LAXMII

Laxmii, directed by our very own Raghava Lawrence, a remake of his Tamil smash hit Kanchana, is Akshay Kumar’s first major release on OTT. This is not the first time Khiladi Kumar has banked on remakes and they have mostly earned him a winner.

Akshay Kumar (Asif) and wife Kiara Advani are estranged from the latter’s parents over their inter-caste marriage. Miraculously, just like that, one fine day, they decide to mend things and head over there with the duo’s nephew in tow.

Strange things start happening to Asif who begins to act like a woman – there is a newfound love for sarees, haldi and such. And what role does a dead transwoman have in all of these makes up the rest of the story.

While Akshay’s intro scene is intriguing, the film pretty much fizzles out after that with typical Lawrence style visuals and chills, slap fest, over the top humour and whatnot.

While the film sparkles with rich production values, most of the humour falls flat. After sometime, you really can’t take any more of the slaps or people jumping on to each other’s waists without as much as a forewarning.

Laxmii follows the template of the original save for minor changes. Songs act as major speed breakers and look like they could have been released independently as an album – they just don’t seem to gel with the narrative.

Akki sparkles in his role but sadly we get tired of him soon enough, courtesy a mundane script which, sadly, has a crackling of a premise, in fact. Kiara does a good job of looking pretty - that's about it, nothing more about her or her characterisation to write about. Akshay and Kiara don’t seem to have much of a chemistry going on. Perhaps an older heroine or a younger hero could have done the trick.

The supporting cast is fine as well except we wish they didn’t contort their faces so much – all in the name of humour. While Lawrence needs to be appreciated for attempting to portray the trans community in a positive light, the message could have been all the more taken seriously had he worked on the engagement factor instead of mildly tinkering the original.