opportunity to zone out of the contrived story line.

The part where Divyendu Sharma’s character gets handed a Rs. 54 Lakh bill, and the outrage that follows is passably good. You do feel angry at the SPTL, the electricity board for being so insensitive and inefficient. However, Shahid Kapoor’s fight for justice seems too overpowering and replete with dialogues that seem too unrealistic for a courtroom.

All in all, the movie fails to hit the mark in every sense. You can probably watch it if you’re a die-hard Shahid Kapoor fan, but even then, you will realize that this is one of Shahid’s weaker films in the recent past.

Also read: Batti Gul Meter Chalu: Makers release a romantic song ‘Dekhte-Dekhte’ featuring Shahid and Shraddha