.....Those dots mean
something was missing. Mainly because though the film entertained and
enlightened, it somehow falls short of being a laugh riot, and to be
frank I was amongst the very few in the theatre who didn’t laugh much -
while the rest of the audience were struggling to straighten themselves
in their respective seats. More on that later. First the introduction. May I please?
Introduction: The most impressive thing
about these new age comedies for me has been the basic concept/plot of
their storylines. Comedy is serious business, they say. But if you have
a solid script as a backup, an entire film can run solely on the basis
of it. Films like Khosla ka Ghosla; which I believe is one of the most intelligently written scripts in comedy, proved exactly that when it released last year.
Bheja Fry, the latest of these offerings, is a one night story
entirely set up in a house, involving confrontations mainly between its
two most important characters. There’s this idiot who almost fries up
the bheja of this man who started out with having some clean fun from
this wannabe singer, but ends up losing whatever he had.
Critique: Its a good, clean comedy with some great to good performances from
just about everyone, the one liners are funny but somehow I missed the
situational humor of Khosla ka Ghosla which I mentioned above. The
situations created in that film were so close to life and so well
created that any humour used in it made you identify with it, and made
you laugh out loud. The actors in Bheja Fry remind you often about KKG through
the movie, and comparisions seem to be inevitable. What Bheja Fry ends
up being is some timepass and value for money kind of
film rather than one which I was expecting to keep me in splits. Though
the rest of the audience laughed a lot throughout, and ended up
enjoying it more than I did, I was left wondering if there was
something wrong with me.
Production values were bad, and this was the reason why the film took
time to grow on you. The real action begins when Bharat Bhushan (played
by the terrific Vinay Pathak) meets the music company owner (Dil Chahta
hai uncle Rajat Kapoor).
This apart, it can be a great DVD/Television watch if you’re
looking for some entertainment. Coz it really redifines the meaning of
timepass cinema in context of the experimental stage in Bollywood
today.
The film does boast of few intensely hilarious moments, resulting from
comedy of errors and huge misunderstandings. And guess who’s at the
centre of it all - The Pukka idiot. And that makes me wonder - why didn’t the fried bheja Rajat
Kapoor get rid of him soon - instead of taking help from him often, which involved calling his people over n over
again, despite the idiot screwing up everything that came his way.
But these are minor blemishes if you consider the storyline as a whole.
It is meant for fun. They aren’t really glaring flaws, which look you
straight in the eye and make you question. They are there to be ignored
- coz if these fictional liberties wouldn’t have been there - the story
wouldn’t have moved forward at all.
Two scenes which cracked me up were:
1) When Bharat Bhushan explains Suman Rao the meaning of tharki.
2) The income tax inspector coming to know about his wife’s
unfaithfulness. (The whole of theatre was laughing for full two
minutes, but when everything cooled down, I felt pity for this guy)
Performances: Move on Paresh Rawal, this is the age of Ranvir Shorey and Vinay
Pathak. While the former shines in a small role, its Vinay Pathak who
rocks in the movie. Remove him and you’ll have nothing left. He’s very
natural, and very funny. Rajat Kapoor and Sarika were satisfactory.
Conclusion: Dont keep your expectations too high,
and chances are you may end up enjoying it thoroughly. I didn’t
as much. Coz my idea of falling - of - the - chair kind of humor comes
from better created situations. But this film requires a big
group of friends to accompany you. And trust me - you won’t be counting
how much money you spent on it.