Guldasta

In short: If you miss seeing Cheeni Kum, you would not have missed much. I rate the movie at 2.5/5.

The more I see movies like Cheeni Kum, the more I come to respect the pivotal role the Director and Script Writer play towards the final outcome. Cheeni Kum could have been great, but ends up with little going for it inspite of honest performances by Amitabh Bachhan and Tabu. The reason is that it is overcooked. The tongue-in-cheek dialogues are one too many and after the first 30 minutes you desparately want to hear some real sentences.

The story is about an acerbic owner of an Indian restaurant in London (Amitabh) who meets his match in a software engineer from Delhi (Tabu); much like fresh lime meeting honey. One thing leads to another and soon they fall in love. But their marriage plans face the wall in Paresh Rawal who simply cannot live with the idea of his daughter marrying a person older than her father.

Most of the time, the humour is trite and repetitive; for example the repartees concerning the umbrella and the cheap references to condoms. I also found the movie to be insensitive in the humour it wishes to derive from the waiter whose teeth are protruding. I could (probably) take the joke one time but when a chef in the kitchen keeps having his fun from the same pair of gums, it starts to get on my nerves. Real fun is all about wit, not about below the belt jokes on someone’s physical appearance.

Then there is Amitabh doing this silly “lets make it out” act that is as cheap as it gets. And when he lies down in the middle of a field wanting to do it right there with Tabu, you know the ship has sunk.

And what is Paresh Rawal doing in this movie? Who wrote that role? His character is a total waste and makes you run for the exit, something I would have done had I not paid through my nose for the ticket.

I definitely felt that the script writer has struggled for all those one-liners. They just do not seem to be free flowing. And that is what kills them. A fact highlighted by the character of Zohra Sehgal. When even she cannot ignite the screen on some occassions, you know there is a problem somewhere.

If you are a die-hard AB fan, go see it. I wonder if there are many die-hard Tabu fans out there, but those who are, will be glad to know she puts in a fine performance and is my choice of best performance in the movie.

There are simply zero surprise packages in the movie. The title song is catchy and hummable. I do not recall anything other than that as far as music goes.

Cheeni Kum is a movie that has namak zyada and will leave you with a not-so-good taste in the mouth.

If you are short on time,  here is my three word review of “Life in a Metro”

Go see it.

If I could, I would have given a money back guarantee in case you did not like it. The story revolves around six love stories played out with a common thread running through them.

But before you go on, maybe it is best to know what kind of movies I like. Because any review is at best a reflection of likes and dislikes of the person writing the review. From the recent years, these are some of the movies I loved (in no particular order) – Dhoop, Seher, Water, Dil Chahta Hai, Main Meri Patni Aur Woh, Bheja Fry, Yahaan, Khosla Ka Ghosla, Omkara, and Swades. That is not a complete list but maybe just enough to tell you what kind of movies I like. If you do not connect with this list, we are probably very different people and my review holds little meaning for you.

I am NOT going to tell you the names of the characters, or who are the pairs or the many situations. That is for you to find out. I am just going to tell you the emotions and thoughts I carried back, with some minimal help from script details.

Words that came to my mind while watching the movie and later as I replayed it in my mind are these: sensitive, real characters in real situations, beautiful poetry in the songs and the dialogues. There were a few scenes which seemed over cooked but they are just a few and I happily forgive the director (Anurag Basu) because the rest of the movie is just so poetic.

The surprise package is Shilpa Shetty – watch out for her. I haven’t seen all her movies but from what I have seen, this is her best performance by far. She is the big boss in this tale. And then you have Konkana, Irfan and Sharman giving solid performances. Shiny is very good too. Kay Kay is good but I would rate him lower than others because his expressions and mannerisms are so alike his other works that I felt I was seeing Kay Kay and not the character he was playing. Kangana is good and looks her part. And if I had a choice I would have cast Waheeda Rehman instead of Nafisa Ali. Sure Nafisa is a beauty even at her age but she appears wooden in some scenes which otherwise had good potential to move you. And Dharmendra was not very good either.

The songs have great lyrics and beats and are nicely woven into the storyline. The characters themselves never sing – thank God for that.

Except for the Dharmendra-Nafisa story, all the other threads are well sketched and get sufficient time in the script. The movie is full of thoughts that leave you thinking for a long time after. But you need to be alert for some of the lines else you will miss them because the director never pushes them. He just leaves them lying around like gems to be picked up. Hear Shilpa describe her failed marriage and finish it with a superb line which goes something like “ab hamare beech ki khamoshi aapas mein ladai karti hai”.

A small peek into the script – The character of Irfan is done extremely well. Konkana is your typical suave, polished, intellectual girl dreaming to fall in love with someone like minded. Understandbly, she dislikes Irfan who is your typical crude, loud talking, no qualms about lying, roving eye kind of guy. How their love story develops is a class act and the underlying message about what really makes good character is superb.

I’d hate to tell you about specifics and ruin the fun of chancing upon gems. So, heres the conluding line:

If you want to see a movie with greater characterisation, genuine poetry, real life delimmas and real life lessons, go see “Life in a Metro”.