Home Minister movie review: What’s the point of this Upendra-starrer, really?

2/5

Story: Renuka Prasad/Renu (Upendra) is a stay-at-home dad, taking care of his young daughter, while also being the life of his social circle – a bunch of ladies, home-makers included – at the apartment complex he lives at with wife Surekha, a hot-shot TV journalist. When Renu ‘loses’ Rs 20 lakh Surekha had entrusted him with for her father’s surgery, things take a turn for the bad for the couple. Can Renu still save the day as a home-maker and, more importantly, why has he taken on the responsibility forms the crux of the story.

Review: In a recent conversation with OTTplay, Upendra had said that he puts himself in the shoes of the audience when deciding what projects to pick as an actor or make as a filmmaker. His most recent release, Home Minister, though, begs the question, ‘Just what audience is he talking about?’ More importantly, what was Upendra thinking in taking up a film like this? He did say that he started promoting the film only after seeing the first cut because he was confident in the subject. Really?

So, here’s the thing, as a discerning audience, we are supposed to be thrilled to bits that a hero is shown as a home-maker, while the heroine is the bread-winner. No doubt, Upendra deserves a pat on the back for taking up this role. But trouble is that pretty much everything else about Home Minister is problematic.

As Renu, Upendra is not only the doting father, but he’s also super attentive to the problems of his friends, be it the one who is getting physically abused by her husband, or another who is desperate to get pregnant, who he plies with everything (drumstick, honey, dates, etc.) that should get the hormones kicking. Hell, he even knows their monthly cycles better than them and can take off on holidays to Thailand with them, while leaving his wife and their husbands behind. Cool, eh? Not really!

That’s not the worst of it, because Sadhu Kokila also has to be unleashed. One of the major plot points of the film revolves around a reality show and that becomes the platform for some rather crass comedy to play out. Sigh!

Among all this below average stuff peddled in the name of entertainment, the few noteworthy points of the film, sadly, fizzle out without any impact. Upendra waltzes through this role with relative ease and even flexes his muscles in a scene or two. Vedhika does justice to her role. Tanya Hope truly was better off debuting in Kannada cinema with Yajamana.

Music by Ghibran, who makes his Kannada film debut with Home Minister, is not remarkable, although the strains of Summane Beeso sounded a lot like Saathiya Ye Tune Kya Kiya from Salman Khan’s Love (1991).

Verdict: Home Minister is a much-delayed film and the better late than never maxim really doesn’t apply here. This is a film that you can give a skip.