You often go to the theaters expecting a great movie, but what you get is a mediocre film with the same “poor boy meets rich girl” story or the age-old love triangle. It isn’t a pleasant feeling is it? But sometimes you go to the movies expecting nothing great but are pleasantly surprised. Waisa Bhi Hota Hai is one such pleasant surprise. If you like movies with a believable story line and an unpretentious approach towards society, you are gonna like this flick. Of course it doesn’t have the star power of an SRK, or the dimples of Preity Zinta nor the screen presence of Amitabh Bachhan but what it does have is something “different” and refreshing to offer.
So lets get down to what the movie is actually about? It is about various loose ends that somehow in some weird way tie in together. Arshad Warsi is Punnet Sayal, who works as a Copywriter in advertising and earns Rs.70, 000 per month (Do copywriters actually earn that kinda money????). Anyway he is not very content with what he has got and wants to earn a Crore and say Good riddance to Bombay in favor of his quite hometown Nainital. Apart from this our man Puneet has a top cop named Agni Sinha (Sandhya Mridul) as his girlfriend. They are in a live-in relationship. Agni is a tough as nails woman and thinks she knows everything that there is to know about her boyfriend. What she does not know is that Puneet has (or had) a brother who worked for the underworld and has just been murdered. She is not too pleased with Puneet for not telling her about this earlier and the couple uses this as an excuse to have a fight. The next minute Agni throws a fit and asks Puneet to get his bag and baggage and move out from her apartment. Well..Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned and Puneet promptly obeys his girlfriend’s orders and moves out. Now he doesn’t have any place to go to. Does he? So he drives around Bombay in a taxi and drinks a lot of beer. He is trying to spend the night on a bench, when he is witness to a shoot out. There is a man lying out there who has been shot and is in a real bad way. Puneet’s initial reaction is to get as far away from this situation as possible. But something inside tells him to help this man out. So he does. And the next thing you know, the guy he saved turns out to be a Hitman Vishnu (Prashant Narayanan). Somehow these two develop a kind of a bond and become good friends. Visnhu works for Ganpat (Anant Jog), who is an ageing underworld don and is rivaled by Gangu Tai (Pratima Kazmi) who is always looking to get one up on Ganpat.
That is all you are gonna get from me as a teaser. How Puneet finds himself unwillingly involved in the gang war between Ganpat and Gangutai, how he deals with the fact that it was Vishnu who killed his elder brother and what happens to his relationship with his girlfriend cop, who is now in charge of this case forms the rest of the story. If you wanna find out, then there is only one way and you know it. Get of your arse and go watch the movie, but whooooa wait a sec this review is not done yet.
The movie deals with real life situations and shows things the way they happen. Like Puneet getting all cosy and comfortable with his female colleague even while he has a girlfriend is something that does happen to a lot of us. It’s neither black nor white. These are shades of grey. There are other scenes too that stand out such as the one where Vishnu takes his new found buddy to a brothel to introduce him to his sweetheart. Then there is a bunch of Sardarji’s who are on a holiday in Bombay and the ruckus they create everywhere they go is quite amusing. The director has also used a unique setting to narrate certain other events while providing three different points of view with the Barista trio. It’s three people sitting in a Coffee shop talking about the “News” from their own perspective. The ending though is a bit contrived and a little too convenient. But that is just one minor let down in a movie which has more ups than downs.
The music of the film may not have done too well on the countdown charts but trust me almost all the songs are different from each other and appeal to different moods. I would have to say that the sufi influenced “Allah ke Bande” track takes top honors along with the svelte “Sajna” number and the peppy “Laundiya”.
Of the performances, Arshad Warsi as the happy go lucky Puneet leads from the front. Arshad Warsi hasn’t been doing too much after Tere Mere Sapne but he comes good with this performance. Prashant Narayanan in his role of a Hitman who goes about his job with no sentiments, is simply amazing. This guy comes up with yet another well-crafted performance after “Chall” and although he was playing a similar role to what he did in “Chall”, he makes the difference between the characters known with the utmost subtlety. I just hope he doesn’t get typecast doing these kind of roles. Sandhya Mridul is pretty convincing too, although I didn’t find her performance anything great to write home about. Pratima Kazmi and Anant Jog are matured character artistes and turn in seasoned performances as well. Plus you have a special appearance from Mahima Chaudhuri.
And I am there in the movie too, I am the guy who is on the extreme left of the screen in the Prem Dunk song. Just Kidding. I am not there but that shouldn’t discourage you from going and checking out this movie. You will find it like a breath of fresh air.