The one and only thing that works in Cheeni Kum is the relationship between the 34-year-old heroine and the 64-year-old hero. Patently derived from As Good As It Gets, the war of the opposites is charming and quite believable in the urban Indian context where relationships are getting redefined quietly. There’s the Jack Nicholson-like Bachchan, an eccentric, unhinged, over-the-top London cook who is shown his place, and the right way to cook zafrani biryani, by the no-nonsense, visibly intelligent single woman Tabu. Nothing really happens, they date, have impish conversations, flirt, and fall in love. But before you can appreciate the normalcy of this no-fuss romance, the action hurtles towards maudlin melodrama involving characters that are overcooked. There’s the precocious kid Sexy (Khara), who can be best described by this wonderful Bengali word: paaka. There’s the hero’s mom (Zohra), loud and artificial, and the Gandhian father of the bride (Rawal) whose satyagraha is the ultimate killjoy. It all leads up to a melodramatic climax with Big B shedding copious tears in Qutub Minar. Balki also tries to mix the Hollywood style of storytelling with loud, native humour which is unappetising. No wonder the kitchen conversations of the cooks and the waiters leave you more exasperated than cheerful.
