Ved(Disney + Hotstar)

Rating: **

Ved is pretty much a family film, in more ways than one.It tells us how important it is for the family to stay together(thanks, we really needed to know that). Also, it is produced and directed by Riteish Deshmukh who gives himself a plum author-backed role .It’s like giving yourself a birthday treat.

Deshmukh plays Satya Jadhav, who like Shahid Kapoor in Jersey(or like Nani in the Telugu) dreams of becoming a cricketer but loses his way in sports politics.

Life sucks. To prove this truism, Satya moves with a hangdog expression throughout the film. Like Arjun Reddy(or Kabir Singh) he loses touch with reality after his girlfriend leaves him. Jiya Shankar as the Girlfriend represents the “modern” element. She believes one shouldn’t live in the past. When Satya looses his chance at playing cricket on a state level, Jia tells Satya to not wallow in losses, to move on.

Then she promptly exits from Satya’s life leaving him in a drunken stupor.Cheers to that.

All this is done in mood of extreme selfimportance. And the painful self righteousness only gets worse in the second-half when Genelia d’Souza enters to play to play the doormat wife to Deshmukh.

For a good hour or so , she is shown laying herself on the floor for Satya to walk all over her. A spirited little girl Khushi(played with warm understanding by Khushi Hajare) conveniently enters the strained marriage to fix things out.

It is all in the highly manipulative zone of filmmaking . If you have seen the original Telugu film Majili, then Ved has nothing to offer except a sullen hero who needs to be shaken hard by his shoulder, and some below-par acting.

Veterans like Ashok Saraf scarcely get be anything cut cute cardboard cutouts.Salman Khan appears in a dance number looking like he has just done the film a great favour. Genelia d’Souza playing the docile wife gives a labored performance. She is especially out of rhythm in the more emotional sequences.

Watch Samantha Ruth Prabhu in the original. Or better still, just watch the original.