'Cirkus' movie review: Rohit Shetty’s worst film yet

Cirkus

Hindi (Theatres)

Director: Rohit Shetty

Cast: Ranveer Singh, Varun Sharma, Sanjay Mishra, Pooja Hegde, Jacqueline Fernandez

Rating: 1.5/5

Rohit Shetty’s latest with Ranveer Singh is titled Cirkus, but it hardly has a single memorable circus performance. Everything in this film is just a desperate excuse to gain the attention of the audience.

For instance, it is billed as a comedy yet the jokes are terrible. It is called the so-called Christmas entertainer but has no moments worthy of our time. It is colourful, perhaps to attract children. But even they understand the importance of subtlety. The gaudy colour tone of Cirkus strains your eyes.

Lastly, the film has an ensemble cast. The director has been extra careful to pick the wrong actors (barring a brilliant Sanjay Mishra) required for a slapstick comedy drama.

Inspired from Shakespeare’s The Comedy of Errors, Shetty’s film is about two sets of identical twins (Ranveer Singh and Varun Sharma in dual roles) who were separated by a doctor (Murali Sharma). He wants to prove his theory that upbringing shapes the personality of a person than bloodline.

One Roy-Joy pair grows up performing circus in Ooty while the other pursues business in Bengaluru. Expectedly, confusion prevails when the two sets of twins land in the same place. The premise gives ample room for humour but the comedy in Cirkus is stale, so much so that it feels like the writers were lazy to not even work beyond their first drafts.

Shetty’s understanding of the south Indian lingo is still restricted to ‘macha’, ‘lungi’ and ‘vada’, as we hear in the overrated Internet hit ‘Current Laga Re’, which has Deepika Padukone shaking her leg to south Indian-style choreography.

The terrible staging of chaos will make the out-of-form Priyadarshan’s (once a master of the genre) recent films appear better. Cirkus feels like a coy attempt from Shetty to make us abhor it, so that we start finding his previous works reasonable. In reality, they are insufferable too, just that Cirkus is his worst till date.

Jacqueline Fernandez and Pooja Hegde aren’t often chosen for their acting capabilities, while Varun Sharma, a reliable performer, is seen essaying two underwhelming roles. Ranveer surprisingly delivers a flat performance.

If this is the standard of quality from a director known for popular films, Bollywood must not delay any further in its course correction as it draws curtains to a forgettable 2022.

In Cirkus, one Roy is called Electricman as he has a superpower — he cannot get electrocuted. However, the other Roy gets electrocuted, whenever his twin brother comes in contact with electricity. In reality, it’s the audience who feels ‘shocked’ by this ultra-boring film. It’s right to borrow a line from the film and aim it at the filmmaker: “Shock you, Shetty”!