Half Fry Review

Half Fry will have its faithfuls who will anyway come to watch what's cooking this side of the Musi. Others will have to choose between the following two - continue to lie in wait for the next release from Bombay that will have chaste or urbanized Hindi and pastel blues and pinks; or brush up on their kya to bhis, kirkiris and a whole lot of other local lingo, to come to titter at a bunch of Hyderabadis clowning their heads away.

The earthy nice-guy Mukhbir alias Anand, and the wise-cracking Sahil (Mast Ali), are two friends with nebulous occupations, who're having a harmless little drink after a long day. They come across a bloke called Mannu Bhai, who makes them think they've cheated him, when in fact he's cheated them - they figure this out on the way to jail.

Now, a police lock-up can do many things to many people, but in the case of Anand and Sahil, the policeman has had a rough night listening to their endless chatter, and is indeed kissing Mannu Bhai who has now come to release them.

The quirky but juvenile Mannu takes them to a bungalow to live there for a few days. He has engineered this plan to cheat the bungalow out of the hands of Singhania, a decent kind of guy who's a hotshot in the city and who's fighting a case over the bungalow with his foster brother, the don Thakral. Bhai's only heard of the case, and Singhania has no idea he even exists.

So naturally, all's well for some time, and after the 60 seconds are over, all hell starts to break loose, slowly, but surely. For one, they keep getting random calls placing orders for women - the bungalow apparently had quite some interesting goings-on earlier. Then, Thakral's No. 1 henchman, Sanki, has escaped from jail, and is knocking on their door for some reason. The trio of klutzes messes with him, and he ends up dead on their lawn, with no one knowing he's dead, not even our heroes.

They also have female company in the form of a lady called Kiran, who claims she lived there in her previous birth. And this is just the prelude to the mess. Many twists and a few more characters later, the story comes to a logical end - you have had your share of laughs, they've got their money, you're headed home, and no one's hurt.

Don't go by that poster you saw - Half Fry doesn't have flesh. Not more than a few shots here and there, at least. The one bold thing they wanted to show, they show with a mannequin, anyway. The lingo's the hero here, and a smattering of bad language apart, it's amusing. But then, Half Fry has the license to go low on humour - it's the kind of film that finds it funny that a man in the washroom can make enough explosive noises to drive away troublemakers in the living room.

As for performances, the lead trio didn't even need to have an acting range of one expression per head, and they pull it off really well. The rest of the cast is okay, but they don't damage the comic timing. The bit about the beefy goonda with the voice of a kid is hilarious. The girls have real roles, but start off trying to be sleazy, even if they do a fairly average job.

The music's just an accessory, and nothing that you'll want to remember. The rest of the film's technical values are very, very low.

Half Fry won't make you roll out of your seat, especially if you're no fan of the cult it belongs to, but if you're missing Paresh Rawal's goofiness, we think this one might be able to tune you up a wee bit while you wait.