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The President Is Coming

The narrative flows freely back and forth in time and the humour is biting and irreverent and takes on everyone

Namrata Joshi

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S
ometimes surprises come in small packages, like this 90-minute film made on a minuscule budget with few actors you can recognise beyond a Konkana Sen or Shernaz Patel. Shot like a mock documentary complete with the jerky moves of a hand-held camera and real-life news footage, it’s about six young Indians participating in a reality show to win them a handshake with the visiting US president George Bush over breakfast. Mediating the reality show is a PR agency headed by the dominatrix Aunty Sam (Patel) and her silly sidekick Ritu (Tanksale), married to an American and in urgent need to come into her own.

The strength of the film is in the presentation of its characters. It unfolds as they talk to the camera, answering questions of the unseen interviewer and giving some delectably inane sound bites like "I can say f***". Each of the six people could have become a stereotype but remains nicely grounded in his or her social context. A couple of them do get over-the-top at times but still remain recognisable and believable. There is Sen as the dour author obsessed with midget-tribals who thinks her works have better beginning, middle and end than those of American Hemingway. Tiwari is a Gujju stockbroker who believes the capital of USA is Dow Jones, Das is a closet gay and an ardent admirer of Kamalahaasan, Puranik plays a narrow-minded, chauvinistic Maharashtrian social worker who has issues with everyone, from divorcees to lesbians, Ira Dubey is the airhead, Paris Hilton-like, heir to a cosmetics empire and Rasheed is the accent-trainer, deported from America, helping Indians do away with their "native tongue influences". Right from the mannerisms to the lingo, the quirkiness of each of them is bang on.

The narrative flows freely back and forth in time and the humour is biting and irreverent and takes on everyone—from Bush and his speeches to those who believe in America as the land of opportunity. Right at the start, Aunty Sam declares that the choice of the handshake candidate would be done in true American way. Would it all be democratic polling, asks the interviewer, no reality TV comes the pat reply.

High Five

Bollywood

1. Ghajini
2. Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi
3. The President is Coming
4. Jumbo
5. Kaashh Mere Hote!

Hollywood

1. Gran Torino
2. Bride Wars
3. The Unborn
4. Morley & Me
5. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Pop Singles

1. Bigcity Dreams (Never Shout Never)
2. Poppin’ (All Time Low)
3. Just Dance (Lady Gaga)
4. Just Stand Up! (Stand up to Cancer)
5. Metanoia (MGMT)

Courtesy: Film Information

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US