LAAL SINGH CHADDHA
★★★
OUT NOW / CERT 12A / 159 MINS
DIRECTOR Advait Chandan
CAST Aamir Khan, Kareena Kapoor, Mona Singh
Advait Chandan’s Hindi-language remake of Forrest Gump is a strange, slightly surreal experience. Less a remake, in places it resembles a Gus Van Sant-esque facsimile of Robert Zemeckis’ 1994 Oscar-winner. But it is not without its charms: warmly played, sincerely made and with the odd interesting tweak to the template. Shifted from the ’50s to the ’70s, the premise remains the same — acheck-shirted simpleton (Aamir Khan) glides through the tumult of (Indian) history while besotted with a childhood love (Kareena Kapoor) — but so do much of the dialogue, motifs (a white feather!), set-pieces and imagery. Khan makes for a winning, gentle presence, but ultimately Laal Singh Chaddha feels like the infamous box of chocolates — except you know exactly what you’re gonna get.