The first offputting thing about this film is the title. It sounds too coarse and boorish even though there’s no rude innuendo intended (or so I hope). It refers to a son getting his widower father to remarry before he ties the knot himself.
You have Om Puri, pot-bellied, in a grotesque wig and over-the-top clothes, chasing women, desperate to get hitched with anyone. He looks and acts sufficiently debauched as his character. But one wonders what made Puri opt for a role like this? It certainly offers no artistic challenge to an actor of his calibre. And if Puri just wanted to have fun, it doesn’t show on screen either.
Priyadarshan’s film refuses to take off. It begins as a romp, with confusions, mistaken identities and a general sense of chaos, which is all fine. But it doesn’t quite succeed in making the audience laugh.
It could have been a worthy successor to the chuckle-inducing Basu Chatterjee comedy Shaukeen; it could have come alive with some zany, inspired situations. In fact, Priyadarshan himself has been immensely resourceful with situational comedy in the clever, timeless Hera Pheri and the balmy, mad Hungama. Here he abandons that talent to depend only on loud acting and shoddy dialogues. There are only two occasions when something genuinely funny happens: the role reversal when son Akshaye berates his father as though he was his child and that one line where he scolds him about how his friendship with Puri is not worthwhile like that between Gandhi and Nehru and (mind this one) Farah Khan and Sanjay Leela Bhansali and Ganguly and Chappell! As if all this isn’t enough, Priyadarshan then jerkily shifts gears midway from comedy to old-age romance between Rawal and Shobhana but that too fails in tugging at the heart-strings.
It’s getting a bit wearisome to see Rawal play similar roles in film after film. Nice boy Akshaye too needs a fresh set of characters to make his career come alive. As for Shobhana, all one can say is that she has a fabulous wardrobe. And Archana Puran Singh? She plays yet another variation of the Lady Inspector popularised in TV comedy FIR.
High Fives
Bollywood
1. Mere Baap Pehle Aap
2. Sarkar Raj
3. Jannat
4. Summer 2007
5. Bhootnath
Hollywood
1. The Incredible Hulk
2. Kung Fu Panda
3. The Happening
4. You Don’t Mess With the Zohan
5. Indiana Jones: Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
R&B/Hip Hop
1. Heaven Sent (Keyshia Cole)
2. Lollipop (Lil Wayne, featuring Static Major)
3. Bust it Baby II (Plies, featuring Ne-Yo)
4. Take You Down (Chris Brown)
5. I Luv Your Girl (The-Dream)
Courtesy: Film Information
