F.A.L.T.U. (2011)

F.A.L.T.U directed by Remo D Souza and a copy of Hollywood film "Accepted" must have been done with good intentions bur fails to strike a chord.The movie is very bad.Story: After barely making it through their Secondary School Certificate examinations, Ritesh Virani, whose father is a Kabadia, is unable to get admission in any college. He is not the only one though, his pals Pooja Nigam and Nanj Nair are also in the same leaky boat. They attempt in vain to secure admission through the father of their scholarly pal, Vishnu Vardhan. Then Ritesh's father decides to fire his hired help and get his son to do the work, and Pooja's dad decides to get her married, the desperate friends get together and concoct a fake college 'Fakirchand And Lakirchand Trust University', with the help of their money-lender friend, Google Chand. They recruit school-teacher, Baaji Rao, as Principal, whose performance is unacceptable by his school principal due to lewd references to 'Munni's Badnami' and 'Sheila's Jawani'. Google Chand offers them a derelict mansion in Panchgani, which they must renovate, invite their respective parents and show them that they have finally been accepted in college. Things get out of hand when scores of youngsters with poor marks show up, insisting on being admitted. Unable to handle the situation, the group let things ride - but not for long - for soon the police and Mr. Vardhan will get involved - threatening to burst their bubble once and for all.The movie tries so hard to make you laugh.The story is copied so no marks for that.The direction is bad.The music is good.Performances:- Ritesh Deshmukh and Arshad Warsi save the show from going awry.They are awesome.The rest of the actors fail to create impact.All in all F.A.L.T.U is bad.

FALTU is primarily geared to tap the Generation-X multiplex audience (read that college crowd). It has everything to soothe their eyes and ears. Right from the hardships of being a student, goading parents, college gags, the rat-race of exam scores and of course foot tapping music. FALTU has certain good moments thereby nearly ducking itself from being categorised as fully FALTU. Overall the concept works in pockets but not in entirety. Inspiration to 3-Idiots are visible, however to make it palatable the entire creative team should have indulged in progressive brainstorming exercise and questioned every aspect to better it. In the era of "India Shining" the education system needs a revamp and no two ways to that. But the ideas suggested/ recommended in FALTU are closer to mockery than plausibility. The producer with big pockets has the might to re-launch the twinkle of his eye. Jr. Bhagnani fails to register a strong impact on a yardstick of star material. Puja Gupta can be aptly described as "out of sight, out of mind". Don't expect "Rolling on the floor laughing" comedy looking at names like Ritesh Deshmukh, Arshad Warsi & Boman Irani. Akbar Khan enacts poor man's Feroz Khan. Chandan Roy Sanyal has clearly accepted the assignment either for money or goodwill. Sushmita Sen, Mallika Sherawat & Mithun Da make a cameo appearance as a gratitude to Vashu Bhagnani. "Party Abhi Baaki Hain" is sure to be a rage in the disc. Others might gain popularity over period of time. As a choreographer he is two-thumbs up, wish I could use that expression for Remo as a director. PS: Expect launch ver 3.0 sometime soon.

