The story begins in the most clichéd manner as Piyush Mishra’s character of Foofa, uses a puppet show to tell the story of Rahu and Ketu. An AI sequence plays out to narrate the birth and origin of Rahu and Ketu and this opening montage looks like it belongs on social media, not the big screen. From there on, the AI-infused CGI only shows up when Varun Sharma and Pulkit Samrat have to be depicted as the actual Rahu Ketu dieties and while this visual treatment looks okay, the story does nothing of note to tap into this cool supernatural element. It does allow Varun and Pulkit to showcase their dancing skills, but beyond that, there’s no real impact that the CGI, visuals or the fantasy elements bring to this film.
The story unfolds in the hills of Himachal Pradesh, playing out in towns like Kasol, Kullu and more. Naturally, cannabis becomes a part of the story. But here’s the surprising part. One of the central plots is based on Meenu (Shalini Pandey) selling maal to become rich and powerful. But throughout the film, not a single character or person in the film smokes pot or gets high. Even though the screenplay tries to incorporate a multitude of stoner comedy elements, it just never actually gets down to getting people stoned and incongruous. Instead, the focus is always on Piyush Mishra’s character talking in riddles and bizarre phrases, that are so repetitive and blah that they won’t tickle the funny bone of inebriated and intoxicated viewers. If you’re sober, you might catch a migraine instead.
Comedy is best when it’s clever enough to be dumb. But with Rahu Ketu, the constant barrage of comedic gags never become funny, on most occasions they don’t even seem coherent. The narrative picks up promising beats almost every 5 minutes, but the writing doesn’t let a single story beat evolve into an entertaining situation. There are some clever dialogues on offer though, most of which are delivered by Varun Sharma, Pulkit Samrat, Shalini Pandey and Amit Sial. Sial’s character of a crooked cop, is the only character in the film that actually creates the intended impact. For everyone else, including Chunky Panday playing an Isreali gangster running a Cafe, the setup seems promising, but the character never really goes anywhere. We’re left with Varun and Pulkit, putting their heart, soul and bodies into performances that just don’t make sense.
The chemistry between Varun and Pulkit is phenomenal, but all that effort is used to deliver insipid, underdeveloped ideas that aren’t funny. There’s a great deal of visual novelty to Rahu Ketu. In all fairness, the technique used to create this film is impressive and deserves a mention. But all of this effort is let down by the fact that the direction and writing isn’t up to the mark. Instead, the gags just keep bombarding the screen like ‘sade sati’ ushering in a storm of misfortunes a bad luck.
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