Andaaz Apna Apna is one of a kind film in Indian cinema. A freewheeling spoof comedy where-in the stars – Amir Khan & Salman Khan - are not only portrayed as two independent, effervescent youth’s who take a trip to the hill-stations in search of a wealthy NRI bride played by Raveena Tandon but also as two phony industry-insiders who are parodied to spoof the Judwaa Bhai’s milna-bichadna-julna perennial thematic affection of B-town.
They were playing themselves on screen for the first & last time under phony names in AAA whilst wiping off their vanity for the sake of a gags-studded screenplay and hamming at the camera louder & louder throughout the screen-time for effect rather than for motivation, ending up making the work look like one of those insanely invigorating spoof comedy moolah that comes only once in a blue moon!
The very weakness of this film is also its uncanny strength. At one side of the coin its outrageous, giving us the blatant impression every step of the way that somebody had let the camera run on auto-pilot overdrive mode or something which is akin to a goofy, blurry slide projector from the silent era that makes a softened crackling sound from the systems and changes tracks seamlessly and accordingly whilst never stopping itself from running(unless manually stopped) all the way through till the battery gets drained.
1990’s were the golden age of foreign location-frenzied rom-com extravaganza’s in B-town and if I’m not mistaken this is exactly when the bastardized name “BOLLYWOOD” gotten popular.
Yash Banner had just unleashed their “Durr” starring SRK, Juhi & Sunny Deol which was set on Switzerland only a couple of years ago and that film alongside Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge(which needs no introduction of course), set the bells ringing for the exotica’s and over-the-top commercial epics mantra rule the roost on popular demand in the industry by way of default i.e., .
On a parellel level the Saas-Bahu family stories with wedding conundrums & the Bhaiyon Ka milna-bhijadna, re-incarnation thematic’s were also floating around the tides intermittently.
Some filmmaker had to cash-in on this formulaic affection of the industry and in Rajkumar Santhoshi the industry found its sarcastic schlockmeister demigod.
Off course there’s no point explaining the story as such because spoof comedies, all the way down to its rudiments, are nothing but a FARCE!
They masquerade in order to make fun of the exaggerated genres with the sole intent of making some quick money and Santhoshi had done just simply that in Andaaz Apna Apna.
Amir Khan and Salman Khan plays Amar & Prem, two happy-go-lucky youths, who goes in quest of a wealthy NRI heiress –played by Raveena Tandon – after reading a newspaper advertisement.
After getting to Ooty, the heroine’s place of stay, Amar & Prem try all the cheap tricks in the book in their own idiosyncratic styles to pull the rug from beneath of each other hence the title Andaaz Apna which means Everyone has their own signature styles, in vernacular language.
Hahahaaa. Acha Hai! Acha Hain! The trick lies in the fact that they get the bride only if they successfully overcome the sinister villain “Teja Bhai” played by the great Paresh Rawal who just steals the show in each and every single scene he’d appeared on. And ain’t that an understatement! He’s awesome here!
Teja is like one of those Amrish Puri caricatures who’d discovered an eerie sense of humor of sorts in him embodied with a rather eccentric and over-the-top mannerism that was infamous for the yesteryear villain/s only.
As sidekicks he’s got “Robert” & “Bhalla” two English named morons for company, who just comes up with stupid plans at each and every step of the way while inviting big cheers in the theaters.
The sarcasm is pitch perfect not only in terms of industry-politics but also in terms of mere characterization and that’s the ingenious thing about AAA.
In tidbits of screen-time we also get to see the Crime-master gogo played by Shakti Kapoor in a career cameo role, Mehmood as Johnny, the studio owner of a fake production company "Wah Wah Products" & an eccentric police inspector played by Tiku Talsania.
I found it a terse sarcasm when the movie signs off in one of those tired ol’ factory parade sequences which takes the cake in epic-sized TROLL hands down! Numero Uno!
Amir & Salman deserves kudos because they for once achieved the so-called unthinkable in our films, which is to mock and poke at each other in the same movie so uninhibitedly. There’s no way on earth that they could replicate an AAA in today’s times same way as they did on the mid 90’s.
Amir is a "perfectionist" these days and Salman is the same Salman Khan only with the difference being 10 abs bigger muscles had encroached its way and has a brooding sense of demeanor about him now, which is tailor made for action flicks(only!).
Moreover. When they poke at each other at this age – there’s a possibility that the fans of both sides might cringe and shrink in their seats, instead of whistling, hooting and embracing the whole FARCE SPOOF that was, is & ever will be in Santoshi’s Andaaz Apna Apna.
And much like Govinda from the film, the younger generation of Hindi cinema are yet to establish themselves firmly in 21st century forget about squandering vanity, exhibiting screen presence and chucking out one-liners.
The film was a mediocre grosser when it hit the theater in the 1990’s may be because the audience at the time were caught off-guard by the sheer inventive genius of the film which can be somewhat vindicated by the filmmaker’s ambition of being way too ahead of its time.
The nuance is the ace-joke here and which ever sequence that contained some nuance in it are the ones that should takes the cake as far as I’m concerned.
In one scene & perhaps its most sarcastically iconic one liner, we see Amar and Prem arguing over who would woo the girl and why. When the argument heats up "Anand Akela" the third guy turned sidekick pops up and throws a riddle which dates all the way back to Sippy’s “Sholay”.
Who wrote Sholay.? Amir points at Salman and says – “ Iske Baap ne likha hai”. The latter exhorts “Oye! Baap pe mat Ja”.
You could empathize with the submerged angst of Salman there and I’ve no doubt its the actor only who came up with that extroverted sequence.
Its no secret to us that Salim-Javed split themselves after “Sholay” and whosoever poor matinee audience that assembled in the theater to watch the show back in 94 might have deprived themselves an opportunity to really understand the Joke as a Joke instead of some kind of Marshmallow.
Judge it by its face value and what you get is a stupid, outrageous comedy. After all Santoshi’s “Andaaz Apna Apna” is studded with such insightful gems.
A consolation prize? I’m reviewing the film right here, right now and the work is part of the folk or the cult or whatever the heck you wanna call it - that set the standard for a generation to come.
Its not a great work as such. But what it is? Is an unique work.
Andaaz Apna’s uniqueness might as well be called inimitable, for what it sets out to achieve was to make us gape at the Chinesewall for well over two hours and instigate the Juvenile that the chinese wall ain’t the chinese wall as such but a chopsticks farce ever since its inception.
You say quite perfect! I’d say wicked clever.
Brilliant stuff by Santoshi. 4 out of 5! A masterpiece! Period!