Review
Kokka
Movie
Directed by: Santosh Subhash Thite & Bhanu Thakur
Produced by: Santosh Subhash Thite, Raman Aggarwal, Vishal Johal, Nitin Talwar
Written By: Rupinder Inderjit
Starring: Gurnam Bhullar, Neeru Bajwa, Gurpreet Bhangu, Rupinder Rupi, Jaz Dhami, Zeesh Sandhu & Baljinder Kaur
Music: Raj Ranjodh,V Rakx Music, Sandeep Saxena & Sync
Singers: Gurnam Bhullar, Raj Ranjodh, Malkit Singh, Afsana Khan, The Landers & Shehnaz Akhtar
STORYLINE:
A love story between Akal (Gurnam) and Ajooni (Neeru Bajwa) with a relative age gap.
Let me tell you when I saw the trailer of this film, I was quite happy to see Punjabi cinema exploring such topics and subjects unlike our contemporary cinema. It is a sigh of relief to see that our Punjabi industry has got the guts to attempt such newer topics. So, I really want to congratulate the team who had earlier tried such unconventional topic with ‘Munda Hi Chahida’.
And now from a girl’s perspective a new story has been brought in ‘Kokka’. I think makers deliberately did not choose any obvious title like ‘Chadhdi Umre’ or something as they did not want to focus only on one character. However, I felt the title and the story of this film was a misfit but leaving that aside how did I like the film, go ahead to read my review!
PERFORMANCES:
Neeru Bajwa’s acting was really beautiful as usual and she looked absolutely hot chic in those dresses. Gurnam Bhullar, on the other hand was looking very cute, a typical rural guy who recently moved to UK. So, both of them were very much apt in their roles and these two were responsible for me being able to actually watch the film till the end.
MUSIC:
The background score was very weak for us because I think the level of background tracks has been raised by likes of B Praak and Jatinder Shah so much so that anything lesser than their calibre doesn’t work for us.
In a romantic scene, songs of high tempo are simply an injustice which makes you feel ke eh tan scene hi maarta. There was no coordination between the music, choreography and picturisation. Only a couple of songs I actually liked and the promotional song in the end (Darling) actually establishes the relevance of ‘Kokka’ as Neeru was nowhere seen wearing it in the entire film.
REVIEW:
Film is very weak before the interval so much so that you don’t connect with the film. This disconnects accounts to its major flaws in the technical aspects like dubbing, editing and background score which made it a major mess.
In the entire film, it is only Zeesh (who plays Neeru’s friend) and Jaz Dhami who actually spoke ‘British English’ rest followed our typical vernacular Punjabi which took away the entire feel of this film being based in UK.
The poor picturisation and editing did injustice to a film which could have been made really well and you are forced to think as to why this team has ruined such a beautiful topic. Till the time you actually connect with the character, the film had ended. For example, I really didn’t get how and why ‘Akal’ (Gurnam) and ‘Ajooni’ (Neeru) actually fell in love with each other in such a short span.
And the wedding where all the ‘Kokka’ girls were supposed to be present, apart from Neeru there was no other ‘Kokka Kudi’ and in Aman Sutdhar angle and actress alongside him, it was unfair to call a normal girl prettier than Neeru. The comparison should have not been made because Neeru is a star in herself and let’s keep it at that.
On top of that, suddenly family drama and relationships add to the mess but both the leads tried a lot to save the film. If it was not for these two actors, we could’ve not tolerated it even till the interval. So, I think the film and topic was taken very lightly but the story was very well written. It is a very sensitive topic which has been addressed and if it was made beautifully, it would’ve actually turned out really well but I think we still don’t give much importance to such stories.
Talking about the camera angles, just because you want to show the expressions of the beautiful lady you don’t have to poke the camera on her face. Neeru is a pro actor and she can actually enact very well and those expressions could’ve been caught from a little far as well. Maybe they were trying to bring something new but that didn’t work for us.
One thing which I really find bizarre in all the Punjabi films is the fact when we are shooting the entire film in UK how come the wedding song is shot in India. It is very much apparent ke aithe budget bachaya geya ae.
Overall, I think if you are planning to watch this film because you liked the trailer, keep your expectations really low because the trailer was very well edited. Personally, I too had high hopes which shattered after watching the film because of it’s treatment.
For god’s sake, at least spellings of ‘interval’ in Punjabi should’ve been corrected!
Lastly, I hope the kind of topics this team is trying to explore, a little endeavour is done as far as the technical aspects are concerned in future.
Well, this was our review, rest watch for yourself and feel free to share your views with us in the comments section.
Rating : 2.5/5
