Freaky Ali is loosely based on the old film Happy Gilmore that I had seen about a decade ago. Adam Sandler’s counterpart in the Hindi version that I saw yesterday is one of my all time favourites, Nawazuddin Siddiqui.
Instead of taking off from ice hockey like Gilmore does in the English version, Ali takes off from being a super cricket player in his inner city low income group area. A neighbour who just happens to be a caddy takes Ali into his hand and trains him to be a pro golfer instead of being an undergarment peddler and part time extortionist hoodlum.
The film has been classified as a sports comedy and I have no issue with that. I have no issues with Nawazuddin Siddiqui’s performance though in my opinion, he has not received proper direction to showcase his histrionic talent. Just about all the other members of the cast emote and overdo their bit but I suppose that to get a comic effect out of a fairly serious situation, that is the only way to go about it.
It was an enjoyable outing but nothing that I would rave about. I would give it a three star out of five stars rating and advise my readers that you can see it if you have nothing better to do!