The Bollywood blockbuster, ‘Delhi Belly’ that released a couple of years back, tested the realms of Indian cinema with its bold, crass and crude dialogs that was lapped up by today’s youth. It proved to be a benchmark for so many other Bollywood movies that tried to catch and match up with it. In an attempt to open up and test unexplored territory, Kollywood has woven its own brand of ‘neat film’ aesthetics to a ‘heavily’ toned down version of the original movie and have presented it to us in the form of ‘Settai’.
Directed by R.Kannan, Settai is a cat and mouse game between a group of friends and a diamond mafia that attempts to recover their diamonds that goes places before ending up nowhere. ‘Delhi Belly’ had a simple story and a great screenplay and Settai has borrowed only the story line while the screenplay has been ‘heavily’ worked in order to suit the Tamil sensibilities.
I would first like to divide the audiences who might be watching this movie into 2 groups - the first one would be the ones who have watched Delhi Belly and the second one are those who haven’t. The movie would certainly not be appealing to the first category of audiences, while the second category might find the proceedings mildly engaging and might even relish some genuinely funny moments that were borrowed and retained from the original.
Arya, the protagonist was convincing as ‘JK’, the broody young journalist who runs behind his girl, before realizing that his heart is planted elsewhere.
Hansika as the dumb air hostess was a poor choice, since she was dumber in the role and was not even half as good as Shehnaz who was cast in the original.
Another disappointment was Anjali who was cast in a free-spirited female journalist’s role. ‘Delhi Belly’ had that role played by an enterprising Poorna Jagannath, who was brilliant to say the least!
Santhanam as the ‘fart master’ was surprisingly not-so-impressive. Its just that we are seeing more of him these days as every second film which has comedy, has Santhanam in it and that might be the reason.
Premji was made insignificant and has not done justice for his role even after having a solo number to his name.
Nasser and Co. as the mafia members were just sleepwalking and their performances were a far cry from the one that was made memorable by Vijay Raaz and Co. in the original.
Nasser and Co. as the mafia members were just sleepwalking and their performances were a far cry from the one that was made memorable by Vijay Raaz and Co. in the original.
Music by Thaman was average and cinematography by Muthiah stood out only during the songs in the foreign locales.
Leo John Paul’s editing was disappointing as two songs that were not even in the vicinity of the screenplay was forcefully thrust in, in order to satisfy the ego of the stars involved rather than to satisfy the screenplay; scissoring them would have made the proceedings much crisper keeping the movie’s length close to its original at 90 minutes, but now it stretches for 30 more minutes!
R.Kannan who made a sorry remake of ‘Jab We Met’ a few years back has made a second attempt at remaking another Bollywood biggie, which is far better, but the choice of remake has let him down this time. Remaking a movie like Delhi Belly into a neat family entertainer requires a great mastery in screenplay writing combined with an immaculate sense of humor. He seems to lack both and has landed up with a half-hearted attempt that doesn’t do justice for both the original and its remake.
Verdict: Half-hearted Attempt!
Rating: For those who have watched 'Delhi Belly' - 1/5; Others - 2.5/5
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