After a decade’s hiatus, director Sanjotha Bhandari returns with her sophomore feature Langoti Man — aka Lankapura Govindachar Theertha Kumar’s ‘briefscapades’.
Having debuted with the risqué comedy Mirchi Mandaki Kadak Chai, Sanjotha attempts another signature sizzler with Langoti Man whose eponymous title hints at where the wacky film’s entertainment quotient lies.
The dramedy pits the traditional ‘kaupina’ against the modern jockstrap. The director seeks to make a scientific case for the sanctified ‘langoti’.
Theertha Kumar is born into an orthodox purohit family. He is caught between his tradition-bound grandfather’s ‘langoti’ mandate and his overarching desire to don the branded ‘undies’. His trials and tribulations will have audiences in splits.
Sanjotha laces Langoti Man with the bawdiest of dialogues, to ensure audiences are invested.
As if that wasn’t enough, the film takes a thriller turn with our butt-stuck lovelorn beau, who falls for the richly endowed Nabha. She is the daughter of an SI, who has unwittingly framed him with rape and kidnap charges.
Woefully, in sewing all possible genres into her convoluted and confounding Langoti Man, Sanjotha turns her film into a rather tiring watch.
A subtle, nuanced, and tauter screenplay would have served better to drive home the theme of self-sustainability, minimalist living and respect for tradition.
By the interval, you have had enough of the insufferable Theertha Kumar. From his didactic grandpa trying to drum sense into his head about the merits of the “two-bit white cotton putkosi” to his romance with Nabha and his loony childhood friends who are bullies.
Like its protagonist, nothing goes right for this frivolous and flippant film, which offers nothing more than mindless mirth.
Published 20 September 2024, 23:55 IST