Hichki: Rani Mukerji saves the day.

To begin with Hichki is a typical product of Yash Raj Films, by which I mean good production value at a restricted/economical budget, unseen fresh images of Mumbai and a constant reference to their favourite poster girl Katrina Kaif. At the centre of things is Mrs. Yash Raj Films herself a.k.a Rani Mukerji. She plays Naina Mathur who proudly flaunts her Tourette syndrome and get things done in spite of her obvious drawback. And in a very Bollywood ishtyle she even gets to mouth lines like 'Tourette mere body main hain, intellect main nahin' (If I remember it right).

There aren't many good things to write about in the film. It desperately tries to be cool via  a bunch of students from slums who are literally forced to be a part of an elite school and mingle with it's crowd. One of them is a budding Juari/gambler, another a wannabe rapper and a girl who is obsessed with Katrina Kaif but strangely carry around a magazine featuring Anushka Sharma on the cover. (I think the team at Yash Raj Films got confused between the two as they are so often repeated in their films). The sad part is that neither the 'put on' swag nor their jokes/pranks elicits laughter. It also has to do with the fact that the audiences are confused whether to treat Rani's character as an ordinary girl who can take jokes and criticism in her chin or to sympathize and empathize with her situation at any given moment.

The film also tries to be funny and emotional with underwhelming response and overdone melodrama. The motivational speeches and group hugs gets ineffective after being overused as tools of adding feel good element to the film. There's nothing to take away from the film's take on education. It professes 'zindagi imtihan subject wise nahin leti' but also provides half-baked and filmy solutions to every obstacle.

The saving grace of the film, undoubtedly, is Rani Mukerji. It is a joy to see her on-screen; to see her smile and most importantly cry again. As far as acting goes, she is the female Aamir Khan. Given the mediocrity of the film; story, direction, music et al, her performance shines even brighter. I can't think of any other actress in Bollywood right now (may be Vidya and Priyanka) who could have pulled of such a physically demanding role with such ease. I sincerely hope the film recovers its cost just for Rani's sake as she hinted in her recent interviews that she will sign on another film, only if Hichki does well at the box-office.