A lot of horror films turn out to be comedy and some comedies turn out to be horrors. A mid way has been found, Horror-Comedy where the audience doesn’t get a chance to decide whether they have to laugh or get scared!
Golmaal again, a movie of the genre did well on the BoxOffice despite the fact that it wasn’t so entertaining, whereas Stree was a perfectly balanced film and people also appreciated it. Laxmii is another such film but it’ll disappoint you at some point. It’s a remake of a Tamil movie “Kanchana” that has been watched by people quite a few times on television.
Akshay Kumar starrer Laxmii stirs emotions and also gives a message along with being a horror-comedy but they don’t mix so well. It seems as if you’re being forced to laugh or get scared. The efforts seem meaningless without inducing a feeling before and Laxmii’s character falls prey to this anomaly.
The first half of the movie is discouraging. It mostly contains the comedy part which falls flat. It has a few horror scenes but they won’t make you jump out of your seat.
These scenes don’t gel well with the story and instead seem to be rushing. The scenes look incomplete. The lack of writing can be clearly seen.
It’s a story of Asif (Akshay Kumar) and Rashmi (Kiara Advani) who are a married couple but the bride’s parents aren’t quite happy with the decision. It’s Rashmi’s parents’ 25 th wedding anniversary and so the couple goes to pay a visit to the parents. Here, Asif’s body is possessed by a transgender spirit.
To get rid of this spirit, all kinds of tactics are performed on him and it’s then known that the spirit’s name is Laxmii who seeks revenge. The film doesn’t talk with logic at all. Although horror movies aren’t logical but if it’s entertaining enough, people like it. Laxmii falls short to even do that.
This movie raises a lot of questions. Writer Raghav Lawrence probably thought the audience wouldn’t pay attention to these details while enjoying the horror and comedy genre of the movie but the entertainment wasn’t grasping enough for that to happen.
The ultimate 45 minutes of the movie bring a little enthusiasm when Laxmii’s story is unveiled, but then it’s too late to keep the audience hooked.
Society’s opinion on transgender is actively discussed but it’s evident that the information is being overfed to us which comes out to be unfruitful at the end. As the director, Raghav Lawrence has tried to portray the movie in a very dramatic way. Everything seems “over the top” which is off putting. The casting is good but the acting is not as great. They’ve been asked to overly react to things which could have been avoided.
The music is just fine. The song “Burj Khalifa” is a misfit. The filming of the song “Bum Bole” is amazing which adds energy to the movie. The lead actor Akshay Kumar tries to bring the standards of the movie up on his own but the weak screenplay ruins his efforts. Kiara Advani only has a few scenes in the movie. In a small role, Sharad Kelkar leaves his mark.
Rajesh Sharma, Manurushi Chaddha, Ashwini Kalsekar, Ayesha Raza are very good actors but didn’t leave an impact because of weak direction.Overall, Laxmii is a disappointment also to the people who are fans of Masala movies.
2/5 stars
