Theme Arts International and Sunil C. Sinha Production’s Khela Hobe (UA) is the story of a woman’s revenge.
Shabbo (Mugdha Godse) is the mistress of the village chief, Thakur Virendra Pratap (Rushad Rana). Since he is an influential man, he asks Shabbo to contest the local elections. Shabbo is reluctant at first but relents later because she gets to know that her sister has been raped. She is pitted in the elections against Girish Gupta (Sanjay Batra), who is the current chairman, Fareekbhai (Om Puri), and Bachchu Lal (Manoj Joshi). What is the connection between Shabbo contesting elections and her sister’s rape? Does Shabbo win the elections? What is her revenge angle?
Ravi Kumar has penned an almost senseless story. Although it is a revenge drama, he doesn’t give the audience any idea of Shabbo’s revenge. His screenplay is pathetic. Nothing, repeat, nothing gets even close to entertaining the viewers. Consequently, the drama unfolds even as the audience wonder how anybody could write such an insipid screenplay. Ravi Kumar’s dialogues are dull.
Om Puri does well as Fareekbhai. Mugdha Godse is so-so in the role of Shabbo. Manoj Joshi performs ably as Bachchu Lal. Rati Agnihotri is average in a brief role as Fareekbhai’s wife, Rukhsana. Sanjay Batra is alright as Girish Gupta. Rushad Rana has his moments as Thakur Virendra Pratap. Ratan Mayal (as the doctor), Shefali (as Shabbo’s sister, Nimmo), Aaryan A. (as Nimmo’s boyfriend) and the others provide routine support in brief roles.
Sunil C. Sinha seems to be an amateur because his direction is very dull. Music (Sanjiv Chaturvedi, Ajay Keshwani, Rakesh Trivedi and Harsh Raj Harsh) is poor. Lyrics (Sanjiv Chaturvedi, Rakesh Trivedi and Ravi Kumar) are poor. Vicky Khan’s choreography doesn’t deserve mention. Rajendra Shiv’s background music is dull. Ravi Bhat’s camerawork is functional. Shiva Bayappa’s editing leaves a lot to be desired.
On the whole, Khela Hobe will meet with a disastrous fate at the ticket windows.
Released on 24-2-’23 at Movie Star Goregaon (daily 1 show) and another cinema of Bombay thru Jai Viratra Entertainment Ltd. Publicity & opening: poor. …….Also released all over.