Cast: Pulkit Samrat, Manjot singh, Varun sharma, Priya anand, Vishaka singh, Ali Fazal, Richa Chadda
Director: Mrighdeep Singh Lamba
Producer: Farhan Akhtar, Ritesh Sidhwani
Genre: Comedy
Runtime: 139 minutes.
Its’ one of the best mad comedies to have graced Indian screens after Delhi Belly, and yes, Delhi becomes the backdrop yet again.
The story is about 4 “Fukreys” or loosely translate to people not having enough money, yet showing off.
Fukra 1 is Lalli, played by Manjot Singh. Who wants to explore the college life more than what his “correspondence course” offers. His girlfriend already vying for guys with more moolah, and his task was only to drop her to college. Realizing the same, he also makes up his mind to roam in front of her, with other girls just to show it off. Colleges’s which Manjot aspires to go to, are difficult to get into for a student like him. Also noteworthy is the story of how he gets looted everytime he walks out from the Gurudwara.
Fukey 2 and 3 are chaddi-buddies. One of them is the cool dude, played by Pulkit Samrat and is named Honey. While the other is somehow like his sidekick, called Choocha played by Varun Sharma, who is crazy and a little idiotic. But this idiot has been blessed with a gift. The gift is that he dreams some weird stories where our Hunny is often rescued by him from dangerous situations. And his dreams are decoded by Hunny to form a lottery ticket name which is a sure shot guarantee to win.
Fukra 4 is Zafar, played by Ali Fazal, who is an aspiring singer with no luck in terms of making it big. Even though he comes from a family of limited means, his only aim is to become a musician. Even at the cost of his long time girlfriend Neetu and a family to support.
Apart from these 4 fukras, on which the film revolves around, there are many notable characters that are part of the story which have their own importance.
Fukrey
The three ladies in the movie are a treat as well. Priya anand, palying Priya, a typical Delhi girl and love interest of Pulkit (Hunny), is a easy to eye character. The simplicity of a Punjabi girl coupled with innocence, is what this girl oozes with. Scene where she decides to be friends with the hero is innocence personified. Refusal to even talk at first, and then she agrees to come to the terrace. Pulkit flies in a kite near her with a message for friendship, “Fraadnship karni hai to kanni de”, which means “fly the kite if you want to do friendship”. What follows that is the hero jumping terraces to come to her and then charming her, only to act that she didn’t liked all of this and running away. This is what mohalle waali flirting is and has been shown brilliantly. There’s more to follow here, which I leave for you to see in that one scene.
Priya Anand in Fukrey
The second lead is Neetu maa’m, played by Vishaka Singh, yes the same Neetu who plays Zafar’s love interest and who is now the Accounts teacher that Lalli starts taking tuitions for exam preparations. The scene in the bus where she agrees to teach him, makes you laugh at the way a co-passenger reacts to their “business”, where she asks him to come in the evening for tuitions.
There is a time in the movie, where both Lalli and Zafar land up at the door of Neetu asking each other, “How do you know her? “ what follows is equally hilarious, where Neetu is blamed for giving dhoka by Lalli.
And last, but definitely never the least. At least not here in Fukrey is Richa Chadda playing the role of Bholi panjaban, who is Bholi for namesake. Someone, who runs almost all illegal activities under one umbrella, be it betting on sports, making pirated CDs, ponzi schemes, escort services and even internet based fraud mails, etc are all done by her. With African bodyguards for company and a mouth blurting out expletives, our Bholi is one helluva Lady. Richa fills in her raunchiness, something that she had in Gangs of Wasseypur as well, in this character of Bholi panjaban. But not just that, she does a great job in scenes where our Choocha, the dreamer tries his craziness on her.
Don – “Bholi panjaban”
Now, the plot revolves around, how the three fukras, Lalli (Manjot), Huney( Pulkit) and choocha (varun) will arrange for the money to be invested to get seats through backdoor entry in college as well as for the leaked 12th board papers. Reason being, they just won’t be able to score the kind of marks that these colleges require to get admitted to. Huney and Choocha have already failed their 12th twice and as their teacher says them, this may just be their hattrick of sorts. Although college life is what they dream about, of girls, bunking classes, and an unrestricted life. But the only glitch is that they ought to pass with good marks, which is a distant and impossible dream.
Fukrey
Here enters, our Panditji, played by Pankaj Tripathi, a jugaadu watchman, who is ready to provide them the exam papers a day before, and in his words, “Papers choo gaye hain”. But then this has a price, and for fukreys like these two it is a Big price. Also, interested in the papers was Our Lalli, but then who is gonna pay that big an amount?? Not his dad who is scolding him enough for everything he does. Also, coming into the picture is our 4th fukra, Zafar who is in dire need of money to help his ailing father, and he is the one suggesting that they ask Bholi Panjaban to invest in their crazy plan.
Plan. The plan is to invest on the God-gifted talent of Choocha and Huney. Of investing in the lottery ticket that Huney decodes from the dream of Choocha. Investor is Bholi, the guarantee is Lalli’s dad’s Shop and then the Real game of these Fukreys’ start.
What follows is how they end up failing first, and how they make it all right in the end.
Fukrey is the kind of comedy that made Delhi belly and partly Go Goa Gone a hit. The raw real life scenarios, great timing of dialogue delivery, unintentional comic scenes and non fabricated dialogues, an ensemble of good casting, a good screenplay with a solid storyline.
The minor area of concern was the character of Zafar, something that doesn’t go well with the scheme. Like, you wonder for a guy whose love is singing, is still not able to give his best shot even in some of the rare opportunities that he gets. But then, ofcourse, there are people like that and you just cannot expect a polarized mini-story at its every point.
Fukrey
The songs are good. The Rabba song, which plays on when Choocha, Huney and Lalli get inside the college for the first time actually sums up the mesmerizing thoughts of the young lads and is kind of the youth anthem that defines youth, although a bit on the fun side. Ambarsariya is again a really good soulful track, Sona mahapatra has done a brilliant job in putting life into it and the picturization of the same on Priya and Punit’s story fits well. Other songs are decent, with the fukrey title track and Jugaad sounding good. Although the party song by Mika isn’t much to brag about and is a feeka types.
All in all, the movie has been a great comic experience and a promising debut for its young stars as well as the recent faces. Punit and Priya, are surely the ones to look forward to in the coming days of bollywood.
I’m going with 4/5 for Fukrey. Don’t miss this laugh-riot unless you are allergic to laughing your heart out.