Sony Pictures International Productions and Merry Go Round Studios’ Aankh Micholi is the story of a family trying to finalise the marriage of the daughter who is suffering from a disability.
Paro (Mrunal Thakur) is the daughter of Navjot Singh (Paresh Rawal). She suffers from night blindness and, therefore, cannot see after sunset. Navjot Singh has a poor memory and keeps forgetting names, faces and things. He has two sons, Yuvraj (Sharman Joshi) and Harbhajan (Abhishek Banerjee). While Yuvraj is hard of hearing, Harbhajan stammers. Yuvraj has a wife (Divya Dutta) and child. The family receives a marriage proposal of Rohit Patel (Abhimanyu Dassani) for Paro. Rohit arrives from Australia with his maternal uncle (Darshan Jariwala) and aunt (Grusha Kapoor). Since Paro’s disability could come in the way of her marriage, Navjot decides to hide the fact of her night blindness from Rohit and his family. But that’s not easy. Do Paro and Rohit get married?
Jitendra Parmar has written a farcical story and screenplay, both of which cross all limits of tomfoolery and ridiculousness. Every member of Navjot’s family suffers from some disability or the other, which is difficult to digest. Even if that is overlooked because it is a comedy film, the situations and comedy are so over-the-top that instead of laughing with the characters, the audience laughs at them for their stupidity. In other words, the situations are implausible and the steps which Paro’s family take to hide the fact about her night blindness are so silly that the audience gets irritated to the core. Of course, some comic scenes do evoke laughter but more often than not, it is the ridiculousness which gets on people’s nerves. Subtlety has absolutely no place in this comedy. Even that would’ve been alright but the comedy often appears crass and sickening. Jitendra Parmar’s dialogues are witty but the wit loses in impact most of the times because of the unbearable screenplay.
Paresh Rawal is very believable as Navjot Singh. Abhimanyu Dassani is okay as Rohit Patel. His costumes could’ve been better. Mrunal Thakur does an average job as Paro. Her costumes leave a lot to be desired. Sharman Joshi is spontaneous as Yuvraj. Abhishek Banerjee acts ably in the role of Harbhajan. Divya Dutta lends nice support as Yuvraj’s wife but her character seems confusing. Darshan Jariwala (as Rohit’s maternal uncle) and Grusha Kapoor (as Rohit’s maternal aunt) offer some comedy. Vijay Raaz makes his mark with his natural acting. Others, including Teena Singh and Aaryansh Malviya, lend routine support.
Umesh Shukla’s direction is fair but his choice of subject leaves a lot to be desired. Unfortunately, there aren’t too many takers for this kind of comedy. Sachin-Jigar’s music is ordinary. Lyrics (Vayu, Jigar Saraiya, Priya Saraiya and I.P. Singh) are in synch with the mood of the film. Song picturisations (Aadil Shaikh and Piyush-Shazia) are routine. Sachin-Jigar’s background music is quite nice. Sameer Arya’s camerawork is of a good standard. Sunil Rodrigues’ action and stunt scenes are functional. Parul Bose’s art direction is average. Steven Bernard’s editing is loose.
On the whole, Aankh Micholi is a comedy which doesn’t evoke half the response which is expected and hence will meet with a tragic fate at the ticket windows.
Released on 3-11-’23 at Inox (daily 3 shows) and other cinemas of Bombay by Sony Pictures Films India Pvt. Ltd. Publicity & opening: dull. …….Also released all over. Opening was poor everywhere.