CLUB 60

2 and ½ stars

Uff! Aah! Ouch!

Mini Review:

Written beautifully and directed horribly, this movie is saved by the collective talents of Farooq Sheikh and Sarika, and brilliantly supported by Satish Shah, Tinnu Anand, Sharat Saxena and Vineet Kumar.

Main Review:

With old age come aches and pains. And at the center of this movie is a couple coping with their private ache and must deal with a painful neighbor. 

UFF! That painful neighbor is so loud and so over the top that you’d either slap him when you see him next or walk out of the movie. Raghuvir Yadav (with all his talent), needed a director's firm hand in this movie. His antics are so atrocious, you wish you were not tied to your chair by your fangirl-ness for Farooq Sheikh and Sarika.

The character of Raghuvir Yadav (you later learn), is someone who laughs at life and takes chances by living it up to the fullest. Alas, he just comes across as someone desperate to look young, teeth-grittingly loud, obnoxious to the gills.

By the time you realise (along with Farooq Sheikh and Sarika) how genuinely nice the jovial oldies of Club 60 are, you have killed the extra-loud Raghuvir Yadav in many different ways in your head. Instead of being the glue that holds up the rickety old bunch together, the crassness of his character is what spoils the movie. We all know an older uncle who acts younger than his age. But he is usually the comic relief at weddings or funerals. Never the hero.

AAH! If you can get past the strident Manubhai (Raghuvir Yadav), you will be moved to tears by the pain and love and the wonderful relationship shared by Farooq Sheikh and Sarika. The parts are so well written, you actually remember the dialog about how some walls break during an earthquake and other stand, but it does not mean that the wall which is still standing did not feel the earth quake.

The relationship with an ungrateful son that Suhasini Mulay’s character tries so hard to keep, and how her husband (Satish Shah) thinks it is a pointless, thankless task, is beautifully written too. Zafar, played by Tinnu Anand tells you the story of an old parent whose grown up son lives thousands of miles away. There is gentleness in the writing which is amazing, but when it translates into a scene, and is brought together as a movie, you wish it had been done with a little more care.

Instead of allowing the wonderful characters he has created to draw the audience, the writer-director opts for cheap laughs provided by Raghuvir Yadav’s clothes and his tacky jeep and the overly sexual banter between the elderly friends. This is the very first time I was touched by the characters and identified with their troubles and at the same time repelled by the crassness of Raghuvir Yadav’s character, the ever annoying, ever-present comic background score.

I would have loved to know more about the man in the club who starts drinking at ten in the morning, about the happy Nalini Doctor who doesn't mind flirting with Manubhai, even a little more about how Dhillon met his Maya or why he was not marrying her, why Zafar Bhai did not want to go to Australia. All these interesting things are barely touched upon and as they say in Bombay, ‘Raghuvir Yadav bahut footage khaata hai.’ We got that he is loud, he whistles at girls on the road, drives a loud car, why does the director need to use a sledgehammer to drive home that crassness, again and again?

All is not lost, direction wise. I loved how a reluctant Farooq Sheikh is shown slowly getting used to and begin to actually socializing with the 60s bunch.. 

Why Farooq Sheikh used to be such a heartthrob is still evident. Even though he's now rather jowly and portly, there is something amazing about his brand of acting. And Sarika? Once she was just considered to be stunning. Now she’s simply stunning and a stupendous actor as well. 

OUCH! What a treat it is, to watch these stars shine again. But do wait for this movie to show up on TV. it would be easier to mute (or cut the volumen) the parts where Manubhai shows up on screen.