Patakha Is The Mud-Fight Equivalent of Jason Moore’s Sisters

The best thing about the otherwise-disappointing trailer of Patakha is the casting of Sanya Malhotra and Radhika Madan as two foul-mouthed belligerent sisters who fight their way through the trailer as though they were India and Pakistan personified.

Madan is specially uninhibited, giving this opportunity to break through into cinema all she’s got.

In fact, there is at the end a mention of Atal Bihari Vajpayee and President Musharraf. I don’t know if it was added after the former Indian prime minister’s death. Most of the content and characters in the trailer look like afterthoughts. Remnants of a party that was probably rocking at one time.

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Now there is only the wreckage and the aftermath.

It must have been fun for the two actresses to play the foul-mouthed siblings. But the vixens’ viciousness wears thin as you watch Malhotra and Madan give the characters of the sister’s contours that cusswords cannot define. Radhika Madan is specially effective. Giving to the ill-tempered sister’s role a sassy spirit that carries the load of extreme rancour rather lightly.

Sunil Grover plays what likes the Village idiot. He is perfect for the part. A but too perfect. The film’s male characters Vijay Raaz, NamitDas, Abhishek Dhuan are around just to make the two sisters’ unending fight look furiously funny. But somehow after a point, Malhotra and Madan’s fight begins to look as hollow as the rigged women’s wrestling match.

The ring of truth is missing in action. Jason Moore’s Sister showed subtly the friction that underlines sibling bonding. Patakha doesn’t believe in subtlety. It lets it all hang out .