Sour and Sweet

Khatta Meetha

**This review contains MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD** The film came highly recommended from friends and family, a true portrayal of "the common man's struggle" against bureaucracy. I rented this on high hopes of wanting to appreciate and like Akshay Kumar's effort as a comedian, but alas! I should have known better. Sachin Tichkule- a sad parody of an uncommon man. In college he punches his sweetheart cause she didn't want to live up to HIS ideals of protesting and striking by refusing to give her exams cause she came from a poor family unlike him and did not wish to spoil her future. In other words by politically rallying and not by trying to secure their future via education can today's youth hope to enlighten this country. - Later in the movie she tries to commit suicide when he frames her for accepting a bribe from him, and miraculously FORGIVES this man when he lays a terrible sob story on her. In his employment he has a construction worker who repeatedly is caught spying on women, teasing them and lying every chance he gets, yet even after a police complaint the workers isn't kicked off the job. He's shown as a confidant and "friend" of Tichkule, complete with song and dance routines! Tichkule borrows money constantly, consistently and is never once shown repaying his loans or even feeling repentant that he owes so many people (from his workers and servants as well!) nor ever offers them any assurance that he will keep his word on repayment. Yet you have violins and empathy-inducing saddy tunes playing when he starts to get on his soap-box to wax eloquent about corruption! He literally destroys a man's house (granted it was not deliberate- but then are these things ever!?), desecrates another man's property, lives in his parents household yet never once is shown helping them out with running the household, never once apologies for the blight he is and yet is shown to take the moral high-ground in front of all and sundry the chance he gets! His sister is about to be married off to a corrupt politician and on a long sermon from his father about money preceding ideals (which the poor man had to give after being repeatedly humiliated by his son's actions and listening to his other well-off son/son-in-law's taunts) this jackass Tichkule goes back to the money lender he owes lakhs already and in an epic fail at comedic circus asks for...... wait for it........ MORE MONEY!!! *gasp* Priyadarshani should retire and instead spend the zillions he wasted in this garbage on other worthwhile efforts- like actually building schools and hospitals. This was an insult to the rest of us common men and women who do in fact struggle daily trying live by honest means.

Akshay Kumar was a terrible actor from 1997-1999 as his 12 films completely bombed at the box office. But, after Singh is King from 2008, he's been giving flops till Housefull from 2010. However, his next hit was Desi Boys and now he is back with a super hit from Housefull 2. This film was from his lean phase. It is a complete garbage though better than some brainless comedy films. However, the corrupt Indian government and politics has no absolute connection with Akki's problems in the film. There are 2 problems in the film and they don't seem to have any connection. A final action sequence wraps everything up and the ending is typical where the villain dies and the hero heroine unite and the parents are no longer angry with their son. Every character displays some average to decent comedy but the whole movie seems like a bunch of comic one liners and no story. Even an awful comedy film should have a story which this somewhat contains. Though, there is no flow in the story and after a bit, it seems like the director is trying his best to just make you laugh which fails as well as some jokes are just stupid. On the whole, this film is terrible but it was still better than TMK.

Priyadarshan's 'Khatta Meetha' is a Below Average fare, that suffers from poor writing. It fails to become a satisfactory comic satire in every aspect. 'Khatta Meetha' is a yet another flick that goes on to say that 'Honesty' always wins, and 'Dishonesty' doesn't. How the truth still weighs tons more than lies. Been-There-Done-That Stuff! The film begins well, but loses the grip completely after a point. The second hour holds scant appeal, and one gets lazy till it reaches it's culmination. The writing is bland, and as mentioned, fails to become a satisfactory comic satire. Priyadarshan's direction is just about okay. Acting wise, Akshay Kumar does well, but he's repeating himself. Trisha Krishnan doesn't impress. Rajpal Yadav & Makrand Deshpande are very good. Urvashi Sharma is wasted. Kulbhushan Kharbanda is alright. Johnny Lever manages to bring in a few laughs. Manoj Joshi, Milind Gunaji & Jaideep Ahlawat ham. Neeraj Vora gets zero scope. On the whole, A disappointment by all means. Thumbs Down!

Khatta Meetha,directed by Priyadarshan is a painful watch. The film deals with corruption in India in a comical way. The story has been told many times in several movies.Secondly,the jokes just do not bring smile on your face.Barring one or two. Priyadarshan,who is known to make comedy hits such as Hera Pheri,Hungama etc. does a bad job this time. The music is average. Performance wise-Johnny Lever and Asrani in brief roles are superb.Akshay Kumar,please quit doing comedy movies.Trisha fails.Rajpal Yadav,Tinnu Anand,Neeraj Vora and Manoj Joshi shout throughout the movie.Urvashi Sharma is weird.Kulbhushan and Aruna acted much better in 70's movies. Overall Khatta Meetha is bad.

