Freaky Ali Reviews by Critics

Freaky Ali was expected to get good reviews, but unfortunately both films that released last weekend have failed at the box office. The trend of both films (Baar Baar Dekho) is poor, with Freaky Ali being the better out of the two.

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Freaky Ali Review by Indicine

Rating: ★★½☆☆

Dare we say it, Nawazuddin Siddiqui’s casting is a wrong decision, even if it seems great on paper. Freaky Ali was calling out for a star who would bring his own charisma and star value to the role of Ali. Sadly, Nawazuddin hams it up a bit too much which is painful to see. Seema Biswas, another legendary actor, gives him company in hamming it up. What are these two doing in a movie like Freaky Ali, could be the subject of a PHD thesis soon. Jas Arora looks menacing and princely and is a good casting decision. Amy Jackson is stunning when it comes to looks but she can’t act.

 Freaky Ali Review by Bollywood Hungama

Rating: ★★☆☆☆

We must give it to actor turned director Sohail Khan for bringing about a new sport to limelight with FREAKY ALI. While it’s often cricket that takes away all the attention, sports like golf are left ignored. The film, that quite frequently reminds us of Adam Sandler starrer HAPPY GILMORE, has an intriguing first half filled with humour and the antics of Ali will definitely leave you in splits. While the expectations are at its peak during the second half, soon disappointment creeps in as director Sohail Khan fails to keep up the benchmark that he sets in the initial half of the film. The film succumbs to Bollywood clichés of an underdog’s triumphs that makes the second half predictable. It also falls flat when it comes to humor, contrary to the first which boasts of a good collection of punchlines. Special mention to dialogue writer Raaj Shandiliya who has managed to give some of the best dialogues to Nawazuddin Siddiqui, especially in his introduction scene where he is seen selling male undergarments, however, we wish he could have retained his series of punches even in the second half. The screenplay written by Sohail Khan along with Raaj is decent but nothing beyond average. Despite the fact that the film manages to find its space between the series of films that show an underdog ultimately reaching his goal, some are done-to-death sequences that could have been easily avoided.

Freaky Ali Review by Sreeju Sudhakaran on Bollywood Life

Rating: ★★½☆☆

While we all love Nawazuddin Siddiqui as a performer, it’s high time that he chooses his projects more carefully, since this is the third film of his this year, after Te3N and Raman Raghav 2.0, that has let us down. Freaky Ali has a few moments of comic mirth that will make you crack a smile, but the film, overall, sputters and drags all the way to the final hole.

Freaky Ali Review by Devarsi Ghosh on India Today

Rating: ★★☆☆☆

Nawaz, who is, frankly, at home playing similar characters in much grounded films with a different cinematic language, does everything possible to add juice to Ali, but Sohail Khan’s Freaky Ali, in itself, is so empty within, that it needed a star of much bigger, grander, and freakier charisma to elevate such sub-par material to enjoyable goofiness.

Freaky Ali Review by Sweta Kaushal on Hindustan Times

Rating: ★★★☆☆

Thankfully, Siddiqui, the actor, soon overcomes the banal storyline and right from the moment he starts his training to become a golfer, we start enjoying his presence. Co-writers Khan and Raj Shaandilya have come up with a modern, fun-filled screenplay that makes the cliched plot not just bearable but enjoyable.

Freaky Ali Review by Sukanya Verma on Rediff

Rating: ★★☆☆☆

Golf is a serene sport. On screen, a game about focus and patience isn’t always very exciting to watch and Freaky Ali doesn’t even pretend like it wants to enthuse forget educate except equating it with cricket for analogical purposes. It’s entirely on the writers and actors to make the proceedings seem crucial or comic. What shows up on screen is plain lazy on their part and it’s painfully dull to watch.

Review by Sarita A Tanwar on DNA India

Rating: ★★½☆☆

The humor is what makes the first half of the film fairly engrossing. The second half, which mainly focuses on Ali’s journey towards winning the championship, is what makes the film dull. The irreverence goes completely missing and the film is burdened with clichés of all kinds. The evil reigning champion, the portion about betrayal and the prayer son in the climax – Freaky Ali falls exactly into the trap it was trying so hard to avoid. Jas Arora is also incredibly irritating. Freaky Ali has flashes of fun but could’ve been far funnier. Watch it for Nawaz’s endearing performance.

