” had created a cult-like appeal.
As I watched the 2020 David Dhavan remake, I was catapulted back into the frenzied hip-hop of the roaring 90s! Apart from that, the new movie was unable to cast a spell. Varun Dhavan is a handsome and talented actor who has cast a spell in
and other films. Sara Ali Khan is glammed up (though costumes are not tasteful) but her acting skills are untapped. I wish David Dhavan would have reimagined the storyline after a quarter of a century! If he is thinking of vesting money and energy in remaking other Govinda movies with Varun, he must rethink it.
Varun Dhawan and Sara Ali Khan in Coolie No. 1 (2020) | Pooja Entertainment/Amazon Prime Video
In
heaviest load carried by Varun Dhawan is the burden of legacy.
Dhawan’s latest project has been directed by his father, the 1990s hitmaker David Dhawan, and is a remake of the 1995 comedy of the same name. That film itself was a remake of the 1993 Tamil production
Chinna Mapillai, which in turn borrowed a major plot device from the 1970s classic
Gol Maal.
The first
Coolie No. 1 was written by Kader Khan, now deceased, and steered by the still-extant and evergreen Govinda. David Dhawan seems to believe that what Govinda did – and only Govinda could do – can be replicated by his son. This fatherly indulgence works very poorly for Varun Dhawan, who never quite comes into his own in a production aimed at resurrecting the ghosts of the past and recycling 1990s chartbusters and jokes.