Laxmii Review: Akshay Kumar’s ‘Laxmii’ Is the Worst Film of 2020
Film Review: Akshay Kumar’s Laxmii is a must miss.
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“The day I see a real ghost... I swear I’ll wear bangles,” says our hero Aasif! Why? Because bangles equal to women which equal to the “weaker sex”, which equals to I don’t know what. Yes, this is what Bollywood is dishing out in 2020 while all of us IRL are celebrating women and the breaking of the glass ceiling as Kamala Harris is set to be the first elected woman Vice President of the USA. However, for mainstream Bollywood, wearing bangles is still something to be ashamed of.
Anyway, if we set out to take offence then Laxmii will leave us all fuming. It’s best therefore for our own sanity and for the sake of Akshay Kumar to pretend like this film never happened. Directed by Raghava Lawrence, the plot of this 2 hour 20 minute mind-numbing film is one long eye roll. From peddling the same stale stereotypes about the transgender community that are outright offensive, to dumb writing that ensures no jokes land, it is an excruciating watch as we try and process why this film was made in the first place.
Laxmii manages to take everything good and turn it into a stinking pile of mediocrity. Seasoned actors like Rajesh Sharma , Manu Rishi Chadha, Ayesha Raza and Ashwini Kalsekar are reduced to pitiable cartoonish buffoons. Akshay Kumar, who can be extremely enjoyable to watch in his irreverent avatars is a loud, cringeworthy embarrassment. Also, Kiara Advani is as out of place in the entire film as the neck sprain-inducing choreography of the song Burj Khalifa... relegated her to.
Sharad Kelkar inexplicably manages to hold his own and shows that it’s possible to play a transgender with dignity and grace, but this isn’t a film where anything with dignity is allowed to survive and so Kelkar is quickly gotten rid of.
Even judging by the Bollywood standard of “brainless comedies” Laxmii falls short miserably. Neither funny nor inspiring and a horror in the most literal sense, it makes mockery of the very things it claims to be celebrating. A hero with a scientific temperament comfortable with his misogyny and a film where transgender characters have to carry the burden of nauseating stereotypes. Give us a break Bollywood, the year isn’t over but it’s safe to say that Laxmii is the worst film of 2020.
Rating: Half a Quint out of 5!
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