‘Cirkus’ movie review: An unbearable waste of time!

Movie: Circus
Evaluation: 2/5
Throw:
Ranveer Singh, Pooja Hegde, Jacqueline Fernandez, Johnny Lever, Sanjay Mishra and Varun Sharma.

cinematography: Jomon T. John.

Musical: Devi Sri Prasad, Badshah and Lego Gorge.

exit: Rohit Shetty

release date: December 23, 2022

Can’t go wrong with ‘The Bard of Avon’. The immortal Shakespeare, more than 400 years after he entertained Queen Elizabeth I and her courtiers, still resonates in different ways with each generation. His movie ‘Comedy of Errors’ was a favorite among Bollywood filmmakers.

After Kishore Kumar’s ‘Do Dooni Chaar’, Sanjeev Kumar’s ‘Angoor’ and a few other forgettable adaptations comes Rohit Shetty’s ‘Cirkus’, in which Ranveer Singh plays two sets of identical twins who are accidentally separated at birth. Sadly, though, Bollywood is just as bad at adapting as it is at conceptualizing new ideas.

So, what does the movie offer? Old gags, unbearable jokes, bad acting and a plot that just doesn’t take off. Even when writers Farhad Samji, Sanchit Badri, and Vidhi Gudgaonkar try to Indianize the much-modified tale, there’s nothing there in terms of a creative twist in this over two-hour film.

Twins Roy and Roy (Singh) and Joy and Joy (Sharma) are separated at birth. Coincidentally, the couple are adopted by two different sets of parents – one Roy is deliberately paired with another joy and the other Roy with another joy in Ooty and Bengaluru, respectively.

From the basic premise, this should have been a riot of laughter as identical twins living in different cities come together and mistaken identity causes a bunch of ridiculous situations. The two sets of twins meet each other several years later, when by chance they are in the same town. Needless to add, misunderstandings prevail when people mistake one for the other.

One Roy works in a circus and is not affected by electric currents, which causes much awe and laughter among the audience. His act of gripping bare electrical wires led to enthusiastic applause for his appearance. He makes his living professionally, but when his body touches an electric wire, the twins in another city are shocked as the current flows through their tissues.

Aside from being electrocuted, the twin brother suffers such severe trauma that everyone who comes in contact with him feels it as well. Now, that can lead to not one but many funny moments.

And though the writers do their best to introduce characters, such as mothers (Ashwini Kalsekar and Sulabha Arya) and girlfriends Mala and Bindu (Hegde and Fernandes) to add to the promiscuity, chaos and turmoil, all we have is a pathetic example of poor writing skills and unbearably unbearable situations, to the point of Even the talented Ranveer Singh can hardly save the movie. His character repeats himself so often that he probably didn’t have to memorize his lines — and he didn’t get any chance to so rashly provide dialogue.

Among the cast, which consists of veterans Tikku Talsania, Vrajesh Hirji, Mukesh Tiwari, Brijander Kala, Sanjay Mishra and Johnny Lever, none of them have a scene that can be described as funny, comical or otherwise amusing.

Shetty, who specialized in a specific kind of humor in superhero characters like ‘Singham’, ‘Golmaal’ and ‘Chennai Express’, fails miserably at eliciting laughs. The only thing that works in the film is Deepika Padukone and Ranveer Singh’s surprise impromptu dance to “Current laga re”.

This is the only “paisa vasool” part of the movie, which should be considered a massive missed opportunity.

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