Toilet: A Love Story (2017)

A newly married girl arrives at the husband's home to settle down only to realize that there was no toilet in the home. The villagers take a leaf out of the saying 'The world is my oyster' and suitably Indianise this to 'world is my toilet' - indulging in jolly open defecation socialization. As the niche films go, this is a really even more offbeat off regular offbeat topics, and the film makers need to be congratulated on even contemplating such a topic, that too by roping in A-lister like Akshay Kumar who plays the male lead Keshav Sharma. From such a lofty concept, the execution goes down the toilet in no time. There is usual formulaic love story. The guy falls for a girl (Bhumi Pednekar as Jaya Sharma) and stalks her - in typical Indian film style. She rebuffs him, rather severely at some point, the hero gets peeved, and after usual Bollywood drivel about how deeply he is in love, she repents and relents. Then it is the hero's turn to rebuff - that macho charisma needs to be presented - that a well educated and well-sought after girl is after the male who is sub par. This is where the 'villain' comes in - hero's father, a rank traditionalist who goes by the religious principles - or his interpretation of it. He is a stickler to scriptures, from marriages to toilets. First part is easy. The bride needs to have particular physical characteristics, but in these days of designer costumes, designer hands is not far off and the contraption works. This is just an introduction to show how tough it would be to change the old man's mind.All the while we were under the impression that open defecation is a problem because of poverty preventing an affordable toilet and/or habitual attitude against built in closed structures in favour of open air performance. The habitual often goes by the term 'cultural'. Not so, say the film makers. They assert that the real problem is religious tradition, and in particular- Brahmanical tradition. No doubt, the director found a marketable opportunity for such a socially emotive bugbear for the audience to identify themselves against. The Keshav's father is a staunch toilet traditionalist, The new bride, Jaya, being modern, would have none of it.Open defecation - to deify or defy is the crunch question. After dismissing wife's travails initially, Keshav takes her concerns seriously after she reads the riot act - 'provide me a toilet, or else..'. The film takes quite a few artistic liberties in delivering comic solutions - from visiting a home with toilet under the pretext of visiting an old immobile lady, to exploiting a train that stops for a very short while. While these are excusable, pitching the problem as modern vs religious tradition is crass. The real problems of lack of safety, hygiene have been given perfunctory treatment. Instead, they resort to the straw man - tradition over whose marketing potential countless love stories have been filmed. Other than the unusual topic, there is hardly anything edifying about the film.

Toilet is a film about the tussle against deeply rooted superstitions in our mind in the name of culture and religion. On the surface, it is a film about improving public sanitation and emphasis on making toilet in every house to counter the problem of Open defecation.But on a closer look, it sounds more like an struggle between aged and current conception. It is and assault against bygone notions which are deposited in our mind in the name of tradition and religion.Religion never harms anybody, what harms most is the delusional distortion of religion in the name of custom and heritage. And this film tries to oppose the very same distorted notions.A very noble endeavor by the director for picking such a relevant and contemporary issue. But only picking a good idea doesn't translates into a good movie.The first and the foremost issue with the film is its feeble screenplay. It drags too much. The film could have easily been edited by up to an hour. The plot had potential but is lost in the haywire storytelling and never-ending second half. The screenplay of the film would have been made into a good 30-35 minutes short film but if you are making a movie you need to have something much more than that. Aside from screenplay and editing, muddled storytelling is an another drawback. Director drags the film by putting songs and overly sentimental monologues and scenes at regular intervals but it clearly encumbers the flow of narrative. Direction is average at best. Cinematography is good. Music is complete waste and is only there to increase the length of film.Acting is good. Sudhir Pandey went too over the top however considering the demand of the script, it could be forgiven. Akshay Kumar is natural. Bhumi Pednekar was brilliant and nailed her role aptly. The performance which stood out the most was of Divyendu Sharma's as the younger brother of Akshay Kumar.So in the end it's just that the film clearly had the potential of being a powerful social satire but was lost somewhere among weak writing, overly long run-time and bland direction. It could have been much more but is sadly just a promulgation of Prime minister's Clean India Initiative. A one time watch...

Why? This is utter disappointment on a base of such a hype. Poor dialogues and the lengthy plot make this piece a torture for the audience. It carries a social message in a clear way (commercialized and attempted to entertain), well thanks for it. Had it been a short-film with such a cast and a compact story line, I would have really enjoyed it.

Toilet : Ek Prem Katha is Akshay Kumar's latest outing under his 'Cinema's Social Responsibility' campaign, and this time it is the centuries old problem of open defecation that has caught his eye. The movie is a satire on a newly married man's journey of trying to save the dignity of his wife by building a toilet for her. What poses problem for him is the mindset of a society caught in a time wrap.Writer-Director Shree Narayan Singh does a great job here by treating the problem of building a toilet at home as a genuine one and never going overboard, maintaining the sanctity of the subject. He also gives the audience a number of solutions that can deal with such problem but none seems to replace the necessity of a toilet. Bhumi Pednekar as the new bride is the protagonist here who reasons the mindset of the society standing by her dignity throughout. Her parents also set a great example by supporting her through her ordeals. Akshay Kumar's character also goes through a transformation, from someone who submits before his unprogressive father to somebody taking on the entire village single- handedly.  Seasoned actor Sudhir Pandey who has played almost every kind of father in Movies and TV series now gives yet another great performance and so does Divyendu Sharma who seems to be having a lot of fun getting to mouth the funniest lines. He stands out because of his superb comic timing. It was also great to see the ever so great Shubha Khote on screen after a long time. Unfortunately the songs are a big let down here.Toilet is a slice of life (bigger one at that) comedy that lets the audience decide their fate without being preachy.