Shekhar Kapur's epic movie on the burning subject of 'scarcity of water' has been in the news since last few years with a probable title of PAANI. But as the project still remains in the 'announcement stages' only even after several years, it was indeed a quite intelligent move of director Nila Madhab Panda to come up with a satirical comedy on the theme hitting on the nail first. However despite choosing a great subject with an interesting cast, the director fails to deliver a fine product and the opportunity goes wasted missing the desired impact.
With its less exciting promos revealing it all, I wasn't expecting much from the film personally since I couldn't appreciate Panda's last two ventures too, including the award winning I AM KALAM (reminding me of RK banner's AB DILLI DOOR NAHIN). Anyway in his latest offering, the director begins with a typical 'seen before' sequence of honour killing in a village sowing the seeds of hatred for the coming generations. And later falls back on the same old path wherein a young boy is intentionally sent to win over the rival village owner's daughter to gain some 'water benefits'.
The first few sequences of the film featuring Saurabh Shukla are interesting, raising the viewers expectations looking for an enjoyable satirical comedy coming ahead based on 'shortage of water'. But the film sadly delivers nothing of that sort in the next 100 minutes and just keeps revolving around the usual melodrama with a slower pace and a less engaging script progression. After a point the writers try to incorporate too many issues together ranging from honour killing, caste division, problems of agriculture, soil re- mineralisation, a routine love drama, religious superstition, forced sexual references, a secret tunnel dug for stealing the water and more. As a result the basic focus on the subject of 'scarcity of water' gets blurred and the possible outcome of a thoughtful satire isn't there.
Recalling the few positives, KKPM has an appreciable art direction and an entertaining act delivered by Saurabh Shukla along with a routine yet sincere performance by Gulshan Grover. But other than that its narration falls flat, music fails to make any kind of impact despite the traditional touch and both Kunal Kapoor and Radhika Apte clearly become a victim of poor characterisation from their 'uninventive' writers. Having said that, Radhika does brighten up the screen in her first appearance wearing a pure white suit playing with the Holi colours.
In all KAUN KITNE PAANI MEIN is a perfect example of a great idea not finding an equally great execution by its 'experimental director'. So the subject still remains 'untouched' and we would have to wait for Shekhar Kapur to deliver something seriously eye- opening predicting the future ahead.
