Review of movie Falaknuma Das

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Rating:2/5

For those who are unfamiliar with the original Malayalam film Angamaly Diaries that this one’s a remake of, Falaknuma Das is not the tale of a gully boy’s rise to becoming a don, nor is it a story where the protagonist learns his lesson and goes on to live humbly. It’s the tale of a man who aspires to be a name everyone fears in Falaknuma but ends up crossing a line he might not be able to bounce back easily from. Sure, there’s a phase where he’s scared of the situation he’s in but it all’s well in the end and there’s no lesson learnt here. 

Falaknuma Das (Vishwak Sen) is too busy drinking with his friends, getting into numerous pointless fights filled with fisticuffs and expletives, waging territorial wars, judging women (even his own girlfriend) based on the kind of clothes they wear and laughing at jokes that involve using derogatory terms against women to finish college. Instead, he sets up a mutton shop to earn some money so he can convince his then-girlfriend Sakshi’s (Harshita Gaur) father to let them marry and migrate to Germany. But he ends up slowly inching deeper into the world of crime, graduating from just throwing a few blows to something a little more serious. He’s left so wide-eyed (literally) by the consequences, you’re supposed to care as a viewer but you really don’t.

Also in this tale are a motley of characters featuring his ‘gang’, a father-like figure Peg Pandu (Uttej) (seeing as how Das’ father passed away when he was young), a pair of arch nemesis, other random gangs, three women who fall in love with him and, of course, the much hyped up character of SI Saidulu (Tharun Bhascker) who ends up being wasted in a film that doesn’t know what to do with him. Tharun delivers such an earnest and stupendous performance; you truly end up wishing the film had more of him. Also wasted are the characters of amateur bomb maker Mallesh who just wants a regular job he can settle into and Das’ friend (Venkatesh Kakumanu) who just wants good food after a stiff drink. The duo are relegated to delivering laughs as and when the narrative seems confused about which direction it needs to go in.