Review - Hulla: Much hulla about nothing

Noises in his apartment society made Raj Puri (Sushant Singh) a cranky man. This irritability introduced his wife, Abha (Kartikadevi Rane) to a new facet of his personality. The same crabbiness egged the middle-class secretary of the society, Janardhan (Rajat Kapoor), to take more pride in implementing the safety measures causing the crankiness. Repeat. Repeat. And repeat once more. With each round though, the aggravation increased. A piece of anyone's life - the noises replaced by any other irritant that cause tiffs in apartment complexes. But, the repetition made me too lazy to even yawn.

Sure, the simplicity of the plot had a Hrishikesh Mukherjee feel to it, and so does the style of narration. But Hulla misses out big time on keeping me engaged. Though, the underlying commentary on the sham that security systems are was amusing, staying attentive throughout was an effort. And I assume it was intended to be a light smile-your-way-through comedy, but these smiles were only occasional.

None of which can be blamed on the lead cast. The noises begin annoying you as a viewer despite Raj's clearly unreasonable demands. Thanks to the pained expression Sushant so consistently carries. It's just fascinating to watch the man behind most of the pain, Rajat Kapoor. Watching him as a struggling businessman from a not-so-affluent background was refreshing and it looked like he was enjoying the difference too. The casting of the two is really creative and has worked, because on paper anyone would have been tempted to swap them. Hail versatility!

Kartikadevi absolutely comes across as the combination of girl-next-door cum career-minded woman cum home-maker. And 74-year old Chandrachoor Karnik, as the ever-obedient watchman, reminded me of Shaikh chacha, a watchman in our building, who would always nod his head to all instructions. But, the rest of the cast came across as caricatures. They were sketchy representatives of each 'type' of person any apartment complex would have. The writing here surely looked flimsy compared to the lead cast.

It is very obvious that this is a fairly low-budget movie from the relatively low-profile cast and the out-of-focus scenes every once in a while. And yet, something different has been tried. Interestingly, though, another "housing society + stock exchange" themed movie has released on the same day! Anyway, there is this urge to tell a simple story well. It might not have succeeded completely this time. Come on, how much of another person's boring problem can I be expected to watch? But I'm sure the movie-makers, especially the writers will learn from their follies and meanwhile members of the audience like yours truly will learn to deal with ennui.