Excel Entertainment’s Friday Night Plan (UA13+) is a coming-of-age drama. It is the story of two brothers.
Sid (Babil Khan) and Adi (Amrith Jayan) are two brothers who live with their mother (Juhi Chawla). The lady has to go outstation for a day. Although the two brothers don’t get along too well, they make the most of their mom’s absence by attending the year’s hottest party. But things don’t always go according to plan, do they? Sid and Adi find themselves in a spot when things go out of hand. Do they come out of it as more mature and responsible human beings?
Vatsal Neelakantan has written a story with a very thin line. Because of the skeletal story line, Vatsal Neelakantan’s screenplay is stretched, at times so much that it tests the audience’s patience. Even otherwise, the drama holds appeal for the city-based youth mainly. The light moments and jokes are mostly class-appealing. In other words, there isn’t much meat for people other than the city-bred youngsters. Sapan Verma’s dialogues are witty.
Babil Khan is a natural actor and he gives a good account of himself as Sid. Amrith Jayan is endearing in the role of Adi. Juhi Chawla gives a restrained performance. Ninad Kamat has his moments as police inspector Pingale. Ria Chaudhary (as Arati) makes her presence felt. Aadhya Anand has his moments as Nits. Aditya Jain (as Kabir) leaves a mark. Medha Rana is nice as Nat. Rishabh Joshi (as Jay) and Vyom Vyas (as Turk) provide decent support. Shashwat Chaturvedi (as Bathtub), Janvi Mehta (as Kemaya), Bhuvnesh Shetty (as coach Pereira), Vivek Tandon (as the English teacher), Veenah Naair (as the counsellor), Virendra Singh (as the manager of JCs) and Abhishek Gaikwad (as ASI Naik) lend decent support.
Vatsal Neelakantan’s direction is average. He has not been able to make a film which can hold the audience’s attention for its entire length. It moves at a slow pace because of which monotony sets in at places. Music (Dhruv Visvanath, Skrat and When Chai Met Toast) is quite appealing. Lyrics (Siddhant Kaushal and Piyush Kapoor) are nice. Pavanbob’s choreography is nothing to shout about. Rahul Pais and Nariman Khambata’s background music is okay. Krish Makhija’s cinematography is appealing. Amritpal Singh’s action scenes are functional. Production designing (by Uma Sawe and Zenisha Merchant) is alright. Charu Takkar’s editing is a bit loose.
On the whole, Friday Night Plan is too ordinary a fare to really make a fine mark.
Released on 1-9-’23 on Netflix.
