Laxmi (aka) Lakshmi Reviews

LaxmiDirected by our very own Raghava Lawrence, the remake of his Tamil hit Kanchana, marks Akshay Kumar’s first major release on OTT. This is not the first time that Khiladi Kumar has relied on the remake and has mostly made him the winner.

Akshay Kumar (Aasif) and wife Kiara Advani have split from the latter’s parents over their inter-caste marriage. Miraculously, just like that, one day, they decide to fix things and go there with both of their nephews.

Strange things happen to Asif who starts acting like a woman – finds a new love for saris, haldi and the like. And what role a dead transwoman plays in all this makes up the rest of the story.

While Akshay’s intro scene is interesting, the film then fizzles too much with the usual Lawrence style sequences and chills, slapstick festivities, over-the-top humor and what not.

While the film shines with rich production values, most of the humor falls flat. After a while, you can’t really take any kind of slaps or people jumping on each other’s waists without prior warning.

Laxmi Follows the basic save template for minor changes. The songs act as major speed breakers and seem like they could have been released independently as an album – they don’t match up with the narrative.

Akki shines in his role, but sadly, we soon tire of him, courtesy of a mundane script that, sadly, actually cracks a premise. Kiara does a good job of looking beautiful – just about it, nothing else about her characterization to write about it. Looks like there is not much chemistry going on between Akshay and Kiara. Maybe a bigger heroine or a younger hero could have done the trick.

The supporting cast is fine too, except we wish he hadn’t distorted his face so much – all in the name of humour. While Lawrence needs applause for attempting to portray the trans community in a positive light, the message could have been taken more seriously if she had acted on the engagement factor rather than lightly tinkering with the original. .