French Biriyani Review: A Well-Made Hilarious Comedy!

Puneeth Rajkumar’s PRK productions secured back to back releases in this direct-to-OTT phase with LAW starring Ragini Prajwal releasing last week, and Pannaga Bharana’s French Biriyani making its Amazon Prime Video premiere this week. The movie stars Sal Yusuf, and Danish Sait in the lead roles and created a good buzz with the hilariously cut trailer and looked positive in many aspects pre-release. Whether the movie managed to fulfil its expectations or not, let’s see in this review.

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At the very beginning of French Biriyani, an aged Kingpin Charles (Michael Madhu) loses his life after being bedridden and in his closing moments, he assigns his son Muscle Mani (Mahantesh Hiremath), to conduct a deal that involves drugs. Subsequently, the remainder of the film details the amusing turn-of-events when the name of the dealer gets confused by Mani’s gang members and how it changed everyone’s lives is the simple plot of this comedy-drama.

The film struck the right chord by displaying showcasing the engaging comradery of a foreigner played by Sal Yusuf with a local auto-rickshaw driver played by Danish Sait and provided a refreshing touch to the movie. The handful of subplots perfectly suited the genre, and with an engaging screenplay, French Briyani was enjoyable to a large extent.

Danish Sait delivered a delightful performance as auto driver Asgar, and he managed to crack the humor seamlessly in quite a few instances. The pivotal role Simon around whom the entire narrative revolved around was played perfectly by Sal Yusuf as his innocent act managed to garner my attention in many scenes and added the believability factor to his primary character.

Yet another intriguing character in French Biriyani who provided us with some comical relief just with his appearance and dialogue delivery was Muscle Mani, played by Mahantesh Hiremath. Considering himself as a gangster in the lineage of Godfather and Baasha, he managed to deliver an entertaining performance by sustaining a serious look. The remainder of the supporting cast did their job well within a limited span, and Malini, played by Disha Madan, meant to be the female lead of the movie shared merely the same screen time as the character Charles.

Director Pannaga Bharana’s intention of supplying a fresh comedy-drama worked out well, and the way he treated his narrative with heaps of humor and proper technicalities showcases his directing capability. He cleverly navigated through multiple emotional scenes and maintained the amusing mood through and through. Avinash Balekkala’s writing worked out really well at places with several sarcastic dialogues coping up with the current trend and a few engaging scenes.

Moving on to the technicalities of French Biriyani, Kharthik Palani, the cinematographer who did a fabulous job in Keerthy Suresh’s Penguin, maintained a vibrant rich tone inside and is easy on the eye. The film’s production design made me feel the liveliness of the city along with the retro touch in the interiors. Following his mediocre effort in LAW, Vasuki Vaibhav shines bright with French Briyani as the background score gave suited the film’s vibe decently. Notably, the Bengaluru song performed by Adithi Sagar was an impressive pick for me, and the other peppy numbers just passed by as montages.

The movie had minimal issues in the second half with a few lengthy scenes and the narration that looked conventional. Excluding these tiny drawbacks, French Briyani stands out as a well made hilarious drama in recent times and is an enjoyable outing in this restless COVID-19 period. PRK Productions and Danish Sait provided a comforting comedy-drama that will work for the majority of the viewers, and with the added bonus of releasing on Amazon Prime Video, this movie can reach to different audience nationwide. Watch ‘French Biriyani’ on Amazon Prime Video here.

Rating – 3/5 | Grade – B

Images via Amazon Prime Video