If you want to brush up on your North Indian slang and replenish your vocabulary of choice abuses and insults, then Saat Uchakkey is just the ticket. Writer-director Sanjeev Sharma’s debut film is chaotic and crude, with seasoned talents like Manoj Bajpayee, Kay Kay Menon, Annu Kapoor, Vijay Raaz and Anupam Kher sucked into the ridiculous.
The story follows seven no-hopers who become part of a slipshod plan to pull off a robbery, a get-rich-quick scheme of Pappi Jaatwala (Manoj Bajpayee). However, the film opens in a mental care facility where a newly recruited doctor is fascinated by a dangerous inmate called Bichchi (Annu Kapoor), who’s rumoured to have mysterious powers. Bichchi escapes and is next seen several scenes later, in the narrow lanes of old Delhi, weaving his magic on these clueless robbers, and Pappi in particular.
Pappi and his magnificent men and one woman embark on an “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom meets The Mummy in inner Delhi” kind of hunt, to find a treasure hidden within a disputed haveli in the neighborhood. The team includes Pappi’s paramour Sona (Aditi Sharma), Jaggi (Raaz), Haggu (Nitin Bhasin), Khappe (Aparshakti Khurana), Babbe Tashni (Jatin Sarna) and Phodu (Vipul Vig). Always a step behind is the local cop, Tejpal (Kay Kay Menon), who happens to hold a candle for Sona. Kher plays the slightly cuckoo owner of the controversial haveli.
Do the far-from-magnificent seven pull off the heist? Let’s save the spoilers. Suffice to say, the climax does come with a twist but it’s wholly unsatisfying and a tad convenient. The one highlight is the way the actors embrace these characters, banter easily and show relish for those expletive-heavy lines.
Saat Uchakkey releases in theatres on Friday.
