Punjabi Cinema has always been associated with a fixed pattern or style of film making in the past decades which included movies made on Folk tales, Devotional subjects, Family rivalry plots, Foreign migration themes and a few more. But the recent addition to this list can be rated as the most unexplainable and strange one, wherein now movies are being planned featuring the famous singers of Punjabi Music Industry as their leading heroes.
The trend was no doubt started by Gurdas Maan a few decades ago, but his films also had some fresh content and something new to offer to his target audience which he is still trying to maintain in the present era too. However this new craze of every big established singer coming up with his own full length feature film is surely not a good sign of progress for the Punjabi Cinema. Because in the process the makers are not concerned about the script and overall feel of their movie, but instead start relying heavily on the fan following of the Singing Star alone.
A few months ago Jimmy Shergill's DHARTI successfully tried to break this fixed model and came up with a fairly good attempt to be tried in the regional cinema. But the questionable trend returns with KHUSHIYAAN again, featuring the "Dil Lai Gayi Kudi Gujarat Di" fame singer JASBIR JASSI as its leading hero. The film, no doubt has been made with some noble intentions to remind the viewer about his family values and the importance of our elderly parents in our life. But sadly, it is so amateurishly made that the important message gets lost in its confused script and the viewer doesn't feel any kind of emotional impact in the end.
KHUSHIYAAN starts off with an office sequence set in abroad, which precisely gives you a clear idea of its mediocre direction, average dialogues, ordinary cinematography and below par editing. Right in the beginning of the film you can witness, many badly edited long scenes with un-necessary silence, which should have been edited off in the very first cut only. And then there is the deliberate use of English language in its dialogues at regular intervals, which irritates throughout the movie leaving you highly annoyed.
Actually the film has nothing to show as far as storyline is concerned even after 20 minutes post intermission. The real story (if you can consider it a story) about the ailing father, unfolds in the last hour of the film and till then it can be easily be called as a collage of various unintelligently compiled scenes which have nothing to do with its basic plot. The director vaguely tries to incorporate so many elements related to the spirit of Punjab in his film, without even thinking that whether they really match with his overall concept or not.
For instance, as usual there are few deliberately added comic sequences of Vivek Shauq in the film, with a cameo of Gurpreet Ghuggi, who also gets a full length song which has got no relation with the film, whatsoever. Further the director goes on with many avoidable scenes such as the lunch at the roadside dhaba, a kabaddi match, ladies making achaar (pickles), a hilarious explanation of Blackberry phones, children playing Gulli-danda game and more. In fact each of these sequences make you wonder that who has written and edited this film in such a clumsy manner. The script keeps wandering from one place to another like a lost person, without any kind of continuity and then in the end finishes off just like that.
Despite of the fact that KHUSHIYAAN features a Hit Singer in the lead, it has a pretty ordinary soundtrack with all below average songs and has a very lousy background score. In the performances section, Jasbir Jassi is completely out of form and shows no energy throughout the film. Strangely, he looks more energetic and exciting in his music videos but has nothing to offer in the film. Tisca Chopra tries her best as Jassi's wife and looks great especially in the second half. Deep Dhillon, Vivek Shauq, Gupreet Ghuggi, Vipin Sharma and Tirlok Malik are just there as the supporting cast and nothing else. But thankfully, Kulbhushan Kharbanda and Rama Vij are a treat to watch as the elderly couple. Particularly I would like to mention their last scene together on the screen, which is both acted and directed brilliantly, becoming the only worth merit of the film.
In short, KHUSHIYAAN remains a completely mis-directed venture made with some noble intentions which sadly are not visible on the screen due to its weak script and execution. Whereas I simply loved the idea of writing the parents names below every person in its Opening Titles, the overall film was a big disappointment unfortunately.
