Every once in a while there comes along a movie which is projected to be a much awaited movie but it turns out to be a damp squib. This movie Roohi that is now streaming on Netflix was theatrically released on 11 March 2021. Due to the Pandemic situation, only those films releasing on OTT platforms are being reviewed.
Roohi appears to be starting off from where we left off in Stree with Rajkumar Rao again donning a role of a village bumpkin who reports for a fraud type newspaper called something like Jazirabad Jaljala which does’nt even make a wave leave alone a jaljala which means tsunami.
Rao is paired with a bumchum in the name of Atthanni or is it Katanni played by an irritating and over the top hamming Varun Sharma, such a waste of his so called acting talents. All through the movie as soon we feel now the story is building up it drops like a tonne of bricks with the two bumpkin nonsense who hog so much footage that one feels that if the editor had had his way it might have looked tighter and a bit better.
Starting off with a promise with a firang behind the camera we thought that there would be something in the shameful stealing the bride routine in some obscure U.P. or Bihar town as such nonsensical things happen in those parts of the country.
Glorifying it only adds insult to injury – not good. This is a no good, dud, craft-less, worst performance of Rajkumar Rao. Jhanavi will go down as the ghost who marries herself, what a Mudiyapairi, a term seemingly coined specifically for this flick. She has no dialogue till well past the interval and is dragged around like a Zombie and when she does mouth some dialogues post interval they are all in the husky, supposed, ghoul’s voice. Well she looked better as a possessed damsel then in her ordinary avatar.
Varun Sharma tries to be cute and comical at the same time and fails utterly miserably. What’s going on throughout the faltu fair you have no idea. In the end you breath a sigh of relief when the ghost marries her/his own normal self and rides off on a scooter in the sunset.
Wasting any more words on this banal affair would be a travesty and Rao will always wonder why on earth did he even accept to be in such a useless film.
– Review by PAWAN GUPTA
Cast of Roohi:
Rajkummar Rao as Bhawra Pandey
Janhvi Kapoor as Roohi/Afza
Varun Sharma as Kattanni Qureshi
Alexx O’Nell as Tim
Manav Vij as Guniya Shakeel
Sarita Joshi as Budhiya
Sumit Gulati as Paras
Rajesh Jais as Roohi’s father
Gautam Mehra as Lucky Pandit
Credits & Crew of Roohi:
Produced by Dinesh Vijan, Mrighdeep Singh Lamba
Directed by Hardik Mehta
Written by Mrighdeep Singh Lamba, Gautam Mehra
Music by Ketan Sodha
Cinematography Amalendu Chaudhary
Edited by Huzefa Lokhandwala
Production companies – Maddock Films, Jio Studios
