Rajat Kapoor's 'Soul Concern'

The last time a fat character made you laugh was probably in 'Delhi Belly', when Kunaal Roy Kapur's Nitin Berry grimaces due to an upset stomach and sometimes makes you almost cringe between guffaws with his sleaziness. However, Ranvir Shorey's 'Fatso' Sudeep is sweet and endearing, though the same cannot be said for the rest of the movie. In all fairness, the movie has an interesting concept but the story does falter at times and at times, seems to rush ahead without regard for logic.

The film, directed by Rajat Kapoor, revolves around a group of friends comprising Navin (Purab Kohli), his girlfriend Nandini (Gul Panag), Sudeep (Ranvir Shorey), Yash (Neil Bhoopalam) and his girlfriend Tanuja (Gunjan Bakshi). During a drive on a foggy highway, the three lads meet with an accident. Navin is declared dead in a hospital and his soul is soon transported to the 'waiting room' where human souls are processed, only to find that Vijay (Brijendra Kala), who is in charge to picking up dead people's souls, has goofed up and has picked up Navin instead of Sudeep, who was originally supposed to die.

The authorities at the 'waiting room' (which is hilariously like a government office with its share of queues and harried babus), then decide to send back Navin's soul to Sudeep's body to make up for their mistake. The plot thickens now as Nandini is unaware that Sudeep's body contains Navin's soul and Navin has now to win Nandini's heart while being in Sudeep's flabby body. Moreover, Yash seems to have designs on Nandini, which makes matters all the more complicated for Navin's soul, which has been installed (for lack of a better word) in Sudeep's body.

Ranvir Shorey, as always, puts in an honest performance and so does Kohli, though his role is quote short. Brijendra Kala, who was last seen in 'Paan Singh Tomar' is excellent as the 'soul collector', who reluctantly agrees to help Navin after realizing that he has 'picked' the wrong person. The other actors too perform decently and as far as performances and story concept are concerned, there are no complaints as such. The 'waiting room' sequences are simply hilarious and Kala and the other actors, who play the role of the staff in the 'waiting room', make you laugh with their 'babu' jargon when dealing with issues like reincarnation and death.

However, having said that, the first fifteen minutes of the film seems like a documentary on college life and one tends to keep waiting for the director to get to the point. Moreover, Nandini, who is broken up over Navin's death and considers Sudeep a good friend, seems to fall in love with him quite suddenly without much wooing from Sudeep's part. Indeed, if the director had showed how a fat Sudeep courts Nandini and slowly wins her heart, it would have seemed more believable…

However, all in all, 'Fatso' comes across as a one time watchable love story, which could have been made better with a little more effort…