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Writer-director Manish Saini and his films have already won three National awards. In such a situation, we can absolve him from making The Great Grand Superhero—Aliens Ka Aagman possess a simple level of humor and entertainment and not go all out to be hilarious and whacky as the film could have been!
Blended this time with the manoranjan is a great message to we earthlings—to painstakingly protect and preserve our planet and everything in it—from natural resources to climate and more, and junk (!) pollution of all kinds.
In that aspect, the aliens shown as attackers are doing so as they were originally from planet Earth but had to move elsewhere when things became uncongenial. But this time, the attacks have to be thwarted as they are ‘evil’ forces for us anyway and want to destroy all human beings.
The film takes off, however, at a tangent. Dipu (Mihir Harshad Godbole) is the son of a man who is frequently transferred and has to make friends in every new school he has to attend, which is frequent. To draw attention and friends, he pretends that his grandfather, Dada (Jackie Shroff) is a man with superpowers who goes on missions to protect Earth. In reality, Dada is an old man scared of lizards and suffers from a bad back!
Through Dipu’s newly-acquired friend, Laddu (Shivanssh Chourghe), the story perpetuates and the whole class is soon agog. One student (Jihan Jeetendra Hodar), whose grandfather is a boxer (Sharat Saxena) is a tad skeptic. But the tables are turned when two actual aliens (Saharsh Shukla and Kumar Saurabh) land up on earth and are instructed by their ‘Didi’ (Bhagyashree) on a ‘phone’ to reach the town where Dipu lives.
Meanwhile, Dipu confides to his grandfather about the fib he has told his friends and Dada surprises him by saying that Dipu has not lied: in fact, he is a superhero. Dipu is amused, especially when Dada gets a clumsy, short-sleeved superman costume tailored and arranges for a picture with Jadoo (the alien shown in the 2003 classic, Koi…Mil Gaya).
The climax is largely based on VFX and could have been better conceived and executed, but maybe budgetary constraints came in the way. Technically, the film is average and the music is below par.
But Saini’s direction and script ensure some lively characters and performances. Jackie Shroff is a delight as Dada, amazingly real and natural in his physical limitations and moods. Mihir Harshad Godbole is spot-on as the earnest yet sometimes unscrupulous Dipu and Shivanssh Chourghe as Ladoo often steals the show with his expressions and the way he delivers his lines. Jihan Jeetendra Hodar as the suspicious boy is also impressive. All the children act well, ditto their parents. Sharat Saxena is a delight too, as is Vinod Suryawanshi as Vidwan sir. The rest of the cast acts well, but Bhagyashree as Musi is miscast and Pratiek Babbar is just adequate.
The film scores intermittently in its funny lines and situations (like Dada’s injection sequence) but I personally felt that the preaching should not have been so obvious, as the messages are pertinent but overall seem to be overdone. Otherwise, the film is a decent .112 minutes of kids-based entertainment but lacks the sheer magnetism of Chillar Party, Stanley Ka Dabba and the unsuccessful but superbly-narrated Tikdam, which was again structured around environmental issues in a small Indian town.
Rating: **1/2
Zee Studios’ & Amdavad Films’ The Great Grand Superhero Produced by: Umesh KR Bansal & Manish Saini Written & Directed by: Manish Saini Music: Parth Pandya & Ajay Jayanthi Starring: Jackie Shroff, Mihir Harshad Godbole, Shivanssh Chourghe, Sharat Saxena, Vinod Suryawanshi, Bhagyashree, Pratiek Babbar, Kundan Kumar, Riddhi Shukla, Nilesh Pandya and others.
