Kaam Chalu Hai Star Cast/ Actors: Rajpal Naurang Yadav as Manoj Patil, Giaa Manek as Radha Patil, Kurangi Vijayshri Nagraj as Gudiya Patil, Rajshree Shah as Female Doctor, Param D Walia as BMC Officer, Akshay Kamle as Police staff, Meghali Nargachhe as Principal, Shreyash Pandit as Contractor & Ajit Mehta as Male Doctor.
Kaam Chalu Hai Director: Palaash Muchhal
Kaam Chalu Hai Release Date: April 19, 2024
Kaam Chalu Hai Available On: Zee5 OTT Platform
Kaam Chalu Hai Released/ Available In Languages: Hindi
Kaam Chalu Hai Run Time: 82 Minutes
Kaam Chalu Hai Critic Review:
The real-life story is heart-rending. After losing his only daughter in a tragic accident, devastated parent Manoj Patil (Rajpal Naurang Yadav) devotes his whole life to filling up potholes.
Budding cricketer Garvita alias Gudiya (Kurangi Vijayshri Nagraj), the apple of her father’s eye, is busy chatting with him about her trip to Mumbai the next morning to play district level cricket when the scooter hits a pothole. The doctors cannot save her. Manoj Patil, the cheerful manager of a fast-food restaurant in Sangli, Maharashtra, almost loses his mind at the tragic passing away of his dear Gudiya. Sadness, anger and helplessness follow as the contractor (a tilak sporting Shreyash Pandit)
responsible for the shoddy, pothole-ridden roads, abuses him and throws him out. Manoj Patil is too insignificant a man to make a difference to the system, too small to take on the system. Beaten, he turns to filling up potholes wherever he finds one, determined that nobody else should lose their dear ones like he did.
What a beautiful story, especially when it’s drawn from real life. A common man coming to terms with a tragedy and fighting social injustice should evoke natural empathy.
But writer-director Palaash Muchhal’s narrative is as bumpy as potholed roads. He spends enormous time filming the father-daughter relationship where the two often gang up against Gudiya’s mom Radha (Giaa Manek) and also labours the point that it’s only playful banter, they’re actually a super-happy family of three. To show how happy they are, Muchhal has Manoj and Gudiya eternally flashing all thirty-two teeth, the restaurant manager even grinning widely when asking for an advance from his boss.
There’s a pensive background score as the opening titles roll on Manoj and Gudiya on the scooter. Then several moments unfold when the fast-forward button may be lavishly used – a song to underscore their closeness, another number to establish the threesome as a merry family with the parents even striking a Titanic pose, all three grinning away. The Patils could well have been posing for a toothpaste ad.
Muchhal also has Manoj Patil teaching Gudiya ad nauseam to grow up to be a hardworking nek insaan more than anything else. Late at night, he narrates the oft-heard parable of the clever crow that threw stones into a pitcher to bring the water level up. “Hard work will bring its fruits,” Manoj explains the moral of the story to Gudiya.
The problem is that Muchhal has little to pad the story with, so he repeats every point. To stress her academic strength, Gudiya stands up more than once to answer what’s the subject and what’s the predicate in a sentence, as if the teacher has only one grammar lesson to teach every day. There’s also a meaningless meeting with the school principal which is only for the parents to be told how good she is in her studies. Too much, Muchhal.
The director repeats his mistakes by prolonging the funeral (with ‘Ram naam satya’ playing in the background), Manoj Patil’s near-craziness, the attempts to fight the system, and another BG number when he finally gives up and immerses Gudiya’s ashes.
After he has overplayed every situation with overlong sequences, Muchhal finally gets down to the business of Patil spending the rest of his life filling up potholes. It was Patil’s life mission that was the main story but that’s over within minutes before the real Manoj Patil is framed alongside a portrait of lead actor Rajpal Yadav. That was the best part of a story that needed to be told with far more proficiency especially since this was the real differentiator between Kaam Chalu Hai and the recently released Kaagaz 2 which also showcased a parent taking on the system after the loss of a
child.
Kaam Chalu Hai – Watch Or Not?: Since it’s on OTT which has the Fast-Forward option, go for it only because the world must know about the splendid humanitarian mission of the real Manoj Patil.
Kaam Chalu Hai Review Score Rating: 2.5 out of 5 (i.e. 2.5/5)
Kaam Chalu Hai Official Trailer:
Kaam Chalu Hai Official Trailer (Credits: Zee5)
Also Read: Do Aur Do Pyaar Review: Two & Two So Verbose