After a long time, Akshay Kumar is finally back in a role that suits his talent and his star power. Raj Mehta’s ‘Selfiee’, a remake of the Malayalam film ‘Driving License’, pits two unlikely antagonists against each other.
Akshay Kumar plays the role of superstar Vijay Kumar, in which some of his real-life successes have also been included.
Playing Vijay’s row, Akshay returns to his genre of action ‘comedy’ with excellent comic timing.
In the film, he has been shown to be such a celebrity, who can gather more crowds than singers who have won Grammy Awards. However, then comes a difficulty. Before leaving the country with his wife (Diana Penty), he has to expedite the process of getting a driving license to shoot the climax scene in Bhopal.
This brings us to the second hero in the story ‘Om Prakash’ (or are both the villains?). Emraan Hashmi has played this character honestly. Om Prakash is a sub-inspector in Bhopal RTO and is also a big fan of Vijay.
The basic story of the film is taken from the Malayalam film itself, but on watching the film, some similarities can be seen with other Bollywood films ‘An Action Hero’ and ‘Fan’.
However, it becomes clear in the film that unlike the original, this film goes in favor of the star. Perhaps this has been done because nowadays hashtags like #BoycottBollywood spread like wildfire.
Due to misunderstanding and arrogance, a game starts between a star and his fan. It seems pointless to comment on things like the relationship between stars and fans, popularity of celebrities and fans worshiping their stars.
‘Selfiee’ does not satirize the humiliation of stars and social media trends, but shows them as they are. In the pre-‘n action hero era, this might have worked, but now it seems unlikely. But that doesn’t mean there’s no humor in the film – many of the jokes and comic timing are brilliant.
There is also an actor Suraj Diwan (Abhimanyu Singh) in the film, who was once a star like Vijay, but now he is only getting offers from films like ‘Car Aids’ and ‘Pitaji’. It is through his character that we meet Kusha Kapila.
Kusha Kapila is brilliant in her role. He has embellished the script with his personality. Another actor who deserves praise is Nusrat Bharuch. In the role of Om’s wife Mindy, she is brilliant.
If we are talking about humour, Meghna Malik should also be mentioned, whose talent was not fully squeezed. However, whenever she is on screen, she looks fabulous.
The film also seems a bit long. Apart from the two heroes of the film, the rest of the characters do not get much time. ‘Selfiee’ could have been better, but the film missed this opportunity.
