Call it Justin Beiber's memorabilia. Its still lousy strands of hair. Call it the world's most callipygian figure. Kim's booty still churns out ordure. Call it a novel educational institution winnowing talented yet malingering youngsters. It's still a fake college. Remo D'Souza's FALTU is a self indulgent, vacuous and unscrupulous hack of a movie that flagrantly screams out "I am different!" but ends up as a turgid ride.
Ritesh Virani (Jackky Bhagnani), Pooja Nigam (Puja Gupta), Vishnu Vardhan (Chandan Sanya) and Nanj Nirani (Angad Bedi) as are four teenagers (!!!) who party all the time, but during the day (It's not America). Vishnu is suppressed by his dominant, pusillanimous father (one dimensional to the power of infinity and beyond!!) and he scores on grades but is inhibited from following his dream (Am I watching Three Idiots?). Pooja is flustered by her father's continual pursuit in getting here engaged ("its child marriage" she retorts when her father broaches about the topic). Ritesh's father is a scrap dealer who seems to be quite an indigent person (Ritesh, however, is a spendthrift who has the time to visit a number of places and spend lavishly). Nanj is a father-fearing loser who has a constipated face throughout the film. Vishnu excels with flying colors (in a clichéd scene where he seems dejected at getting 94% instead of 95%) while the other just scrape too but remain carefree (a variety of humdrum witnessed till now).
So, one gets admission at a prestigious college while the others are repeatedly rejected. The three abjects hit upon a novel idea of establishing a fake university with the help of Google (Arshad Warsi) just to satisfy their parents. A fiasco happens when hundreds of others turn up thinking the university is legit. Riteish plays Baaji Rao, the fake principal of Fakirchand and Lakirchand Trust University (F.A.L.T.U) in a hairy appearance, probably to make him look mature as an actor.
Now, my main complaint with the movie is that it celebrates a shameless concept. What happens later doesn't matter; it's the reason why it happened in the first place that holds importance. Here, we have three futilitarians who don't take anything seriously just to be labeled as creative minds. I really am offended by this concept. I, being a critic and having a dream of getting into theater, don't spend every single moment hanging out and partying just to make myself more sincere in my field of interest. It's like deeming all artists, musicians, actors, fashion designers, gym instructors brainless mutts who germinate their creativity by partying hard. There are exceptions but most of them really take their work seriously.
The problem here is that never is it shown in the entire first half that any of these minds have any flair for what they want to become. It seems very impromptu and improbable.Also, the hodgepodge that the movie becomes is because of the different genres it tries to encompass, abortively. Comedy, comedy, drama, comedy, comedy, drama . drama, musical!!! The indecisiveness devours the final product. The only slightly humorous moment is the song during the opening credit which is pedestrian wittiness. It throws onto the screen boisterous, seizure-inducing colors that really feel spunky and effervescent. Then we proceed to the barren exam sequence that has the usual tense faces among the characters and silly giggles among the audiences who always tend to feel nostalgic, even when the scene is shown in the same manner countless times in movies. Let's get nostalgic and forget that we saw such a scene just in the last film! Also, the lack of scruples revolts me. A fake university is set for an exorbitant sum, ignoring laws just to turn it worse by creating and hosting a fake website foolishly; and then making everything seem like a right step. It's something that happens when the person in charge of the film doesn't know what is right and what is wrong and pushes his opinionated views as the right one. The actions taken by the four friends in the beginning was wrong and they should not go unpunished or even shown completely in the positive manner which is what happens in the movie. The wrong is right and the right is wrong. And Mithun is there to take the final call, in an utterly uninspired climax.
Akbar Khan's character as a narrow-minded father who exposes the fake university was morally right, according to me, even though he himself is a stubborn and egoistic being. Coming back to the story, I feel the impact of the climax fell completely flat as it had no relation with the rest of the film. The sudden dance competition where a gorgeous number is performed seems out of the blue for a movie focusing firstly on aimless then creative kids. Now all become fabulous performers! A very multi-talented bunch of misfits indeed! The performance was extremely lovely but entirely out of the place. I'd have rather paid Rs200 and watched the performance live.
The acting is forgettable. Jackky didn't shoulder the film but sort of pillion-rode it. Angad 'Constipated' Bedi should stick to commentary and reality shows (It's become a fad for every reality star to get into films). Chandan is a shade better but I really have stopped expecting brilliance from the new stars (except Ranbir Kapoor). Puja should probably get an award for the most unnoticeable performance of 2011. Boman Irani will be typecast if he continues with such roles. Akbar Khan's performance is stilted and affected. Arshad Warsi sounds funny when he isn't supposed to (seriously guys, do away with those overtly dramatized scenes). Riteish is a fine actor but is wasted just like the others. The collegians know three emotions: happiness, sadness and anger. That is not being three-dimensional as a performer, but just 3 different emotions.
