“Babu Moshai, Zindagi Badi honi chahiye, Lambi nahin” – Anand
A cult movie dialogue which says a lot about philosophy. The plot of this movie is simply out of this dialogue. And like the plot is its whole set up(quite simple). May be because this is the first work of Bheegi Basanti Productions(fantastic name for producing Hindi movies).
Rating – 3/5
Story –
The whole movie revolves around two characters - Mihika Mukherji(Lara Dutta), who is big-time into investment banking has more than 600 people directly working UNDER her(why a capital-wala UNDER here? Wait). She is clean, drinks purest form of water and likes to walk on high sleek heels. Other character is Manu Gupta(Vinay Pathak); gutka-freak large-hearted person who wears loud clothes out of Govinda’s wardrobe and carries more luggage than Govinda did in Coolie No. 1(Govinda – man of inspiration here). By the way, is Manu going the soon-to-be name of Hindi movies(on the lines of Prem and Raj of 90s)? It sounds appealing to the opposite gender, is short, cool, funny and recently proved rhyming(Tanu Weds Manu).
Going forward, this story here is not new and has been spotted many a times in Bollywood – a road trip with two absolutely different personalities. They meet, they clash, they learn and we enjoy. Something same happened here. M&M(Mihika and Manu), both set their journey to Delhi from Mumbai and end up being in Jaipur. The road trip is now between Jaipur and Delhi where these two characters travel together meeting regular interesting people - dhaba owners, village goons, corrupt ticket collector, helpless inspectors, B-grade hotelier, system cribbing Bengalis and many more. The two characters of opposite nature learn to adjust with each other with social messages being shared in sporadic manner. So! In the end do they fall in love?
Star Cast –
Vinay Pathak – who will be the first choice to play character of a large hearted fatso? He has done these types of character many a times(previously in Dasvidaniya, Bheja Fry) and his performance momentum continue here too. Fantastic enjoyable performance with high-end quality but he needs to beware of such stereotyping.
Lara Dutta – she was never made to act but he has given a satisfactory performance in Chalo Dilli(remember she is also the co-producer, so I think the pressure worked). Her performance as a snobbish posh high society executive is not up to mark but she covers it later during her road journey. Vinay Pathak’s influence clearly visible.
Rest of the stuff is average(songs, cinematography, etc) except some of the come-on-laugh-now dialogues which are quite unnecessary. As an example, imagine the above mentioned UNDER me dialogue with Lara’s bums in focus! Also the movie starts with a lot of PJ settings(majority given to Lara) but thankfully it doesn’t reaches irritation levels.
Another drawback of the movie is its pace. It starts slow and just when it starts to bore, it gets to reasonable levels accept the emotional climax. The transition from a light hearted situational comedy to emotional ‘be-happy’ message giving ending is just too sudden and does not attract attention.
Anyways, the movie is a much respite as the comedy in parts is good and brings casual smiles. The best thing about light-hearted movies is that you needn’t bring your brain to use, it’s all so cosy!
Speaking Pictures Verdict - watchable ‘paisa-vasool’ stuff.
But why did they name it Chalo Dilli(why not my write-up’s title - Chalo Jindagi)? Chalo Dilli seems to be a freedom movement slogan and after seeing the movie, the title seems disconnected.
“to ye kaunsi badi baat ho gayi” – Manu
“bhaiya gobbar khana tha to haathi ka khaata” – village goon