Khatta Meetha directed by Priyadarshan is awful. After watching this awful movie,you feel sorrow that you wasted your money on this movie. I can't believe that he is the same director who won the National Award for Best Director 2-3 years back The story of the movie is about corruption in India.Whats new?This has been told in more than thousand movie.But here the Sachin Tichkule (our very own Akshay Kumar) shows corruption in a comical way. The movie is a big letdown in terms of direction,acting(except Johnny Lever and Asrani),music,story,screenplay...everything. Performances-As mentioned above Johnny Lever and Asrani are the only ones who shine in brief roles.Trisha Krishnan is okay.The rest are dull(including Akshay Kumar). On the whole Khatta Meetha is bad!

Akshay and director Priyadarshan are back. Not a remake of the old 1978 'Khatta Meetha' in which Ashok Kumar and Rakesh Roshan portrayed. Its struggling road construction contractor, Sachin Tichkule ( i.e. Akshay Kumar) who dreams much Big and Dooms Big. There is almost no chance ever that his doom dreams will come true, its for reason because he has no money for bribe! and so that's the reason for his backwardness in his work and area, after this problem the one bigger problem is there and that is, the new Municipal Commissioner turns out to be his ex- girlfriend (Trisha Krishnan) who hates Sachin Tichkule. (This movie is Trisha's Bollywood Debut) Khatta Meetha will go you taking from one disaster with Sachin Tichkule to another and another. In a light hearted way Khatta Meetha reveals the badness and corruption of the government sector, the extent of corruption and bribery which is just stuck in the system. (The scene where the road roller bumps into the house reminds me of the Malgudi days episode where the lead character wins a road roller as a bumper prize in lottery). The comedy revolves around the circumstances of the Sachin and his firm will. 7* for good laughter and the serious topic showcased in a comical way.

I don't know why a very few comedies get good ratings in IMDb. I will say 'Khatta Meetha' is too much underrated as this is going with only 5.8/10 rate! What is absent in this movie? This is not a one-time-watch. This is not a mindless comedy. Under a comic stream built by Akshay, Asrani, Rajpal & Johny Lever, there goes a fight for justice of Makrand Deshpandey against the corrupted ministers, politicians to engineers. Really awesome screenplay & dialogues make you stick to the seat & laugh at every word. As the movie proceeds to the end, suspence condenses more. Will Makrand Deshpandey ultimately win over those corrupts or the system will listen to the corrupts. Find answer through the movie. Makrand Deshpandey appears for almost 10 minutes & he rocked. Akshay is as usually brilliant in 'humour', 'satire', 'slapsticks' & a cute small romantism. Rajpal & Johny Lever's combo is really great to see. Asrani entertains every time especially in that 'telephone scene'. Kulbhushan Kharbanda, Manoj Joshi, Tinu Anand, Aruna Irani, Neeraj Vohra & others have done the appropriate acting. Trisha struggles at the 'hindi' that affects much her expressions. Urvashi Sharma does good. Music by Pritam is good for your ears especially 'Sajde kiye hai'. Every thing of the movie is good except the average rating. It deserves more. I expected 7.3 to 7.6 out of 10.

What is this? Do we call it as movie? Bad Script terrible acting all over the movie. I thought of watching this movie, knowing that Akshay Kumar stars here with the direction of Priyadarshan. To be frank with you I must tell that this is the worst movie I watched directed by Priyadarshan. We expected a lot more from a such a great director. Akshay Kumar is a great actor especially with comedy. Jaan-E-Mann , HouseFull, Garam Masala are some of the best comedies he acted displaying a great talent. I wonder acting in this type of movies would jeopardize his reputation. There is no continuity in this movie,scenes are not much related. There are only some comic incidents that makes us laugh. That's the only thing I see as the bright side of this movie. Simply don't waste your time on this.

This movie is hundred times better than "Three Idiots" which is a scum of a movie that is a disgrace to India and Indians. Akshay Kumar is never known for his acting nor does he care to be considered one, But this actor can hold a screen and embellish other actors with his charm for comedy in the face of adversity or downright tragedy. The characters are very familiar, akin to R.K Lakshman Cartoons. Several scenes are so real like the laborers not getting paid, the "Madam" in the bank who goes by the rules, the laborers cooking rice in the back yard of the rich family etc. The "Road Roller" scene is just pure mirth. This scene reminds me of mechanics in India or anywhere who are trusted to fix something and end up dismantling and demanding money to put it back. If we can laugh at ourselves and at the end get few white pearls out of it, we will prosper as a Nation instead of demeaning the Nation and it's Citizens as in "Three Idiots". What We is need more Priyadarshan's than Aamir Khan's.