Let’s first get the picture right. Contrary to what the trailers and promotional images tell is Fugly is not a Fukrey-friendly flick about four friends having a ball in life. This film means business. Light on top and substantial underneath, this is the Rang De Basanti of the post-Modi era. Thoughtful and at times brilliant, it tells us a great deal about the state of a culture and people searching for reasons to keep the spirit of nationalism alive as self-serving corruption grown all around us.

There is enough pep in Fukrey to make it pleasantly diverting. I’m not suggesting that you drop everything and get to the theatre. But if you happen to stroll in, you are likely to come out smiling.

It’s not so much the idea of Fukrey that impresses. Instead it’s all that goes into executing that thought that works magic. It adds a nice tadka with its Punjabi slang. And as the Punjabis would say chak de phatte!

The writing often jumps time, leaving the audience lagging and playing catch-up. This isn’t always a bad thing in times of spoon-feeding viewers. Some of the film’s transitions are outstanding, the mark of a good director.

As someone who went loaded with expectations, I did not see any honesty in the shallow plot hurriedly translated into a movie. With shabbily etched out characters and their largely flimsy issues, it is the lack of adequate depth in the story that digs its grave.

‘Fukrey’ is one hell of a laughter ride. In this age of cheesy and cheap comedy which the Hindi film industry is now so (in)famous for churning out, this one – ‘Fukrey’ – despite shouting out ‘Going Cheap June 14’, is thankfully not so.

This may be a new film, but it is certainly not madly novel. Delhi Belly had the same idea with the addition of some excrement and expletives, minus one fukra.

The story has newness, but at times it lacks the chaotic craziness that such a comic premise can unfold. Yet, the laughs are many to keep you entertained. So what the ‘fuk-rey’, go, crack up on your seats.

On the whole, FUKREY is a twisted and delectably uproarious take on the shortcuts the youth of today indulge in. Watch it for the sheer novelty and uniqueness it lays on display. Recommended!

The familiar premise gets a fresh coat of paint in ‘Fukrey’, with a new spin on some old clichés. While individual scenes inspire laughs, the film doesn’t quite fly because there are too many gags and not enough plot.

Fukrey caters the standard package of bromance that has been hot among Bolly buffs. It looked wild in the promos. Not the same can be said of the film itself. Fukrey would have worked better if the screenplay revealed more imagination.

Fukrey works in parts and some of them are really funny, but overall it feels like an exercise in wanting to be a little bit of everything. It sounds like Delhi Belly, looks like Oye Lucky Lucky Oye and somewhere in between struggles to make its own identity.

Formulas in Hindi films, no matter how popular or timeless, have been known to run their course in due time. So it comes as a mild disappointment when a film co-produced by Akhtar, a film that looked so promising on paper, fails to deliver.

‘Fukrey’ creates memorable characters and some sadi dilli nostalgia but the film never really becomes more than the sum of its parts. The linear narrative is peppered with genuine humour but the pace is slow and the events predictable.