Chennai Express - Journey that is partly enjoyable

by Bharath Vijayakumar

When Sharukh Khan joins hands with Rohit Shetty who has become a consistent member of the 100 Crore club expectations are bound to be high. Will his Chennai Express also reach the same destination?

Plot:

Cast:

Sharukh and Deepika complement each other well. As Rahul (for the umpteenth time) Sharukh deserves praise for playing a role that is almost his actual age. He carries it of with ease. Deepika is actually very good and emotes well. But you would have to excuse her over- the-top accent in Hindi,Tamil and English!!! Sathyaraj is wasted after the hype surrounding his introduction scene .He disappears midway only to return in the climax. His towering personality compensates for his poorly sketched character. There is a whole horde of South Indian actors on board this Chennai Express. The four guys playing the henchmen make a significant contribution to the humour in the initial sequences.

What worked and What did not:

Rohit Shetty manages to keep the laughs coming at a decent pace in the first half. It is the later half that he struggles to keep afloat and once the proceedings start to get a little serious towards the climax this Chennai Express is well off the tracks.  We certainly have to throw away logic while watching such a film. But such a serious action block in the climax of such a light hearted film simply does not gel well. Deepika's Tamil accent can atleast have an excuse (she constantly keeps switching between languages in the film). But what about the villain(Nikitin Dheer) whose Tamil diction is atrocious to put it mildly. Rohit Shetty seems to be a fan of commercial cinema from the South and it shows in his work. While there is the tribute to Rajnikanth through the lungi dance during the end credits there is a much bigger tribute to the movie Okkadu (Telegu)/Ghilli(Tamil) as the interval block is almost a replica of a scene from this film which released almost 9 years back! 

Bottomline: 

Chennai Express provides an enjoyable ride in the first half. But the journey becomes tedious towards the end and you start waiting for the destination to arrive.

Verdict  :