Fatso

Indian Express Ratings:**

Are people with layers of extra adipose worthy of being loved? There is a strongly relevant premise at the heart of ‘Fatso’,in which an overweight character finds his share of light at the end of a fuzzy tunnel. But despite a standout turn from Ranvir Shorey as the eponymous lead,and some nicely realized segments,’Fatso’ comes off flat and tonally confused.

There is a zone a lot of fat people inhabit,learning to live on the sidelines,to be the butt,haha,of jokes,to grin and bear it. And in a few swift sure sketches,Shorey lets you into the kind of fattie Sudeep is. When we first see Sudeep,he is busy eating,and all around him,people are partying,joshing,laughing. He joins in when he can,but has learnt not to expect a response. After a point,fat is invisible. It is only amongst his closest friends Naveen (Kohli),Yash (Neil),Nandini (Panag) and Tanuja (Bakshi) that he becomes a person,and even there,he knows his place.

An accident robs one of the pals of his life,leaving everyone devastated,and a romance cruelly interrupted. In trying to get the love story back to life,‘Fatso’ strives for funny-poignant,the right combination of which can make a film like this memorable,but manages it in too few places. The cast is an ensemble in which the guys work a shade better than the gals,with Kohli getting to tear about other worlds,in the company of the droll Kala,and Bhoopalam managing to sport a red spaghetti-strapped outfit like it’s the most normal thing in this world.

But this film’s brightest spot is Shorey,and director Rajat Kapoor is the most successful with him,getting us to see his mind and heart under the fat-suit. As for the rest,I will wait for the next Kapoor outing,one that will give me what Kapoor can do best,deliver well-done satire with a smile and a sting.

shubhra.gupta@expressindia.com