'Laal Singh Chaddha' review roundup: Aamir Khan's 'Forrest Gump' remake gets love from international critics

Aamir Khan's much-awaited film 'Laal Singh Chaddha' is finally out in the wild and the first reviews have begun to trickle in. At the time of writing, the film has a strong score of 80 per cent on the review aggregation site Rotten Tomatoes. Mostinternational publications have given favourable reviews to this Advait Chandan directorial.

Also starring Kareena Kapoor, Naga Chaitanya, and Mona Singh, 'Laal Singh Chaddha' is an official Hindi remake of the 1994 Hollywood classic 'Forrest Gump', which starred Tom Hanks in the titular lead role. Atul Kulkarni has penned the script. The story follows Aamir's character whose mind did not grow since his childhood, but he is a kind-hearted, innocent man. The story recounts his life and his relationships as he inadvertently affects some of the major events and personalities in 20th-century India.

The original film starred Robin Wright, Gary Sinise, Mykelti Williamson, and Sally Field.

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Also Read:Before 'Laal Singh Chaddha', watch these 8 great Hindi remakes of Hollywood movies

The Guardian's Mike McCahill said about the film, "Assiduously replicating its predecessor’s strengths and weaknesses, the one thing it risks is that a three-word summary – Hindi Forrest Gump – would tell you all you ever needed to know about it."

IndieWire's Proma Khosla wrote in her review, "Instead of a box of chocolates or the obvious Indian equivalent, the film takes things a step further, adding strong depth and resonance to what could otherwise have been an unremarkable adaptation."

JoySauce.com's Siddhant Adlakha wrote, "An effective (if messy) adaptation that not only localizes the specifics of Forrest Gump, but translates its relationship with its setting, swapping the self-professed peace and prosperity of ’90s America for a more volatile and nationalistic climate."

Austin Chronicle's J Hurtado was less impressed. "Laal Singh Chaddha is Forrest Gump for people who thought the original film was too edgy, and that’s not a good place to be," he wrote.

Slash Film's Witney Seibold even called the film better than original. ""Laal Singh Chaddha" is hardly a Terrence Malick-like contemplation of pacifist philosophy — it's ultimately a broad, sentimentalist opera designed to have audiences reaching for their handkerchiefs — but it does have a more complex and gentle point of view than the film it's remaking. Despite how corny it is, "Laal Singh Chaddha" isunexpectedly disarming," she wrote.