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Join UsStar Cast: R Madhavan, Neil Nitin Mukesh, Kirti Kulhari, Rashami Desai
Director: Ashwni Dhir
What’s Good: The premise
What’s Bad: The execution
Loo Break: Anytime you want
Watch or Not?: One time watch.
Language: Hindi
Available On: Zee 5
Runtime: 1 hour 51 minutes
User Rating:
There are some films that do not make you feel wow in every single frame they cater to but still struggle to have your attention throughout and succeed, barring a few instances. Films that might not have your vote when you speak about cinematic brilliance, but films that might have a mention if you have some random conversation someday about something relevant you watched someday. Films that don’t need to be on your priority but films that won’t offend you for spending your time as well. Films that can’t kill your cravings but certainly help you satiate for some time. And R Madhavan’s Hisaab Barabar is all of them – films that promise but do not deliver.
Accounts mein har ek paisa zaroori hota hai. Tab tak karo hisaab, jab tak ho naa jaaye hisaab barabar. Says R Madhavan, a ticket collector who educates a bunch of youngsters on a Railway Platform – something that clearly seems like his CSR project.
Hisaab Barabar has a very good premise to fight for, but there is a difference between a good premise and a good film. This film starts its journey from a good premise but ends it way before it turns into a good film. The basic problem is turning a good premise into an unnecessary slapstick comedy-cum-satire that is reaching nowhere.
Hisaab Barabar Movie Review: Script Analysis
R Madhavan is a common man, Radhe Mohan Sharma, and a TC on the Indian Railways. The story starts with one problem – missing a case of Rs 27.50 in his bank account. He very soon figured out that this was a strategically built scam worth 2400 crore, and his fight as a common man, for the common man starts. The only problem being this fight is too scattered.
This fight is against a bank and its owner, played by Neil Nitin Mukesh, who is high on money, but this high seems like drug addiction, with Neil behaving like a lunatic in each and every scene he appears. Why is a question one needs to ask, but he wouldn’t bother to answer?
The script and the dialogues by Ashwni Dhir make this satire unbearable at times, with irrelevant characters and scenes coming out of nowhere. An unnecessary death of R Madhavan’s student seems like an inciting incident for the film to pull its trigger. But Ashwni Dhir butchers a young boy with R Madhavan trying to enact the most unemotional yet emotional scene in recent times! I can only empathize with his acting prowess for struggling to puke for no reason since the scene was so stupidly written that it made no sense!
Hisaab Barabar Movie Review: Star Performance
There are very random characters in Hisaab Barabar. Rashami Desai plays someone who babysits R Madhavan‘s son. Is she a family member? Not sure, neither I am interested. Is she empathisizing with Madhavan’s plight in some scenes. Still not sure, still do not want to know.
There is Kirti Kulhari, who initially plays Madhavan’s love interest with a backstory and then turns into an investigating officer on the case. (Honestly, there is not even a case here; the plot is so scattered). Neither was there a need for some love angle, nor was Kirti’s transition revolutionary. It just complicates the plot for no reason.
While Neil Nitin Mukesh’s antagonist is stupidly written, acting all weird with overt dialogues, there is Manu Rishi Chadha as well. I am not sure what he was exactly doing in the film.
R Madhavan plays a common man, and he tries to make it to the point it stops making sense. He is a serious man whose motto is Hisaab Barabar, so much so that even his desktop screen says Hisaab Barabar in a weird font of the 90s!
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Hisaab Barabar Movie Review: Direction
Ashwni Dhir, honestly picks up a very interesting plot. Even the trailer of the film promised the same. A man, unveiling a scam of 2400 crore by a bank looting its customers. But everything else is very stupid and animated. A man like R Madhavan, sensible enough to play this common man, unfolding this scam indulges in an animated fight with a bank officer.
The major problem with such social-message films is the never-ending effort to not make them preachy and to keep them ‘light.’ So, to keep it light and turn it into a forceful slapstick comedy, Ashwni Dhir turns this film into a circus and not a good one. The point that at one point, one of the antagonists, played by Himanshu Malik, landed straight into a bowl of Raita to say, ‘Raita Phail Gaya!’ Seriously?
Actually, the only problem with this film is Ashwni Dhir’s confused ambition. He wants to make Anil Kapoor’s ‘Nayak‘ infused with Neeraj Pandey’s ‘A Wednesday’ but wants to present it ‘3 Idiots’ way. To be fair, all of them were social films not getting preachy but hitting the message just the right amount and way. Hisaab Barabar fails on that part big time. In fact, to remind the audiences that the motto of this man is Hisaab Barabar, the film keeps chanting this keyword, even by the chorus in the background.
Hisaab Barabar Movie Review: The Last Word
Is it the best option to spend your weekend? Probably no. But is it something that might be a doable pick over a family gathering? Definitely, Yes. Because that is how family gatherings are, you just need some background music or visuals while all of you delve together into some nostalgic stories. And the film acts as a filler between those nostalgic stories.
The film is as random as those family reunion conversations. Making it about the common man and his problems, chanting the two words in random monologues and dialogues as random as saying Republic ko weak kar diya, pointing out a wrong spelling on a board!
What a waste of a good idea!
1.5 stars!
Hisaab Barabar Trailer
Hisaab Barabar releases on January 24, 2025 on Zee 5.
Stay tuned to Koimoi for more reviews.
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