‘HOLY COW’ REVIEW | 26 August, 2022

K Sera Sera, Sukh Sagar Movies, YS Entertainment and Reltic Pictures’ Holy Cow (UA) is the story of a missing cow and what happens to its Muslim owner after the cow goes missing.

Salim Ansari (Sanjay Mishra) lives with his wife, Safiya (Sadia Siddiqui), and little son, Shahrukh (Dhiraj Kumawat). One day, their cow goes missing. It is assumed to have been stolen. However, since Salim Ansari is a Muslim, he is aware of the repercussions the missing cow could have on his life. What all he does to ensure that his neighbours and other people do not get to know that his cow has gone missing forms the crux of the drama.

Sai Kabir has written a story and screenplay, which are so sketchy that one wonders why he chose a controversial subject like this if he did not want to underline that a missing cow from a Muslim household can endanger the life of the owner and why! It is left to the audiences to draw their own conclusions about why Salim Ansari is nervous as hell after his cow goes missing. There are some other tracks too in the drama, and they are all so half-baked that they make little impact, if at all. Consequently, the viewers don’t enjoy any part of the drama which actually turns out to be dry and drab. Even the humour is so class-appealing that it will not even get a smile to the faces of the majority of the audience. The drama tries to make a valid point but even that is lost because of the poor manner in which the script is written. Sai Kabir’s dialogues are too ordinary to be true.

Sanjay Mishra acts ably in the central role of Salim Ansari. Mukesh Kumar Bhatt is good as Rambabu alias Rambo. Tigmanshu Dhulia makes his mark in the role of Shamshuddin Akhtar. Sadia Siddiqui lends decent support as Safiya. Nawazuddin Siddiqui hardly adds anything in a tiny special appearance. Sunita Shirole has her moments as Amma. Rahul Mittra makes his presence felt in a cameo role. Dhiraj Kumawat (as Shahrukh), Praful Rathod (as Danish), Hemendra Kumar Sharma (as Matu Yadav), and the others provide routine support.

Sai Kabir’s direction is not up to the mark. His narration is half-baked as he expects the audiences to form their own opinion and interpret the drama as per their thought process. Sukhwinder Singh and Rev Shergill’s music is quite nice although the songs lack the popular appeal. Lyrics by both of them are alright. Rev Shergill’s background music is functional. Yogesh Jani’s camerawork is okay. Editing (Steven H. Bernard and R.C. Pranav) is loose.

On the whole, Holy Cow is a flop show and will face rejection at the turnstiles.

Released on 26-8-’22 at Inox (daily 1 show) and other cinemas of Bombay thru Aum Exhibitors. Publicity: poor. Opening: dull. …….Also released all over. Opening was poor everywhere.