AN OUTDATED, OUT-OF-IDEAS COMEDY

The Vishwak Sen starrer has little to offer beyond a barrage of risque jokes and worn-out tropes in the name of a youth-targeted entertainer

- BHHARSH

T one point in Ram Narayan's Laila, Sonu (Vishwak Sen) mumbles 'E is equal to MC square' while figuring out the make-up technique for a woman. In another sequence, Sonu carries his muse on his shoulders and runs around a park to prove his stamina – a visual executed with laughably bad VFX. In a self-admittedly silly film, these moments could have fit right in. And Laila has a good start with a rather goofy premise – A young man takes up a woman's disguise to protect himself and his mother's last relic. The sad part is, the film is also too desperate for our laughs and fails miserably in its attempts to hold our attention.

I wish the makers had the gall to go all out in their search for madcap humour. There are sprinkles of potential – Abhimanyu Singh is very good as Rustum, and there's great comedic potential in watching a powerful man, much-feared by everyone around him, go hopelessly desperate and weak-kneed when it comes to matters of love. If some of those moments evoke a chuckle, it's only because how committed Abhimanyu is to the part, irrespective of how lifeless everything else is.