Call it Justin Beiber's memorabilia. Its still lousy strands of hair. Call it the world's most callipygian figure. Kim's booty still churns out ordure. Call it a novel educational institution winnowing talented yet malingering youngsters. It's still a fake college. Remo D'Souza's FALTU is a self indulgent, vacuous and unscrupulous hack of a movie that flagrantly screams out "I am different!" but ends up as a turgid ride.Ritesh Virani (Jackky Bhagnani), Pooja Nigam (Puja Gupta), Vishnu Vardhan (Chandan Sanya) and Nanj Nirani (Angad Bedi) as are four teenagers (!!!) who party all the time, but during the day (It's not America). Vishnu is suppressed by his dominant, pusillanimous father (one dimensional to the power of infinity and beyond!!) and he scores on grades but is inhibited from following his dream (Am I watching Three Idiots?). Pooja is flustered by her father's continual pursuit in getting here engaged ("its child marriage" she retorts when her father broaches about the topic). Ritesh's father is a scrap dealer who seems to be quite an indigent person (Ritesh, however, is a spendthrift who has the time to visit a number of places and spend lavishly). Nanj is a father-fearing loser who has a constipated face throughout the film. Vishnu excels with flying colors (in a clichéd scene where he seems dejected at getting 94% instead of 95%) while the other just scrape too but remain carefree (a variety of humdrum witnessed till now).So, one gets admission at a prestigious college while the others are repeatedly rejected. The three abjects hit upon a novel idea of establishing a fake university with the help of Google (Arshad Warsi) just to satisfy their parents. A fiasco happens when hundreds of others turn up thinking the university is legit. Riteish plays Baaji Rao, the fake principal of Fakirchand and Lakirchand Trust University (F.A.L.T.U) in a hairy appearance, probably to make him look mature as an actor.Now, my main complaint with the movie is that it celebrates a shameless concept. What happens later doesn't matter; it's the reason why it happened in the first place that holds importance. Here, we have three futilitarians who don't take anything seriously just to be labeled as creative minds. I really am offended by this concept. I, being a critic and having a dream of getting into theater, don't spend every single moment hanging out and partying just to make myself more sincere in my field of interest. It's like deeming all artists, musicians, actors, fashion designers, gym instructors brainless mutts who germinate their creativity by partying hard. There are exceptions but most of them really take their work seriously.The problem here is that never is it shown in the entire first half that any of these minds have any flair for what they want to become. It seems very impromptu and improbable.Also, the hodgepodge that the movie becomes is because of the different genres it tries to encompass, abortively. Comedy, comedy, drama, comedy, comedy, drama…. drama, musical!!! The indecisiveness devours the final product. The only slightly humorous moment is the song during the opening credit which is pedestrian wittiness. It throws onto the screen boisterous, seizure-inducing colors that really feel spunky and effervescent. Then we proceed to the barren exam sequence that has the usual tense faces among the characters and silly giggles among the audiences who always tend to feel nostalgic, even when the scene is shown in the same manner countless times in movies. Let's get nostalgic and forget that we saw such a scene just in the last film! Also, the lack of scruples revolts me. A fake university is set for an exorbitant sum, ignoring laws just to turn it worse by creating and hosting a fake website foolishly; and then making everything seem like a right step. It's something that happens when the person in charge of the film doesn't know what is right and what is wrong and pushes his opinionated views as the right one. The actions taken by the four friends in the beginning was wrong and they should not go unpunished or even shown completely in the positive manner which is what happens in the movie. The wrong is right and the right is wrong. And Mithun is there to take the final call, in an utterly uninspired climax.Akbar Khan's character as a narrow-minded father who exposes the fake university was morally right, according to me, even though he himself is a stubborn and egoistic being. Coming back to the story, I feel the impact of the climax fell completely flat as it had no relation with the rest of the film. The sudden dance competition where a gorgeous number is performed seems out of the blue for a movie focusing firstly on aimless then creative kids. Now all become fabulous performers! A very multi-talented bunch of misfits indeed! The performance was extremely lovely but entirely out of the place. I'd have rather paid Rs200 and watched the performance live.The acting is forgettable. Jackky didn't shoulder the film but sort of pillion-rode it. Angad 'Constipated' Bedi should stick to commentary and reality shows (It's become a fad for every reality star to get into films). Chandan is a shade better but I really have stopped expecting brilliance from the new stars (except Ranbir Kapoor). Puja should probably get an award for the most unnoticeable performance of 2011. Boman Irani will be typecast if he continues with such roles. Akbar Khan's performance is stilted and affected. Arshad Warsi sounds funny when he isn't supposed to (seriously guys, do away with those overtly dramatized scenes). Riteish is a fine actor but is wasted just like the others. The collegians know three emotions: happiness, sadness and anger. That is not being three-dimensional as a performer, but just 3 different emotions.The movie is quite volatile in its direction and condescending in message. Putting it simple: A bad film 2/10

I had not seen Steve Pink's Accepted, so I can't say to what extent F.A.L.T.U was copied. But I have heard that it is a complete Rip off.F.A.L.T.U was as predictable as it gets. The humor is not at all humorous (barring a few punches). It was the same old film regarding the shortcomings of education system presented a bit differently. The only thing you will remember when you walk out of theaters is the last performance, its simply superb, hats off to Remo for such good choreography (though it too was copied from a talent search).Remo was only good as a choreographer in the film. His directing was hardly impressive. Acting was ordinary, songs were good (but there were too many of them,which made them irritating). Screenplay was bad. In short it was a debut gone wrong.I would rate it 3/10 And Where were the Cameos ?