MUKOYAR

I wish I could at least call “Khatta Meetha” a mindless comedy but it isn’t even that. Priyadarshan has thrown in oodles of melodrama and dollops of attempted-morals in a film that is for the most part intended to be a funny political satire. The film has a struggling hero, corrupt elder brothers, sarcastic sisters-in-law, a righteous patriarch and eve-teasing politicians, reminiscent of B-grade Hindi film sagas from the 1970s. Akshay Kumar is a road construction worker struggling to make it big like his dishonest brothers. Initially it seems like honesty is the only impediment to Akshay’s road ahead but as the film progresses you realize that he is not that honest after all. Then why does he try to reiterate again and again to his elder brothers that they are successful only because they are unscrupulous? The narrative is all over the place, an item number here, a song sequence there, lots of drama, an attempted suicide, an alleged murder and a brutal death of the villain...