If you are still interested in the 'story', it involves Khelechi's hostile reception in the city, where he shuttles between a drug lord (Saswata Chatterjee), cops, and the team managers of Young Bengal and New Bagan (played loudly by Haradhan Bandopadhyay and Kharaj Mukherjee)-stand-ins for East Bengal and Mohun Bagan-with a little help from Raju and the rookie journalist (Ritabhari Chakraborty).
The film treats the character almost like an alien. All black men apparently look the same to the people in Kolkata and this matter is played out for laughs. This could have been material for zany black comedy, if not the sincere, sensitive humaneness of Sudani from Nigeria, the Malayalam film about an African footballer in Kerala. But the film doesn't wholeheartedly embrace a commercial style either, unlike say, how a Raj Chakraborty is sometimes able to. Tiki Taka has pretensions. It wants to use a famous Baul song reprised by Arijit Singh and flaunt the city's legendary footballing rivalries without really getting the spirit of either right. It's all gimmicky superficial Bangaliana, emblematic of an industry that has become too comfortable with mediocrity.
The film's tone-deafness is shocking as it is. The comedian, Kanchan, plays a small time goon who introduces Khelechi to his boss by using a Bengali phrase that puns on the word kalo (Bengali for black). What the film thinks is casual, harmless fun is casual racism, and not fun. One character mishears his surname as Ajgubi (meaning strange). It's supposed to be hilarious. I don't know. 2020 is the worst year.
The film treats the character almost like an alien. All black men apparently look the same to the people in Kolkata and this matter is played out for laughs. This could have been material for zany black comedy, if not the sincere, sensitive humaneness of Sudani from Nigeria, the Malayalam film about an African footballer in Kerala. But the film doesn't wholeheartedly embrace a commercial style either, unlike say, how a Raj Chakraborty is sometimes able to. Tiki Taka has pretensions. It wants to use a famous Baul song reprised by Arijit Singh and flaunt the city's legendary footballing rivalries without really getting the spirit of either right. It's all gimmicky superficial Bangaliana, emblematic of an industry that has become too comfortable with mediocrity.
The film's tone-deafness is shocking as it is. The comedian, Kanchan, plays a small time goon who introduces Khelechi to his boss by using a Bengali phrase that puns on the word kalo (Bengali for black). What the film thinks is casual, harmless fun is casual racism, and not fun. One character mishears his surname as Ajgubi (meaning strange). It's supposed to be hilarious. I don't know. 2020 is the worst year.