Batti Gul Meter Chalu: Electrifying Drama - Movie Review

Director Shree Narayan Singh sets out with good intentions of addressing a simmering issue in small-town India with Batti Gul Meter Chalu. Unfortunately, everything good in this film begins and ends there. Other than the premise of small-town dwellers leading their lives around grave problems of regular power cuts and corruption within power companies, this movie leaves the viewers with little to talk about.

Set in the beautiful landscapes of Uttarakhand, the lives of the citizens seem to be driven by perpetual power failures. Amidst this is the love triangle of the shady small-town lawyer Sushil Kumar Pant a.k.a Shahid Kapoor, an aspiring designer Lalita Nautiyal a.k.a Naughty (Shraddha Kapoor) and a budding entrepreneur Sundar Mohan Tripathi (Divyendu Sharma). The first half is dominated by the camaraderie shared by the three and their aspirations, which is fun to watch. The story, however, picks momentum only after Tripathi commits suicide on being charged inflated electricity bill of 1.5 lakhs for his printing press, which spirals up to 54 lakhs in a matter of months.  The real issue is only truly addressed in the second half.

Sundar decides to fight against SPTL, the electricity company, in court and transforms into the honest, upright lawyer. Naughty too undergoes a complete metamorphosis with no semblance of her previously established character. The judge (Sushmita Mukherjee) is too casual to highlight the seriousness of the subject, while the opposition lawyer never stands out enough. In an attempt to be ironic, the second half ends up being slapstick. Although the movie ends on a positive note, one cannot help but feel a disconnect between the two halves of the film. Shahid Kapoor's acting and dialogue delivery seem exaggerated and forced in the first half of the film although he salvages much of his character as well as the film in the second half.

Shraddha Kapoor is peppy and fun to watch but her character transformation leaves the viewers, and probably the actor herself, confused. None of the characters manages to pull off the local dialect while mouthing the dialogues. The script reeks of sexist remarks which make you cringe and the music is mostly unnecessary and torments the audience. Singh's talent at addressing small town issues, first with Toilet-Ek Prem Katha and now with Batti Gul Meter Chalu is appreciable but his execution misses the crux of the story. Also, the sarcasm in the form of narrators named Vikas and Kalyan totally fails to hit the mark and comes off as bizarre. 

While this movie is average at its best, the audience should watch it for its central message- electricity is a fundamental right. Other than that, there isn't much to say or appreciate about Batti Gul Meter Chalu. What do you think of the movie? Do you have a better verdict? Waiting to hear from you.