French Biriyani: Hits and misses

French Biriyani, directed by Pannaga Bharana, is a film that revolves around mistaken identity and a bag. The first thing one is reminded while watching the movie are videos which Danish Sait has started making during the lockdown. Like his videos, here too there are diverse characters, each with their own quirks.

This is a movie made for Bangaloreans. Or rather, people who understand Bangalore's culture might enjoy this movie far more than people who are unaware of it. While most films explore the tall buildings, tech parks and the millennials’ hang out spot of Bangalore, French Biriyani explores the left-out part. While this film is better than last week’s Law, it still struggles to impress the viewer.

It’s clear that the makers wanted the film to be a laughter riot. While trying to do so, they left no stone unturned. It looks as though a bunch of jokes was written and thrown at a wall. Only a few of those jokes stuck. And the range of these jokes goes from erectile dysfunction, to RCB, and to Huccha Venkat.

This film again is a product of poor writing. This is a kind of film which is always on the run. The characters are always on the move. While such films go on from one event to another while you’re laughing, French Biriyani seems like a stand-up comedian waiting for the audience to finish laughing so that he can go onto the next joke. Only here, the pauses are too long. Such films feel like a sprint race. But, French Biriyani feels like a marathon. And speaking of race, there’s a cringy joke related to race as well.

The film is chaotic. It should be one. But the chaos shouldn’t go out of hand. It should be a well choreographed chaos. The chaos should originate from the characters. Characters should not be written to create chaos. There are a few characters in the film who hang around until the end. These characters do not add anything. They have no purpose.

Cinematographer Karthik Palani has done a good job of capturing the chaos. Be it the cramped-up spaces, or the vivid colours. The screen is always filled with either characters or props. It’s never empty. And at any given second, a lot is happening. But there’s a thin line between chaos which is enjoyable and chaos which is annoying. French Biriyani starts off as an enjoyable chaos, but slowly it becomes a chaos which is annoying.

For the few laughs which it provides, two hours feels like a lot of time. To enjoy those few laughs, you’ll have to tolerate a bunch of other poor jokes. Asgar, played by Danish, is an auto-driver. Just like Bangalore’s auto drivers the film also takes unnecessary turns, making the journey longer. Maybe this is what Pannaga Bharana wanted to portray. Or am I reading too much into it?

Jokes apart, this is not a disastrous movie. If fine-tuned, it has all the potential to be better than what it is. No film can be flawless. Except here the flaws get more screen time than the good part.

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