Aloo Chaat Review

Every father enjoys standing at an airport waiting for his son to return from the US. And if he actually has a son who is in the US, it will even seem normal. The joy for Purushottam (Khulbhushan Kharbanda) is however short-lived. For, Nikhil (Aftab Shivdasani), his son who's just come to India from the US for a vacation, refuses to marry any girl chosen by him.

Nikhil's uncle Tarani (Manoj Pahwa) gently asks him what the problem is, and if he can help. Nikhil feels totally insulted, and so would you if Tarani gently asked you if he can help you - Tarani is an impotence doctor. Indeed, the only thing worse than being asked by an impotence doctor if he can help you is being told by an impotence doctor that he cannot help you.

Nikhil tells Tarani that he is actually in love with a Muslim Aamna (Aamna Sharif), and the ultra-conservative Purushottam would never accept a Muslim girl as his daughter-in-law. Tarani tells Nikhil that the way to make this look soft to Purushottam is to present something much harder first. Okay, we didn't mean soft and hard that way. We just meant that Tarani was talking of how the way to make a line look short is to draw a much longer line beside that. Okay, we didn't mean long and short that way, either. We were just saying that Tarani's idea was that the way to make Purushottam feel up was to make him feel really down first. Okay, we didn't mean up and down that way... Okay, let's just forget this paragraph.

Anyway, they hatch a plan to enact a customized version of DDLJ in Nikhil's home where they first bring a firang babe and introduce her as Nikhil's love, since Purushottam is still okay with a firang babe as daughter-in-law than a Muslim, with Aamna tagging along and slowly impressing Purushottam by how much more Indian she is than the firang. So they persuade Nikki (Linda Arsenio), an American chick studying in India, to act for a few days as Nikhil's lover.

The spanner in the works however is thrown by Chamadi (Sanjay Mishra), the ultra-suspicious brother-in-law of Purushottam, who lays it on really hard and thick on Nikhil, Nikki and Aamna. Oh crap, we didn't mean hard and thick that way now. We just meant that he constantly makes things difficult for them by hanging around like a sniffer dog and listening to all the private parts of their conversation. Wait, we didn't... forget it.

Anyway, their plan seems to be working, but the marriage, which was supposed to take place in 15 days, giving them enough time to change Purushottam's mind, is suddenly preponed to just 4 days later. Panic sets in, and the climax has things truly spurting out of control when 3 mothers of Nikki turn up. And let's keep the climax and spurting in context for once.

Aloo Chaat is a reasonably pointless movie, but one that can keep you occupied for a while if you are not getting any. Things to occupy you, we mean. An innovative plot, even if it could have been handled better, keeps the interest alive most of the time, and there are gags here and there that make you giggle and occasionally even ruffle the hair of the person sitting in the row ahead in appreciation. A scene where Aamna, Nikhil and Nikki have to reenact a sequence all over again confusing Chadami has you particularly chortling irremediably.

The performances are generally okay, though Sanjay Mishra stands out now and then. There isn't much by way of songs, which are a-okay. On the whole, this one is tolerable if you are watching it one or fewer times, especially if you are slightly drunk.