Coolie No. 1 is an Indian Hindi Comedy Film directed by David Dhawan. It stars Varun Dhawan, Sara Ali Khan, Paresh Rawal, and Rajpal Yadav in main roles. It was released on 25th December 2020 on Amazon Prime Video.
The story in Govinda's 'Coolie No.1' was set in a village, but this time the location has been changed to Goa. The story is not new. Kader Khan has been replaced this time by Paresh Rawal, who is known for his terrific comic timing. Now let's talk about the story. Goa's wealthy businessman Jeffrey Rozario (Paresh Rawal) dreams that both of his daughters get married to rich boys. He rejects and insults a family as they have arrived by bus which Pandit Jai Kishan (Javed Jaffrey) or says a matchmaker, didn't like at all. He then decides to teach Rozario a lesson, to break his ego.
In vengeance, Pandit marries Rozario's daughter Sarah (Sara Ali Khan) to Raju (Varun Dhawan), who works as a porter by disguising him as a billionaire Kunwar Mahendra Pratap Singh. But this trick does not succeed and the reality opens up and now Raju weaves the story of a twin brother. In fear of losing Sarah, he tells many lies and gets into trouble.
From the perspective of David Dhawan, let us assume that all is well in the story. But how can we get into the deception that Sarah, a girl of 2020, does not inquire about Kunwar Raj Pratap Singh, the boy she's getting married!! Assuming that he's from a rich family, she says yes to marriage. Now how will it be digestible for the audiences of New India? Even David Dhawan may not have the answer. Here Sarah very easily trusts her father and marries Raju, the coolie aka Kunwar Raj Pratap Singh blindly. Wow!!!! So Fake!!!
The screenplay by Rumi Jaffrey delivers nothing new and appears as an amalgam of Judwaa and Main Tera Hero and many films of the comedy of error genre.
Writers and directors do not even bother to explain the fact that from where the money is coming from to show Raju a billionaire. Even the audience won't care as it's a masala film and it's a crime to find any logic here.
Sarah's and Raju's love track is the backbone of the film but it feels so half-baked and badly written, there is no charm or chemistry between them. I find Anju's (Shikha Talsania) and Deepak's (Sahil Vaid) love track enjoyable instead and I wanted more of them. But it's not a series. The film has many loopholes and some badly executed scenes which sting in your eyes.
Overall, Govinda's and Karisma Kapoor's 'Coolie No. 1' has been set to today's date. The story, the characters, the events, is not even different or offers anything fresh. It will be interesting to see how the OTT audience will react to this film. But that too will not be known, because digital platforms do not disclose their statistics.
Varun Dhawan does well playing a coolie but overall fails to impress. He is nothing in this one rather than hamming and mimicking. Sara Ali Khan falls flat in emotional scenes and terrible in other parts. She's just there thinking this movie will be a hit that might open doors to other big projects for her. Paresh Rawal is underutilized. Sahil Vaid and Shikha Tansania were at least earnest despite their roles are small. Rajpal Yadav and Johnny Lever bring good laughs but that's it.
The cinematography by Ravi K Chandran is good and the production design by Rajat Poddar is of high quality and it's beautiful. The background score by Salim- Sulaiman is good and loud as required by the movie. The dialogues by Farhad Samji is just bland and cheap. Calling a fat man fatso is not a comedy. The comic punchlines are blatantly copied from the WhatsApp jokes and few of them land right, rest is hardly funny.
Watching Coolie No. 1 makes you question....Why??? Everything, say it's story or characters, is at the topmost level of stupidity and illogical. This is a true no brainer comedy and strictly not for 2020s audiences. The film is outdated in terms of its characterization and execution and the comedy scenes that sadly don't even make you smile. It feels terrible to see such a great cast and such legendary comedy stars in this unneded dumb film. This is a huge letdown...even Laxmii and Durgamati are at least watchable...this is a "stay away" material.
Rating:- 1/5
Now streaming on Amazon Prime Video.
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