Chashme Baddoor

Starring: Ali Zafar, Siddharth, Taapsee Pannu, Divyendu Sharma, Rishi Kapoor, Anupam Kher
Directed by David Dhawan
Rating: **

Besides the “a” replacing the “u”, there were bound to be significant departures in the new Chashme Baddoor from the old Chashme Buddoor. The most obvious is the loss of a sense of place. The very real Dilli of yore is replaced by a plastic, artificial Goa. The detailing and irreverence make way for smart-aleck jokes and one-liners. Dhawan takes the broad framework and theme of the original (of friendships, jealousies and presumed betrayals), retains some situations and twists and then adds some of his own. Result: a film that manages to work with today’s audience, looks set to hit the box-office bull’s eye even though some of us may keep missing the original.

Not that Dhawan hasn’t played with classic comedies earlier—a Bawarchi turn in Hero No.1 and revisiting Pyaar Kiye Jaa in Haseena Maan Jaayegi. These reinterpretations can be watched many times; but Chashme Baddoor is strictly a one-time watch. And that’s not just to do with the lack of Sai Paranjpe magic. Dhawan’s own sense of infectious fun and boundless madness is hard to spot here. In the name of energy and liveliness, things get way too over the top and loud, acting gets hammy and the jokes that start off smart and silly (the slaps and the “arz kiya hai”) soon turn infantile. The film had me worried chiefly because the talented Divyendu might soon be facing the danger of playing the same character in different films. His role here feels like a leftover of the one in Pyaar Ka Punchnama. The one who manages to reach out is the new ‘Miss Chamko’ aka Taapsee Pannu, a believable girl on screen, rather than a wannabe Barbie babe. Sad then that the original Chamko detergent scene, which should rightfully have been hers, is taken away and turned into an utterly wishy-washy sequence. Dhawan also fails miserably in his reinterpretation of the Hindi cinema thread of the original. It had a tongue-in-cheek thought behind it, here it seems to have been thrust in just for the heck of it.

Nothing is quite as eerie as watching a comedy in a hall echoing with laughter while a smile rarely plays on your face. Quite clearly I didn’t get the joke(s) here.

Or maybe I should acquire a new sense of humour.

High Fives

Bollywood