If you are expecting an award-winning performance from the latest badshah of laughs Paresh Rawal, don’t see this movie. Without further ado, let’s go. ________________________________
The Plot Two jigri dosts (bosom buddies, though only one has any bosom to speak of) Kalicharan (Gullu Grover) and Vishwanath (Tiku Talsania) are partners in a business (the business they showed was actually Nagani’s Supermarket in Bandra West. I know coz I saw it today.) As heartily as they are buddies-in-chaddis, their offspring are deadly enemies. Vishal (Amar stiff-as-an-ironing-board Upadhyay) and Priyanka (Reema my-lips-split-if-I-smile-anymore Sen) can’t stand the sight of each other. While Priyanka (referred to as P from now) is a hellion in the female form, boxes with/at anything that moves and listens to music (??) that’s at least 20 dcbs above the safe level, Vishal (referred to as V from now) is as P says ‘desi ghee ka dabba’ – a dyed-in-the-wool simple living, high thinking kinda dweeb who (according to his father) goes to temples, does not go to parties and keeps away from vices and girls alike. (Sounds like a very suspicious male to me – even his father seems to think so.) Kalicharan and Vishwanath want the kids to tie the knot while the kids wanna kill each other if they can get away with it. They hire the local neighbourhood writer Ram Prasad (that’s Ramji aka Paresh Rawal) to think of ideas to get their loving fathers to fight with each other so that they (the kids) don’t have to get married to each other. After a long, idiotic sequence of all their botched attempts, enter Bhedi Lal (Gullu Grover in a double role with buckteeth) a self-proclaimed disciple of the writer. Marathon idiocies later, everything is sorted out, the kids are in love and want to get married and alls well that ends well.
The Analysis I went to see this movie solely because it had Paresh Rawal in the credits. I had no idea it would be such a dunderhead move on my part. The saving grace is that the tickets were dirt cheap – I should have known it then itself – and the theatre was more than three quarters empty. Paresh to his credit tries his best to shoulder this utterly dumb flick on his comic ability and deadpan dialogue deliveries. However, it’s not enough by a long shot. The movie is unbearably kitschy in almost every single frame. They have tried to make a joke on anything and everything under the sun.
Cases in point:
Rakesh Bedi as the straggly-haired, stuttering editor who wants Ram Prasad to write a love story instead of the slasher plots that he churns out. He reminds you of Tiku Talsania in Dil Hain Ke Maanta Nahin and that character at least made us laugh when it appeared, this one makes you want to shoot him and then yourself in the foot, just to distract you from his inanities. (SRK non-fans beware, we have a would-be here.)
Upadhyay and Sen ham it to the hilt. These two should not be called actors by any stretch of imagination, not even on a hallucinating drunk’s who’s had a tub full of tequila shots. Actually, come to think of it, these two make an otherwise tolerable movie into something recommended to loosen constipated bowels. They are BAD.
Sen as a female boxer (thankfully she isn’t portrayed as a professional boxer) who uses the gloves every opportunity she gets. She reminds me of a drunk kangaroo who doesn’t know when to quit.
Upadhyay is FLABBY. God in heaven!! While I don’t have it in for anyone of any size, when you are watching a movie on a BIG screen, you do tend to get an overdose of flesh. However, what if the actor is flabby! Imagine the scene. Moreover, he wears one of those black see-through shirts for a rain sequence. Help!
Paresh Rawal delivers, but he was a hundred thousand times better in Awara Pagal Deewana. Grover is alright, not too over the top but lacks imagination in the portrayal of the bucktoothed Bhedi Lal. That was bad. On the pro side, there are some (rare) genuine one-liner that crack you up. The climax sequence is funny, at first.
The Conclusion
I went to see it for Paresh Rawal. Unfortunately, he seems to figure prominently on the stickers outside than in the movie itself. He has little screen time, but he tries his best. I can applaud his efforts, ditto for Gulshan Grover. The rest of the cast and the screenplay is a one colourful headache. Recommended take-alongs – a couple of Crocins, a large tub of popcorn and earplugs/BF/GF (so you don’t have to listen to some really awful stuff). Strictly timepass stuff. Not recommended for people who don’t like popcorn/are allergic to Crocin/don’t have a significant other.
P.S. It’s preferable if you can have a lobotomy when you go in to watch this one.