New Delhi

When you go see 'Laal Singh Chaddha', you'd know exactly what to expect. Aamir Khan-starrer reimagining of the 1994 Hollywood classic 'Forrest Gump' is set in an Indian context and is indeed a Bollywood redo of the Tom Hanks film. There are songs (though, thank goodness, no dance sequences) playing in the background at requisite moments. The script, written by actor Atul Kulkarni in his screenwriting debut, turns an already mawkish story even hokier. Hanks' dim-witted Gump becomes Khan's Chaddha with not just less than average IQ but also what seems to be a minor case of Tourette syndrome.

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Directed by Advait Chandan, the film, which also stars Kareena Kapoor, is slavishly faithful to 'Forrest Gump' -- for the most part. Thus, it shares with the original Robert Zemeckis directorial its hits and misses. 'Forrest Gump', a beloved film when it was released that won six Oscars and netted $678 million in box office returns, has not aged well. Over the almost three decades since its release, it has acquired a questionable reputation. 

Also Read: 'Laal Singh Chaddha' movie review: Kareena Kapoor and the story outshine Aamir Khan

Critics of the film, who perhaps watched the film from a 21st-century lens, wonder whether the film was a thinly-veiled metaphor for 'conservatism rules, you know!' Do what one is told by the authorities and you will go far in life. And if you go against the grain, against society's conventions -- like Robin Wright's Jenny Curran, who was rebellious and sexually promiscuous -- you will get AIDS as punishment.

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If you have seen 'Forrest Gump' you have a rough idea of how the story of 'Laal Singh Chaddha' goes. Laal is a boy born with less than average intelligence. But don't mention that in front of his mother (a brilliant Mona Singh who leaves a significant impact in the brief role, and I would gladly watch a prequel on her character), who believes there is nothing wrong with her son and wants him to study and interact with the other 'normal' children. Laal meets and befriends a girl called Rupa at the school, who becomes the love of his life. As she grows up and moves to Mumbai, with an ambition to become a film star, in the mind of Laal she is one constant. Well, one constant apart from his aging mother. 

Also Read: Box office: 'Laal Singh Chaddha' earns more than 'Raksha Bandhan' on opening day

Meanwhile, Laal shrugs off his physical and psychological constraints on his legs and becomes a virtuoso runner. And like Forrest Gump, inadvertently takes part in and sometimes affects important historical events. He and his mother hid as the anti-Sikh pogrom rages on in Delhi in 1984. She shears off his hair using broken glass to save him. Laal is there during Lal Krishna Advani's Rath Yatra as an observer, which ultimately led to Babri Masjid's demolition. He finds his college empty during the Mandal Commission protests of 1990.

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But similar to 'Forrest Gump', Aamir Khan's hero cannot make sense of these events and is instead a bystander. That is expected since Laal is supposed to have subpar intelligence. But a story's hero is always the audience's gateway into the story. And that is the film's biggest failure. Even more than the original, it just wishes to explore the recent history of India, but only cursorily as though they are snippets from somebody's school yearbook and not events that have made a country like India what it is now. There is no nuanced understanding here, just dumbing down history for laughs.

Watch: Critically Speaking: Is 'Laal Singh Chaddha' worth the hype?

Also, Khan already played an Indian version of Forrest Gump before, in Rajkumar Hirani's 'PK'. Much like the film's titular character who was an extraterrestrial, Forrest looks at the world and its people with the gaze of an alien, unable to comprehend humanity's contradictions. He wonders why people would rather be ambitious and unhappy than be satisfied with what they have. Even the wide-eyed look that Laal has evokes PK's otherworldly gaze. His performance as Laal appears to be just PK turned up to 11. This is not a full-bodied portrayal that Hanks' performance.

Now, for the good bits. Mona Singh is my MVP in the film. But I also loved Manav Vij's performance as Mohammad Paaji, a reformed extremist who is bemused and ultimately defeated by Laal's innocence in not realising he was there to kill him and his comrades in the Indian Army squad dispatched to take out a terrorists-occupied bunker during the Kargil War -- or die trying. Make no mistake, Gary Sinise was superb as Lieutenant Dan, but this is one aspect where I feel 'Laal Singh Chaddha' has outdone the original. Kareena is also good, but not a shade on Wright's portrayal of Jenny.

But 'Laal Singh Chaddha' is ultimately disappointing because it does not do enough to ground the story in an Indian context. There are not many 'woah' moments in the film except one I will not spoil that is about another Bollywood star. I did not want to say it, 'Laal Singh Chaddha' is a pale imitation of 'Forrest Gump'. Despite individual brilliance at times, it is more 'Dull Singh Chaddha'.

Aamir is often referred to as Indian Tom Hanks, particularly by American critics and once by Robert Downey Jr, who believe they embody values prized by their respective countries. And perhaps Khan would be flattered by the comparison. But in my opinion? Nah.