Review by Rohit Bhatnagar on Deccan Chronicle

Rating: ★★½☆☆

Arbaaz Khan as a debt collector and Nikitin Dheer as a local goon are just about average. Amy Jackson and Karishma Kotak have nothing much to do in the film. However, Asif Basra and Seema Biswas do a noticeable job. Jas Arora, who plays an antagonist, looks hot in his chiselled body and bearded face. Last seen as a villain in Ek Paheli Leela, Jas surely fits the bill as an evil golf champion. Even though Nawaz performs well in ‘Freaky Ali’, the film is surely not worth the ticket price. Since Baar Baar Dekho also released this Friday, pick this only if you are an ardent Nawazuddin Siddiqui fan. The film holds no promise of entertaining you throughout.

Review by Meena Iyer on The Times Of India

Rating: ★★★½☆

While the first hour of this film is time pass, the second half loses steam because of its repetitive narrative style. Also, you know at the start that this Ali is as strong as Mohammad Ali and will win all tournaments. The bit in the story about getting sport mixed with the anti-social elements is banal, but the film doesn’t take itself too seriously. So, you shouldn’t either. Watch it for Nawaz. Director Sohail Khan, who shares writing credits too, takes a lot of cinematic liberties. Even in a Utopian state, it is hard to digest street children running amuck golf greens. Or having goondas, double up as caddies. Like they say, this happens only in our desi cinema.

Review by Shubhra Gupta on Indian Express

Rating: ★½☆☆☆

There’s a ‘message’ that’s dinned in to us via Nawaz’s ‘ordinary’ man. That no one, even a guy who hawks undergarments at a road-side stall, is worthy of contempt. That golf may be seen as a sport for the wealthy, but there’s no stopping anyone from becoming a champion. All you need is skill. And will. The poor vs rich clash is set up for laughs, and we are amused to begin with, but then the amusement dries up.The one person who keeps us watching is Nawaz, who busily shakes a leg and romances a pretty girl (Amy Jackson), when he is not sinking a hole-in-one much to the consternation of his wealthy rival (Jas Arora). His connect with the audience is instant, and he keeps it going with wry one-liners which he delivers with consummate ease. It’s also nice to see him in a light-hearted role : except perhaps for his blundering TV reporter in Bajrangi Bhaijaan, who is a hoot, he has been condemned to dark, twisted turns in dark, twisted flicks. In addition, to see him command the screen in a solo turn is a delight : he is our first true subaltern `hero’ who has moved from the fringes to claim the centre. If only this were a better film.

Review by Sameeksha on News18

Rating: ★★☆☆☆

The film is a forgettable mess. It feels bad to see a talent like Nawazauddin wasted by a superficial story and poor execution. The baseline was innovative and could’ve worked wonders if Sohail would’ve played safe and stuck to just making an inspirational story. The film is like a sixer on a golf field, irrelevant and unnecessary. Even Siddiqui’s brave act can’t save this one.

Review by Mayank Shekhar on Mid-Day India

Rating: ★☆☆☆☆

In this film, the lead actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui does, for sure. I suspect the filmmakers would have chosen the actor before the script itself. There is a latent cheekiness in his persona that only few films have explored so far (The Lunchbox might be one of them). He himself calls it “bhonde wali acting”. Yeah he’s fun. What about the rich people around giving him lessons on “ameer and gareeb”, while he lands the hottest woman in the club, and the movie goes off course thereafter? Ah, we’re just faking Ali, no? Sadly, yes.

