Critics’ Verdict: ‘Toilet’ Needed More Quirks Less Preaching

Here’s what critics have to say about ‘Toilet: Ek Prem Katha’.

Akshay Kumar and Bhumi Pednekar in a still from Toilet: Ek Prem Katha.

(Photo courtesy: Twitter)

Film: Toilet: Ek Prem Katha

Cast: Akshay Kumar, Bhumi Pednekar, Anupam Kher, Divyendu Sharma, Sudhir Pandey

Director: Shree Narayan Singh

Excerpts from reviews of Toilet: Ek Prem Katha:

The performances are earnest, if not extraordinary, with Akshay Kumar, trying hard to look 36, leading the way. Bhumi Pednekar, in her second outing after 2015’s sleeper hit <i>Dum Laga Ke Haisha</i>, fleshes out a refreshingly relatable college topper who becomes the principal catalyst for a mini-revolution in an immutable village. Not that the urgency of the theme can be downplayed. After all, more than half the people who defecate in the open reside in this country. But surely there are ways more subtle and less fawning of getting that obvious point across. That’s way beyond this film’s ken.

Saibal Chatterjee (NDTV)&nbsp;

There’s no better time to release a film about sanitation miseries than now; the producers can leverage the Swachh Bharat brand equity for all its pre-release marketing requirements. The Hindi film aristocracy and its influencers are usually apolitical. Its stars don’t engage with the country’s malaises, its political misgivings or social misfortunes. Nobody has a stand on what’s happening outside Juhu or Bandra, let alone Mumbai. A majority of the screenplays that pass muster are apolitical too. But if the only way to engage with social realities and being political is to piggyback on campaigns of the ruling government, politics are best left out of Hindi movies.

Sanjukta Sharma (Hindustan Times)&nbsp;

The noblest ideas are very often derailed by clunky execution. This is the problem with Toilet: Ek Prem Katha, which had the potential to become a deep, dark satirical take on one of the biggest problems that still shamefully plagues India: defecation in the open. The film which has to contend with a clunky title in the first place, wastes much of its initial bits in creating a romance between the middle-aged Keshav (Akshay) and the sprightly Jaya (Pednekar), which derails as soon as the latter turns into a ‘nai-naveli dulhan’ and discovers that she has to be part of a ‘lota party’ at the crack of dawn to complete her ablutions.

Shubhra Gupta (The Indian Express)

Keshav (Akshay Kumar) is not yet married because his orthodox priest father (Sudhir Pandey) has put forth a list of demands for the kind of daughter-in-law he wants, one of which is that she must have six fingers “like Hrithik Roshan”. Rather than slipping a toxic substance into his father’s tea, Keshav puts up with the situation, but loses his resolve when he meets Jaya (Bhumi Pednekar). Her firebrand ways impress him, and a wedding takes place by hoodwinking the father in the matter of the six fingers. But the real scam, as Jaya discovers, is that Keshav’s house doesn’t have an attached toilet. Unable to relieve herself in the fields like the rest of the village women, she walks out. Keshav is initially unmoved, but his love for Jaya makes him realise that she might have a point after all. He sets out to convert his father and the rest of the village towards the cause of building toilets and contributing to the Swachh Bharat programme. There’s a moment when he seems to have won his battle, but writers Siddharth-Garima and director Shree Narayan Singh are not going to let off of their mission so easily. They throw in corruption, a belated women’s movement, further plot twists and the hyperbolic declaration that “The government will fall over a toilet” before finally bringing the earnest and preachy narrative to a welcome halt. In between, they even sneak in a plug for the prime minister and demonetisation. What’s next? Aadhaar: Ek Prem Kahani?

Nandini Ramnath (Scroll.in)

Oh, by the way praiseworthy lines of dialogue also go out for demonetisation of currency notes and needless to reiterate, the Swachh Bharat Mission. By now, you’re not quite sure whether you’re watching a ‘movie-movie’ or a full-fleged endorsement for the powers-that-be. Such has cinema become, my dear friends. More worries: wink-wink-nudge-nudge remarks are darted at Sunny Leone and Mallika Sherawat. And believe it or not, rather mean jokes are cracked at the expense of Hrithik Roshan. Did the worthy members of the censor board, as they are wont to nowadays, demand no-objection certificates from Ms Leone, Ms Sherawat, and Mr Roshan? Just asking.

Khalid Mohamed (SpotboyE)

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