After months and months of wait and anticipation, Akshay Kumar starrer Laxmii is finally here. The film that released yesterday on OTT platform, has Akshay playing the role of a transgender. The film had earlier courted controversy for its title "Laxmii Bomb". After pressure from several wings over disrespecting Goddess Laxmi, the film's title was changed to just "Laxmii".
One would have thought that all the controversies and legal soups would have been worth it but turns out, it's not. The film has majorly received negative reviews. Let's take a look at the reviews by the critics.
Indian Express went with 1 star out of 5: Claiming to break stereotypes by heavily stereotyping people across the board is a device bad Bollywood never seems to get enough of: all the transgender characters clap their hands and dance around a fire; a good Muslim character wears a 'topi' and beard, and everyone else speaks their lines in the hope of making us laugh. No one succeeds, not even Akshay, who can be really good when he isn't taking himself too seriously.
News18 went with just 0.5 out of 5: Just when you thought life can't be more ridiculous in the remaining days of 2020, Akshay Kumar smashes our senses with his new supernatural flick Laxmii, previously titled Laxmmi Bomb. It also gives Sadak 2 an outside chance to redeem itself as the second-worst film of the year.
NDTV also went with just 1 star out of 5: Laxmii, streaming on Hotstar, never gets anywhere near delivering entertainment that could be deemed explosive. If anything, it is enervating. Starring an ill-advisedly hammy Akshay Kumar as a man possessed by a transgender revenge-seeker who returns from the dead to attend to unfinished business is a dreadful dud.
Zee went with 2.5 stars out of 5: For director Raghava Lawrence, 'Laxmii' could have been his big-ticket entry into the glitzy world of Hindi films, but he misses the chance and how! Full marks for the untouched concept and creative thinking but the direction falls flat when it comes to execution. Comedy is slapstick with no push in comic punches.
Mumbai Mirror went with 1.5 stars out of 5: Slipping into a saree, wearing a cocky countenance, Kumar hams it up in his eponymous avatar to the extent of caricature. The actor who often seems to be in his elements in comic roles struggles to evoke even a grin here. One can blame the writing as it hardly offers much to go with.