|  Mumbai
Se Aaya Mera Dost Movie Review
Unwritten rules of the film industry (and human emotion)
say that people laugh when they see a funny movie, sigh
during a romance, grimace when they see a bad movie
and cry for a tragedy. MSAMD doesn't really fit into
any of these categories - but it will still make you
laugh, sigh, grimace and cry (now, isn't that paisa
vasool?). You can laugh - at the unintentional humor.
Grimace - at the intentional humor. Sigh - when you
realize that Abhishek Bachchan will probably never live
up to his fabuloso lineage. And cry - if the theater-wallahs
refuse to let you out before the end of the movie.
Read anywhere that this movie's about
a villager who struggles to bring electricity to his
village? Well, that's the publicists' attempt to bamboozle
you into thinking that this is a serious movie. Seen
the promos featuring Lara Dutta, umm, strutting her
stuff? That's only to lead you to believe that this
is a romance- cum skin-flick. The marketing guys were
obviously confused, and so were we - even after sitting
through 130 minutes of the film. Nobody, including the
director, quite knows what the movie is meant to be.
Uh oh... it's that part of the review
where we tell you about the story. If only it were possible
to stretch the word "zilch" into a couple
of paragraphs... Anyhow - here goes... (deep breath).
Kaanji (Abhishek Bachchan) works as
a servant in a yuppie Mumbai household. His grandpa
lives in the village and wins some "National Award",
so a minister grants the village power-supply. Kaanji
comes to the village for a vacation, and brings home
a 29" BPL TV and a dish-antenna for crystal-clear
reception. The villagers are get hooked to movies, soaps
and (for the ubiquitous religious touch) Ramayan and
Mahabharat.
Kaanji also falls in love with Kesi
(Lara Dutta). They sing some hummable Anu Malik numbers,
play Holi and snuggle up with each other, once too often,
in broad daylight. The evil Thakur (Yashpal Sharma)
finds out that Kaanji is getting a little too close
for comfort to his little sister, and he gets mad. He
is also told that Kaanji's TV is bigger and better than
his own, so he gets madder (happy already you didn't
buy FDFS tickets?). The lovers elope, Kaanji finds out
that the Thakur murdered his dad years ago and gears
up for revenge. There is a battle between the villagers
and the Thakur's men and... do you really want to know
more?
There are close resemblances with Bollywood's
most recent classic, Lagaan - the locales, the colours
and the artwork in this movie are just as stunning.
TV takes the place of cricket and the cricket match
is replaced by a good vs evil battle (that is meant
to be gory, but is actually comical). The gaon ki gori
graduates to be a sizzler in the desert. Lagaan had
a gripping screenplay, and MSAMD's screenplay grips
you too - in the neck. Had MSAMD been promoted as a
spoof of Lagaan, it might have just worked.
The performances - well, you'd feel
sorry for Bachchan Jr. He doesn't have even one powerful
monologue - most of the time, he shares footage with
his cronies or lets Lara Dutta do the talking. The acting
in his DNA continues to be suppressed by unknown proteins.
Dutta exudes sultriness in every frame, and manages
to act a li'l bit, too! The supporting cast is the saving
grace of the film. Shubro Bhattacharya and Akhilendra
Mishra provide a few laughs, but the TV related jokes
are driven into to your head till you want to scream
out, "Okay, okay - I GET it!!"
Finally. If you're wondering why the
movie has been bestowed with two and half stars:
* is for Apoorva Lakhiya for directing the pointless
movie to completion.
* is for Chunky Pandey and Raageshwari (think hard and
you might remember who they are) for making caricature-like
"Friendly Appearances".
And the half star is for the half-metre lengths of cloth
used to make Lara Dutta's cholis - perhaps the only
crowd-pullers of the film. |
