An official adaptation of the original Malayalam film Driving Licence, Selfiee follows the story of a superstar pitted against a police officer at an RTO over a trivial issue that escalates quickly. The story here is pretty good and I was pleasantly surprised as to how close this adaptation gets to the original. If anything, the differentiation did lay in its tonality with the original being quite mellowed down but that doesn’t take away from the fact that the core emotion here not only is intact but slightly enhanced given the current tempest surrounding Bollywood. The screenplay standing at about a 145 minutes is slightly longer than the original but you won’t really feel the difference here!

The drama does begin with the introduction of the two protagonists – one in reel life with a movie playing within a movie, and the other a notable fan of the former. It was important to establish the crux of the relationship pretty well at the start and to the writers’ credit it was done quite well. A minor criticism at the start can be attributed to the fact that the film was not true to the area where it is set in. The location was Bhopal here but the vibe of the city was missing, either through its dialogues or through the surroundings.

If you have watched the original Malayalam Film then you would know that there was a steady sense of world building there with a tinge of humour. The leisurely pace would often allow you to invest in characters better. But the same may not be necessarily true for the Hindi speaking audience. We had previously seen the same in the Hindi adaptation of Drishyam 2 which was edited so minimalize the initial buildup. And the makers do opt for a similar strategy here as well. Which is not to say there was no buildup here, instead, the scenes were shortened so much so that there was a lot happening at any given point of time. Another green tick for the adaptation!

As far as Driving Licence is concerned, we do remember that iconic scene at the police station wherein the tension is slowly escalated to a boiling point. This scene here was deconstructed into being a little less layered and a tad simplistic. But the events before and after that sequence are commendable with the right doses of humour infused within the screenplay. The events are interesting and engrossing with minor tweaks made to the screenplay that doesn’t really change the overall core of emotions.

Speaking a bit about the politics of the drama, it is often seen that the tension between two individuals is brewing primarily due to the people around them. And that is well established here too. The level of misunderstandings that some miscreants can cause was an eye opener here, as was the case in the original. I did like how accurately(and over the top) the media was represented here. While you would assume that the public sympathies would often lie with the common man(which is true), it doesn’t take time before the media can switch sides. And that bit was interesting as well! I also did like how the entire ‘Boycott'(or Boy Cut, Boycoot…take your pick) culture was infused in the screenplay. This made me want to think that the timing of this film in terms of its adaptation was absolutely spot on!

The events leading up to the final act including the elaborate driving test – including the verbal one. And those parts were executed pretty well. If anything, I would have liked if the drama would have been further grounded as opposed to that one over the top sequence that I did witness(which was that one complaint in the original too). But the end is heartwarming and you could feel the warmth between the two characters once realisation sets in. Overall, the screenplay here is a clear winner and almost matches up to the original!