-1 Star (out of 4)

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That’s right. I give Khatta Meetha a negative-one star rating. The producers owe me a star. Khatta Meetha is one of the worst movies I’ve ever seen.

Here’s the best example of why Khatta Meetha is so bad: the hero of this slapstick comedy punches his girlfriend in the face, humiliates her in public, destroys her house, threatens her, and then frames her for a crime she didn’t commit, driving her to attempt suicide. And he’s the hero! OF A COMEDY!

How did a movie so morally reprehensible get made? How? I beg you: do not pay to see this movie. No one involved with this garbage deserves to make another cent from it.

The first ten minutes of the movie are a typical Akshay Kumar slapstick comedy. Kumar plays Sachin Tichkule, a hapless contractor who’s the black sheep in a family of successful (i.e., corrupt) engineers. His brother and brothers-in-law have enough money to bribe their way into large contracts building bridges. Penniless Sachin is stuck paving roads, cutting corners to ensure future work repairing the same roads the next year.

Things quickly turn serious when a bridge Sachin’s brothers built collapses, killing dozens of people. To avoid jail, they collude with an up-and-coming politician. They convince the Tichkule family’s loyal chauffeur, Mr. Rao, to take the rap for them. The next day, the politician has Mr. Rao killed to keep him from talking.

No one else in the Tichkule family, including Sachin, seems to notice that Mr. Rao is gone. He gets mentioned in an aside in the last five minutes of the film, but the slapstick resumes shortly after Rao dies.

The bulk of the movie is bad gags, punctuated by fits of yelling that are allegedly humorous. Sachin seems doomed to forever be a failure when his ex-girlfriend, Ghena (Trisha Krishnan), becomes the local bureaucrat in charge of construction contracts.

Back in college, Sachin punched Ghena in the face when she defied him. This got him kicked out of school, which somehow led him to become a disreputable contractor. Blaming the victim is always a nice touch.

When Ghena demands that Sachin play by the rules, he belittles her in public, making threatening gestures and destroying her house, which he then jokes about. He frames her for taking bribes, and she tries to kill herself.

These are the actions of the guy the audience is supposed to identify with and cheer for. Sachin belongs in jail with his murdering brothers. But, since this is a comedy, Ghena accepts his apology from her hospital bed.

The degree of casual violence against women in Khatta Meetha is appalling. At one point, Sachin’s sister is murdered. Almost as an afterthought, one character mentions to Sachin that, before she died, she’d also been gang raped by her new husband’s friends. WTF?

There’s nothing redeemable about Khatta Meetha. Nothing. The way it flits from goofy comedy to violent drama is absurd. The way it follows scenes of violence against women with celebratory dance numbers is insulting. Everyone who had any part in making this should be ashamed.

Links

• Khatta Meetha Official Website
• Khatta Meetha at Wikipedia
• Khatta Meetha at IMDb