Review by Kunal Guha on Mumbai Mirror

Rating: ★★★☆☆

Nawazuddin’s comic timing, ability to own a scene while infusing his character with vulnerability, is what works for the film. Amy Jackson is as ceramic as she has been in every other film and is little more than a prop. Jas Arora, playing the antagonist, grunts from under his facial bushes like a provoked canine and is almost caricature-ish. A Salman Khan production, directed by Sohail Khan, with Arbaaz Khan playing second fiddle, this one is a family business like few others. If the secular appeal (a qawali-aarti mashup) towards the end were to be ditched, this one could’ve been a safer investment.

Review by Vishal Verma on Glamsham

Rating: ★½☆☆☆

It was sad to see Siddiqui after such a brilliant work in RAMAN RAGHAV 2.0 making a fool of himself. Apart from Seema Biswas as Ali’s mother, Asif Basra and Arbaaz Khan to an extent, nothing else leaves any impression in this self depreciating flick which goes from bad to worse. A Devgn style entry of Jackie Shroff which makes you cringe and hit the screen with that golf stick. An unnecessarily loud Jas Arora makes you wonder and the mystery for casting Amy Jackson remains unsolved.

Freaky Ali Review by Indiaglitz

Rating: ★★☆☆☆

The second half has mild shades of humor, but goes on a dragging and predictable mode. There is nothing concrete happening in the second half of the film and has some unwanted tracks. These tracks are half baked and failed to go with the flow of the film. The whole Nawazuddin and Amy track is abrupt and unconvincing.Music by SajidWajid is average. ‘Din Mein Karengey’ will last for a short while. ‘ParindaHaiParinda’ is good, but nothing extraordinary.Director Sohail Khan tries hard to make a decent comical drama and partially succeeds in some scenes. There were few scenes and tracks (especially related to Nikitin) which could have done wonders. The director seems bit under confident due to which he decides to play safe in the second half by just dragging the novelty factor to its fullest.. Arbaaz Khan and Amy Jackson were sleep walking in the film. Their tracks are half-baked and unwanted at times. Jas Arora keeps continuing his Gulshan Grover clone type of act.

Review by Manisha Lakhe on Nowrunning

Rating: ★★☆☆☆

The trouble with sports movies is that so much of the story depends on the action. Golf, unlike a football movie depends on just one character. And even if you show four competing characters, there’s not much to ‘show’ for action except the teeing. Jas Arora makes a good competitor for Nawazuddin but even his ‘Golf is a game for rich folk and not riff-raff’ becomes too repetitive.

Review by meeta on Wogma

Rating: ★☆☆☆☆

In fact, that is what a lot of Freaky Ali ultimately is, an attempt at slapstick comedy with a coherent story. There it achieves its purpose. But in entertaining us, it does not. The story by itself is like any other sports drama except that the drama is just not enough. Yes, it is tough for me to accept that I am asking for more drama. This is despite our hero Ali being in a situation that is closing in on him from both sides.

Review by Manjari Saxena on Gulfnews

Rating: ★★☆☆☆

Amy Jackson as Megha (Ali’s love interest) is quite forgettable in her miniscule role, while Jas Arora, who plays the, expectedly arrogant reigning golf champion Vikram Rathore, tries really hard to impress and fails. To top it all, you have veteran actor Jackie Shroff making a fool of himself in the climax as the local don – I wonder, if that’s the cameo brothers Sohail and Arbaaz didn’t allow Salman to play.

Review by IANS on Zeenews

Rating: ★★☆☆☆

Jas Arora as Nawaz’s villainous adversary on the golf field tries every trick in the book to look evil. But he is more a cartoonish figure. Amy Jackson seems content playing the plaything. She’s first Jas Arora’s right-hand woman, then Ali’s. All the while she is a mere prop. Amy Aneedn’t worry. No one is likely to take this freaky film seriously.

Review by Jaidev Hemmady on Movietalkies

Rating: ★★★☆☆

Mind you, the film is not in the league of films like Bhaag Milkha Bhaag’ or Mary Kom or Paan Singh Tomar. But nevertheless, ‘Freaky Ali’ scores only because it isn’t trying to pretend to be something it is not. If you are looking for a ‘masala’ timepass this weekend, Freaky Ali will surely not disappoint you despite being predictable and clichéd.

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