Khoobsurat may just pass off as a fairy tale with an overly strict mother of the house calling the shots for each and every single member in the household. Khoobsurat also shows the power of love and laughter, happiness, which can heal an ailing person, bring family members closer to each other and above all, help a person realize his true love. Bollywood finally has the Disney spirit in it and presents a truly mesmerising take on love. With the magical dream weavers at Disney at the helm of things, one, but obviously, would expect the film’s makers to capitalize of the timeless classic term ‘Disney Magic’. The film starts off with the introduction of a qualified physiotherapist Mili Chakravarthy (Sonam Kapoor) who is a self-confessed ‘spontaneous personality’. She is in charge of treating the players of IPL’s Kolkata Knight Riders’ team, an ‘achievement’ that qualifies to get her a suitable match, according to her Punjabi mother Manju Chakravarthy (Kirron Kher). Due to the inability of Mili’s colleague to go to the royal house, Mili fills in for him to treat the King of the palace. Right from the word go, the very vocally outspoken Mili finds herself to be a ‘royal misfit’ in the royal palace of Sambhalgarh, which is ‘manned’ by the lady of the house, Queen Nirmala Devi Rathore (Ratna Pathak Shah). Nirmala’s life revolves around her family contains of her husband Shekhar Rathore (Aamir Raza Hussain), son Vikram Rathore (Fawad Khan), and daughter Divya. Besides taking charge of the lives of her family members, she also is the person in charge of all the business dealings and maintenance of the royal legacy.
However, the well maintained decorum of the Rathore household goes for a toss the very moment Mili enters there to treat Nirmala’s husband Shekhar, who has been confined to a wheel chair for more than ten years due to an unfortunate accident which not only claimed their eldest son, but also left him paralyzed since. In due course of treating Shekhar, Mili realizes that there’s more than what meets the eye. That’s when she changes her course of treatment by befriending the King and making his life livelier and fun. Despite the fact that Nirmala and Vikram do not like Mili due to her brash behavior, they gradually come to terms with her after seeing Shekhar respond very positively to her treatments. Regardless of Vikram being engaged to a royal and rich Kiara (Aditi Rao Hydari), he starts liking Mili, even though being aware that there is nothing similar in them. Despite its flaws, Khoobsurat does manage to capture your heart at places. Even though the film is supposed to be an official remake of the 80s classic by the same name (that starred Rekha and Rakesh Roshan in the lead), Khoobsurat appears to be nowhere near the original. With a runtime of 130 minutes, this film is a story of a girl who turns the life of a royal family upside down-inside out.
Sonam Kapoor gets an author backed role; the film mainly revolves around her character. Her quirks, antics and bindass attitude is supported by smart witty dialogues. One scene that stands out is that of Milli’s first dinner at the palace, where she shows up late, follows no etiquettes, enquires about the young princess’ relationship status and eventually her phone buzzes with the ringtone ‘Maa Ka Phone Aaya’ . As for the debutante Fawad Khan, he is very convincing as the Rajasthani prince. Ratna Pathak Shah delivers what exactly was required of her to do. Sadly her role is half-baked and not even close to what her mother Dina Pathak got to play in the original, Ratna manages to make the most out of what she has been offered as the strict. The irony of Aamir Raza Hussain’s performance is that, despite him being confined to the wheel chair through the film, it doesn’t restrict him from delivering a sparkling performance. Kirron Kher once again plays the loud Punjabi mother but her witty dialogues manage to make you laugh. At one point she claims to have Rajput blood flowing in her family too despite being a Punjabi lady from Delhi married to a Bengali man. However, her loud performance tends to get a bit tiring towards to climax of the film. The rest of the cast merely help in carrying the film forward. Khoobsurat is a must watch film film for every girl who dreams of finding her prince charming & We hope Disney India creates more amazing films filled with love, happiness & makes you feel good after leaving the movie theatre. 8/10 from us.