Most of the Bollywood movies have Super Heroes cum Hunks performing multitasks like dancing, fighting, flirting and the Least Acting!!! But when we have a complete realistic ACTOR RAJPAL YADAV irrespective of his height and looks & equally talented Director Chandan Arora, formerly belonging to RGV camp, the result is bound to be A CLASSIC CINEMA reminding u of the early Basu Chatterjee’s movies like Rajnigandha, Choti Si Baat etc .
The protagonist Shri Mithilesh Shukla (Rajpal Yadav) all of 5ft height is a librarian working in Lucknow University. As he is busy with his work, he prefers to stay in the University Quarters than to be disturbed by his huge family of sisters, their husbands, kids & his mother in the big Haveli.
The responsibility of bringing up the family was so much that Chote Babu as he is fondly called, never bothered to get married though he had crossed 30yrs of age. But at the behest of his Ammaji and Mamaji brilliantly played by Vinod Nagpal, he agrees to SEE the girl in Bareilly. All the while in the bus journey, he wonders how he will REJECT the girl, as he is not serious enough to get married. But Mamaji turns the coin other way in letting him know that Nowadays girls are more forward in their opinions and they might turn him down instead.
As they proceed to the girl’s house, there is a huge welcome ceremony with good breakfast and tea. But Mithilesh does not reciprocate much and wants to go back by afternoon only. As they settle down for lunch, the girl Veena (Rituparna Sengupta) meets him. Initially disinterested but at the sight of very Taller, Beautiful and Graceful Veena, he is SHOCKED!!!! He never expected this but both like each other and agree to get married.
During the wedding, he hears all type of snide comments like how Veena agreed to marry a Short man like him and this makes him wild and very INSECURE.
After marriage, any man ---- be it his best friend Salim, the Doodhwala Bhaiya, the Rickshawala or even the students at the campus who look at his wife, makes him suspicious and he tries his level best in keeping his wife away from such Creeps. But later, being so insecure that he starts doubting that Veena is having affair with her long time friend Akash (K.K.Menon). After some misunderstanding, Mithilesh realizes his mistake and begs his wife to forgive him and return back to his life.
The story (partly based on Yadav’s real life) & narration are simple, the cast is excellent and the screenplay is wonderful. Since there are no STARS in this movie, we get to watch the ACTORS in the true sense!!!
1.Rajpal Yadav: easily gets into the skin of the character of Mithilesh . His goatee beard, impeccably dressing sense, the way he drives his scooter, his voice modulation all reminds me of Amol Palekar in Baaton Baaton Mein.
When the Bollywood heroes are busy pumping iron into their body, here is the MAN who can rise above all this paraphernalia and deliver POWER PACK PERFORMANCE!!!!
2.Vinod Nagpal (of Hum Log fame)as his Mamaji plays lawyer in this movie. The way he remarks at Mithilesh in saying “Kaun Biwi Apne se Nata Pathi chahegi?” and assures him that Veena would reject him instantly shows how Practical he is in life. He has gr8 one-liners and his Hindi-English dialogue is v effective.
3. Varun Badola as Salim, the hockey coach and friend of Mithilesh reveals the spunk in his character. Though we have seen his serious act in Astitva but here he is full LIFE and UPBEAT as typical Lucknowi.
4.Rituparna Sengupta as Veena is v cute, adorable and easily essays into the role of a housewife. Thank God! No Pretensions & No designer wardrobe for her!
5.K.K.Menon as Akash deserves great accolades in projecting himself as the coolest guy much to the annoyance of Mithilesh.
Finally the Director Chandan has done his homework right. As the movie is fully shot in U.P., he has brought this look in every scene of the movie. Away from Bambaiya crowd, this movie captures the essence of Lucknow & Barielly.
There are plenty of funny scenes in this movie and the music is good. Like anyone, else I pondered whether to see this or not but its worth a DEKHO umpteen times!!!!
Most of the girls since teens, are steadily fed on Mills & Boons type of hero ----tall, dark and handsome and they always dream of such a Prince. But in reality does this matter or is what ur HEART says??? The marriage of Veena with Mithilesh finally applauds that what we seek is the inner beauty irrespective of the external parameters!!!