Well with Saturdays and Sundays and with nothing much left for me to do, I ended up watching Cheeni Kum, a movie I wouldn’t mind watching another time. There was nothing new with the theme- a sixty four year old man falling in love with 34 year old woman, whose father is younger than the man she falls in love with, but the way in which the story was presented, with nothing kum and nothing more.
The striking difference was the struggle it presented and there is the victory for the director. There happens to be no rift between Tandoori Kabab and Gaas Poos except for an occassional outburst from the latter, as is shown in the stories such as this, rather here, the struggle is with the system. The charcters are mature to understand the thing they are getting into and manage it so well in persuading a father who is much worried about the future of his daughter.
The movie so subtly brings out the fault with the established system (the dialogues during the climax) - its is not the age that matters, it is the mindset. The difference between the father and the man, the girl falls in with has been characteristically depicted - here again kuddos to the director. And not to say the depiction of the eighty-five year old lady whose viewpoints are in keeping with the contemporary society.(Infact its so true, it is the 60’s that are stubborn and stagnant, not the 80’s, they get adapted so well!)
As for the performance, everybody did what was required, there was no over -acting. The finest was the little girl sexy and the other actors inside the kitchen of the "Finest Restaurant".
The dialogues were witty and more imporatant that it was delivered with ease and elegance. The settings perfectly co-ordinated with the movie -the umbrella was so beautiful a symbol of romance, even the very restaurant and of course the rain.
Music brought distant echoes from tamil movies, nevertheless it suited the movements completley.
On the whole, The film was so literary, a classic (in the old sense of the term).