STORY: Agastya invents alien to help his mad village on to a welfare map. Will the world get his joke.
JOKER REVIEW: Straight up - Joker arouses extreme passions. You'll love it or hate it. It's a totally off-the-wall entertainer powered by corny jokes. OTT filmi characteres and tongue-in-cheek sequences. If you like that sort of thing, you'll laugh out loud. If you don't, it's not for you.
Joker starts with scientist Agastya (kumar) who's developing the world's most shophisticated radio to contact aliens, urgently summoned from America to his desi village. With girlfriend Diva (Sinha), Agastya returns to his roots in - get this - Pagalpur, a swampy village that belongs to no indian state since the British officer mapping it vamoosed when the nation's largest madhouse broke into the place. The result Pagalpur was settled by the deranged and their descendents, self sufficient till a dam pops up, choking off its water, the reason Agastya's called back by his desperate desis including bro Babban (Shreyas Talpade) who only speaks gobbledygook, his cross-eyed father and the red-coated progeny of an English lunatic called 'Lord Falkland'.
Agastya approaches several ministers for help but recieving only snide jokes, 'Sattu' turns the joke on the world decides Pagalpur is where aliens will land . As 'UFOs' - or' as Agastya shouts, "Haan-Haan, FO!" -descend, the world's press, politicians and goodies, from electricity to phones, reach Pagalpur. As does Agastya's nemesis, nasty American scientist, the brilliantly-named Simon Goeback (O'Nell), who sets out to ruin the village's show.
Joker is literally a mad comedy, its rel stars its jokes, one villager stating calmly, "Dil toh karta hai ki qawalli gaun", another explaining an alien in a field as, "Babuji lota lekar gaye honge," glittering little gems in a crazy painting. Some performances- Talpade especially, O'Nell too - are stand-out while Kumar is adequate. Sinha makes a preety picture but has a pinched role, Pagalpur peculiarly not having any other women around. Joker's plot is inventive, inspiried by a colourful mix, ET to lagaan, Harry potter, Peepli Live, even reministent of an Asterix comic where at the end, they find oil. Its satrical - the old madhouse gets turned into the 'Pagalpur Laaj', its electric-shock room becoming the 'Presidential Suite' - and oddball, gaon-walls wearing their dhotis with triby hats.
But cheekiness aside, it's goes flaws. Apart from 'Kaafirana' and 'Sing Raja', it has unmemorable music ats lighting provides a dim auarium-like viewing experience. Agastya's boss is a mysteriously flickering 3D-like image, Diva,s scarlet nail polish appears and vanishes as rapidly as the village ET, the film's FX looks mmore tacky than techie: Quibbles aside, its funny flicks which doesn't promise the earth - but delivers a home-made alien.
