Media Magick

Akshay Kumar is known as the Khiladi Kumar of Bollywood and he has attempted multiple characters that gave him opportunities to explore his craft. Recently the Akshay Kumar’s latest film Laxmii released on Disney Plus Hotstar. Laxmii is the official remake of Kanchana Muni that was directed by Raghava Lawrence. Laxmii is also directed by Raghava Lawrence and it features Akshay Kumar, Kiara Advani and Sharad Kelkar as pivotal characters. The trend of remaking South Indian films is getting very common in Bollywood but there are hardly many films that surpassed the creativity and entertainment quotient as compared to the original films. Let’s see whether Laxmii manages to get closer or exceed the original version.

Watch Laxmii Movie Review

The story of Laxmii revolves around two characters, Asif (Akshay Kumar) and Laxmii (Sharad Kelkar). Asif believes everything is a repercussion of science and disses the ideology of evils and souls. Laxmii’s (a transgender) soul has not yet departed and it keeps trying to take vengeance for the wrongness that she faced. What happens when Asif encounters Laxmii’s soul is all that Laxmii is all about.

Akshay Kumar plays his part well but there aren’t any highpoints that give him any memorable scenes or one-liners, for which he is famous. The character that he played in Bhool Bulaiyaan was stronger than Asif’s. Kiara Advani looks hot in every scene and she performs her part well. Sharad Kelkar steals the show in a brief appearance. He makes sure that he will be remembered for Laxmii. Sharad Kelkar’s mannerism, body language and emotional outbursts are worth the watch. Besides them, no actor manages to perform decently and misses the mark terribly.

The biggest letdown of Laxmii is its script and screenplay. The dialogue fall flat and comic scenes make you yawn. The first half is so boring and stupid that you wonder why there was so much hype of a movie like that. If you compare the original version i.e. Kanchana Muni with Laxmii, you will be greatly disappointed. Laxmii comes nowhere close to the original version; neither script wise, nor creatively. The direction is bearable post interval, and the climax stands out a bit. The other drawback of Laxmii is that it fails to project the emotional connection between Asif and Laxmii.

Songs are boring and stuffed, only Bam Bholay is relevant. Laxmii doesn’t offer quality entertainment, it might be liked by diehard fans of Akshay Kumar but others will find it hard to watch because of baseless scenes that don’t entertain but make you agonize. Social issues like Hindu-Muslim marriage and the rights of transgender are highlighted in the film but they lack the soul, if more screen time and dialogues were given to support these issues sans illogical comedy then it might have come out as a winner.