The movie is quite volatile in its direction and condescending in message. Putting it simple: A bad film 2/10
Ritesh Virani (Jackky Bhagnani), Pooja Nigam (Puja Gupta), Vishnu Vardhan (Chandan Sanya) and Nanj Nirani (Angad Bedi) as are four teenagers (!!!) who party all the time, but during the day (It's not America). Vishnu is suppressed by his dominant, pusillanimous father (one dimensional to the power of infinity and beyond!!) and he scores on grades but is inhibited from following his dream (Am I watching Three Idiots?). Pooja is flustered by her father's continual pursuit in getting here engaged ("its child marriage" she retorts when her father broaches about the topic). Ritesh's father is a scrap dealer who seems to be quite an indigent person (Ritesh, however, is a spendthrift who has the time to visit a number of places and spend lavishly). Nanj is a father-fearing loser who has a constipated face throughout the film. Vishnu excels with flying colors (in a clichéd scene where he seems dejected at getting 94% instead of 95%) while the other just scrape too but remain carefree (a variety of humdrum witnessed till now).
So, one gets admission at a prestigious college while the others are repeatedly rejected. The three abjects hit upon a novel idea of establishing a fake university with the help of Google (Arshad Warsi) just to satisfy their parents. A fiasco happens when hundreds of others turn up thinking the university is legit. Riteish plays Baaji Rao, the fake principal of Fakirchand and Lakirchand Trust University (F.A.L.T.U) in a hairy appearance, probably to make him look mature as an actor.
Now, my main complaint with the movie is that it celebrates a shameless concept. What happens later doesn't matter; it's the reason why it happened in the first place that holds importance. Here, we have three futilitarians who don't take anything seriously just to be labeled as creative minds. I really am offended by this concept. I, being a critic and having a dream of getting into theater, don't spend every single moment hanging out and partying just to make myself more sincere in my field of interest. It's like deeming all artists, musicians, actors, fashion designers, gym instructors brainless mutts who germinate their creativity by partying hard. There are exceptions but most of them really take their work seriously.
The problem here is that never is it shown in the entire first half that any of these minds have any flair for what they want to become. It seems very impromptu and improbable.Also, the hodgepodge that the movie becomes is because of the different genres it tries to encompass, abortively. Comedy, comedy, drama, comedy, comedy, drama . drama, musical!!! The indecisiveness devours the final product. The only slightly humorous moment is the song during the opening credit which is pedestrian wittiness. It throws onto the screen boisterous, seizure-inducing colors that really feel spunky and effervescent. Then we proceed to the barren exam sequence that has the usual tense faces among the characters and silly giggles among the audiences who always tend to feel nostalgic, even when the scene is shown in the same manner countless times in movies. Let's get nostalgic and forget that we saw such a scene just in the last film! Also, the lack of scruples revolts me. A fake university is set for an exorbitant sum, ignoring laws just to turn it worse by creating and hosting a fake website foolishly; and then making everything seem like a right step. It's something that happens when the person in charge of the film doesn't know what is right and what is wrong and pushes his opinionated views as the right one. The actions taken by the four friends in the beginning was wrong and they should not go unpunished or even shown completely in the positive manner which is what happens in the movie. The wrong is right and the right is wrong. And Mithun is there to take the final call, in an utterly uninspired climax.
Akbar Khan's character as a narrow-minded father who exposes the fake university was morally right, according to me, even though he himself is a stubborn and egoistic being. Coming back to the story, I feel the impact of the climax fell completely flat as it had no relation with the rest of the film. The sudden dance competition where a gorgeous number is performed seems out of the blue for a movie focusing firstly on aimless then creative kids. Now all become fabulous performers! A very multi-talented bunch of misfits indeed! The performance was extremely lovely but entirely out of the place. I'd have rather paid Rs200 and watched the performance live.
The acting is forgettable. Jackky didn't shoulder the film but sort of pillion-rode it. Angad 'Constipated' Bedi should stick to commentary and reality shows (It's become a fad for every reality star to get into films). Chandan is a shade better but I really have stopped expecting brilliance from the new stars (except Ranbir Kapoor). Puja should probably get an award for the most unnoticeable performance of 2011. Boman Irani will be typecast if he continues with such roles. Akbar Khan's performance is stilted and affected. Arshad Warsi sounds funny when he isn't supposed to (seriously guys, do away with those overtly dramatized scenes). Riteish is a fine actor but is wasted just like the others. The collegians know three emotions: happiness, sadness and anger. That is not being three-dimensional as a performer, but just 3 different emotions.
The movie is quite volatile in its direction and condescending in message. Putting it simple: A bad film 2/10