'Coolie No 1' Movie Review: Traumatising To Say The Least

A film that has been a highly anticipated one for this year is Varun Dhawan and Sara Ali Khan starrer Coolie No 1. The film is a remake of the 1995 Govinda and Karisma Kapoor starrer and is helmed by David Dhawan, who had also directed the original.

Varun and Sara's Coolie No 1 released last night on Amazon Prime Video and well, fans were quick to sit with their families to enjoy this comedy remake of Govinda and Karisma's film.

It definitely has more colour and slickness, but all its gloss is strictly superficial. The new version is flashier and louder. The hope clearly is to paper over - and drown out - the sheer pointlessness of the exercise. But no matter what the director and his son, lead actor Varun Dhawan, try, this coolie is anything but numero uno. The 2020 Coolie No 1, released on Amazon Prime Video, is no patch on the 1995 Coolie No 1.

Varun Dhawan, who slips into the Govinda role without ever evoking memories of that inspired comic star turn, is more swag than substance as he wends his way through Coolie No 1. When he is joined by Sara Ali Khan to sway to Main toh raste se jaa raha thha (the song begins with the line 'Back to the 90s' as if we needed a reminder) and Goriya chura naa mera jiya, the original musical set pieces are never in danger of being obliterated from Bollywood movie lore.

The earlier film was set in a village: Karisma was a ghaghra-clad gaon-ki-gori, Govinda wanted to set up a cement factory. In this one, the gaon has become Goa. Instead of a factory, it is a port, and Sara Ali Khan is a city girl in flouncy minis and pointy stilettos.

Kader Khan’s Seth Hoshiyarchand is now Goa hotelier Jeffery Rozario (Paresh Rawal) whose only dream is to find a stinking rich husband for his daughter Sarah (Sara Ali Khan). Rozario, in his search for the richest man in the country for his daughter, insults the matchmaker Jai Kishen (Jaaved Jaffrey, a 2020 version of Sadashiv Amrapurkar’s Shadiram Gharjode) who promises to avenge the insult. He brings in a railway porter Raju (Varun Dhawan) to play the rich suitor Kunwar Raj Pratap Singh. Blinded by the promise of immense wealth, Rozario gets Raju married to his daughter, but soon realises everything is not what it seems. In order to throw him off the scent, Raju cooks up the story of having a twin, adding more confusion to an already overflowing plot.

Although suspension of disbelief is a part of watching a David Dhawan film, Coolie No 1's plot is hopelessly out of sync with today’s time. Men get hit in gonads and women are the victims of casual sexism. Speech impairment is mined for laughs, as is people's weight. Even coronavirus is not spared as it is used in a rather tasteless, and unfunny joke. This is not a reboot, it feels like a spoof and it is best not to tamper with nostalgia.

Meanwhile, the film's trailer was released a few weeks back in a virtual event hosted by Varun, Sara and Paresh Rawal. The film stars Sahil Vaid, Rajpal Yadav, Johnny Lever, Shikha Talsania and Jaaved Jaaferi apart from Paresh Rawal, Sara Ali Khan and Varun Dhawan. It is produced by Pooja Entertainment and can be streamed on Amazon Prime Video.