‘What The Fish’ Review Roundup: Film Disappoints with Overcooked Comedy

"What The Fish", a situational comedy film starring Dimple Kapadia, hit the screens on Friday (13 December) with moderate reviews.

The film, directed by Gurmeet Singh, recently made headlines when model Poonam Pandey and controversy queen Rakhi Sawant promoted it.

Dimple, seen on the big screen after a long time, plays the role of a 67-year-old woman. The story revolves around the woman who wants to leave her hometown and needs someone to take care of her money plant and fish.

The film was earlier slated to release next year but the makers rescheduled the dates.  

Read the critics' reviews here:

Renuka Vyavahare of The Times of India writes: "What the Fish has a promising premise and an intriguing start but runs out of steam way too soon. A few minutes into the movie and you'd already guess what the climax could be. The non-linear narrative manages to engage you in the beginning but lack of humour and interesting characters make the execution look a tad tiresome and repetitive.

"In terms of treatment, the film borrows from The Hangover's 'What the f*** is going on' theme but falls flat as the writing is unimaginative and predictable. Characters keep walking in and out of the film, with none making a mark.

"The 'idea' behind the movie can be appreciated for its novelty but it fails to develop into a full-fledged comedy of errors, which was the intention. If you like funny movies, there are plenty more fish in the sea."

Mohar Basu of Koimoi.com writes: "When a film is titled What The Fish, it reads aloud the cue for you to make a dash for the next film-viewing option. An absolutely lame and ridiculous film barring Dimple Kapadia's scorching screen presence, it makes no pretense about being utterly stupid. It is an empty film with no thrill, no excitement and mostly no fun.

"The worst thing about the film is its stale and trite writing. For a comedy, there were no cleverly written sequences. Though the film's first half is better as compared to the drab second half, overall the script itself is extremely amateurish leaving behind a few dangling loose ends which make absolutely no sense at all. 

"At its run time stretching over two hours there were barely any reason found that makes What the Fish a must watch. Be prepared to cringe through most of the spread and the humor dries up too soon leaving the film boring and drab."

Suhani Singh of India Today writes: "If there is one thing that director Gurmmeet Singh gets right about his film, it's the title. What the Fish is filled with absurd situations and an array of supposedly quirky, certainly irresponsible characters whose job is to annoy you. Do they succeed! Their accomplice in this crime is a script which prides itself in being inane but fails terribly in being even remotely funny. 

"Completely sidelined is the film's most fascinating character Mrs Mishra. Kapadia does what is required to essay the part of a lonely divorcee in her 60s whose friends are never seen only heard. What the Fish could have focused on Mishra's isolation, her constant irritation and lack of trust in the world. Instead in its failed mission to be humorous we are given a half-baked portrait of a frustrated woman who only nags and is later seen as delusional."

Subhash K Jha writes: "So okay. Comedies are hard to sustain for more than hour...and yes, this one does over-run its playing-time by 20 minutes although it's just about a 100 minutes in length. And that's a 100 conveying sustained satirical strength. The quality of the humour and the context of the characters' comic tangles is, on the ha-ha-ho-ho whole, adroitly maintained sustained and executed.

"I found portions of the comedy to be under-nourished and over-baked. The climactic scream ended up as a shuddering whimper. But that didn't take away from the swing and the sting of the frenetic chuckle-worthy happenings."