‘Ek Mini Katha’ started streaming on Amazon Prime on Wednesday night. Let’s analyze the hits and misses of this latest OTT release.
Story:
Santosh (Santosh Shoban) believes he is impotent because the size of his genital is minuscule. When Amruta (Kavya Thapar) likes his nature and decides to marry him, Santosh decides to go under the knife in order to improve the size of his penis. This leads to some unexpected twists and turns, eventually culminating in a coming-of-age climax.
Performances:
Santosh Shoban of ‘Paper Boy’ fame picks a comical character that suffers from a supposed disability. A lot of the film was hinged on his comic timing. It’s not to the credit of the budding actor that he doesn’t quite live up to the demands of his character. Kavya Thapar is capable of some atypical emotions. Brahmaji and Harshavardhan prove to be able character artists. Sudarshan is sounding routine with his dialogue-delivery, of late. Saptagiri, after passionately playing lead roles, does a fine job as a funny lorry driver.
Shraddha Das’ character had so much caliber, but the ‘PSV Garuda Vega’ actress is wasted in a very sketchy and cliched role. Posani is unimpressive. Rajesh Khanna of Chai Bisket fame is funny.
Technical Departments:
Music director Pravin Lakkaraju attempts to lend the comedy scenes a touch of hilarity with his BGM. The songs merely scrape through. Gokul Bharathi’s cinematography is average.
Analysis:
The male lead plays a civil engineer and, in a scene, he goes to a construction site. There, a colleague asks him how much a brick stone is to be cut. “Is it 3 inches or 4 inches?” This reminds our non-heroic hero of the size of his organ. This scene encapsulates the mood of ‘Ek Mini Katha’, where people are seen talking in ‘sizes’ rather than like normal human beings.
The heroine sees philosophy in the fact that she likes only ‘Big’ things. No, not a big heart but Big Cinemas. Not a big career but Big Bazaar. After her marriage, she is reduced to a mere prop in the scheme of things, while her husband gets busy with a bunch of jokers.
Brahmaji, as the male lead’s ever-so-frustrated father, hardly has a single serious moment even when he is subjected to a series of heinous embarrassments. For 20 years, he thinks his son is a sex addict without an iota of evidence. Sudarshan plays a typical sidekick who never mouths a single emotional line.
Agreed that ‘Ek Mini Katha’ is a comedy and the obsession with extracting laughs is tangible. But, in its over-enthusiasm to make everything look comical, it forgets to lend an aura of respectability to Santosh and his wife, Amruta. The size of a male organ is an intimate affair. This film shows it as a free-for-all issue where the receptionist of a hospital expects Santosh to detail his problem and not merely tell her which specialist he wants to see. Privacy, anyone?
There is a scandalous projection of the risks involved in Penis Enlargement Surgery. Everything is milked for comedy and/or farcical drama in the film.
The second half, however, turns out to be somewhat interesting. The marital comedy falls flat here, but the family comedy uplifts the film to an extent. The scenes involving Rajesh Khanna, other family members and Saptagiri work.
Verdict:
This Amazon Prime release has got a largely disappointing first half. The second saves the film to an extent. Watch it for some laughs!