Zee Studios and BLive Productions’ Rahu Ketu (UA) is the story of two characters, Rahu and Ketu, created by the fertile mind of writer Churu Lal Sharma (Manu Rishi Chadha) who is writing a book. Rahu (Varun Sharma) and Ketu (Pulkit Samrat) have been created to eliminate all evils including corruption. Guiding Churu Lal is his fufa (Piyush Mishra). The book has a special quality — anything written in it comes true and cannot be changed. Because Rahu and Ketu try to put an end to all evils, businessmen and others adversely affected by them detest them. Anyway, one day, the book gets stolen by Meenu Taxi (Shalini Pandey) whom Rahu loves and wants to marry. On her part, Meenu loves Ketu. After stealing the book, Meenu starts writing it and that creates quite a havoc. Meenu changes the course of the story because she wants to save the drugs grown on her farm. She has taken advance for the drugs from Mordechai (Chunkey Panday). What happens finally? Do Rahu and Ketu succeed in their mission? Does Meenu Taxi live happily ever after with Rahu or with Ketu?
Vipul Vig’s story idea is good but that’s about all. His story and screenplay seem to have been written in such a confused manner that it becomes difficult for the viewers to comprehend what’s going on — that too, at several places. Instead of tickling the funny bone, the drama often bores — more so because the audience can’t fathom why the characters are doing what they are doing. The fictional characters become real and interact with real people. How that happens is simply not explained. Most of the times, the comedy falls flat on its face. The first half has very few scenes which can sustain the viewers’ interest. The drama picks up pace post-interval, but it drops at several points in the second half too. Overall, the audience lose patience because of two reasons — the comedy doesn’t land, and the intentions of the characters are not clearly spelt out. Vipul Vig’s dialogues, with additional dialogues by Sparsh Khetarpal and Tasha Bhambra, are not half as funny as they ought to have been.
Pulkit Samrat looks handsome and does quite well as Ketu. But he doesn’t have too many substantive scenes or dialogues. Varun Sharma is fairly nice as Rahu. Between the two, Varun has the meatier role. Shalini Pandey delivers a confident performance as Meenu Taxi. Piyush Mishra lends good support as the fufa. Chunkey Panday is alright as Mordechai, but he suffers on account of an ill-defined character. Manu Rishi Chadha does a decent job as writer Churu Lal Sharma. Amit Sial is impressive as police inspector Deepak Sharma. Sumit Gulati makes his mark as police officer Bansi. Charu Shankar makes her presence felt as Sundari. Dheerendra Dwivedi is okay as Meenu’s father. Others lend ordinary support.
Vipul Vig’s direction is not up to the mark. His narration fails to keep the audience engaged. Music (Vikram Montrose for Madira; Tarsh Srivastava for Rahu Ketu mantra and Je Rahu Ketu kaun hai; Abhijit Vaghani for Yaari yahin hai; Mattoo Bros. for Dahaad; Abhinav Shekhar for Kismat ki chabi; Dilip Suthar for Mordechai theme music) is quite appealing. However, none of the songs has the hit quality. Lyrics (Abhinav Shekhar for Madira and Kismat ki chabi; Tarsh Srivastava for Rahu Ketu mantra; Amitosh Nagpal for Je Rahu Ketu kaun hai; Bhrigu Parashar for Yaari yahin hai; Mattoo Bros. for Dahaad; Ronald John for Mordechai theme music) are okay. Song picturisations (by Remo D’Souza and Rahul Shetty) are functional. Sanjoy Chowdhury’s background music is passable. Manoj Soni’s camerawork is nice. Hiralal Yadav’s action and stunt scenes are fair. Udai Prakash Singh’s production designing is okay. Mannan A. Sagar’s editing is quite sharp.
On the whole, Rahu Ketu is a non-starter. It will go largely unnoticed because it lacks entertainment value.
Released on 16-1-’26 at Inox (daily 4 shows) and other cinemas of Bombay by Zee Studios. Publicity: fair. Opening: poor. …….Also released all over. Opening was dull everywhere.