Jhootha Hi Sahi Review

Complicated relationships, double lives, gay couples, unwed mothers-to-be, people on the verge of committing suicide - it's a pretty chaotic world out there. Emotional clutter as a cinematic theme, though, works in India only when executed by a strong star cast that makes all that seem like fun. Jhootha Hi Sahi tries to go the American sitcom way, but ends up pretty jerky and contrived for the most part.

Sid (John Abraham) is a shy, self-conscious, bespectacled stammerer whose phone number accidentally ends up a suicide helpline advertisement, thanks to a printing mistake. He's requested by the organization to pitch in for the time being - since it's rude to tell someone who's about to kill himself that he's calling a wrong number - and he does so.

He ends up inching closer and closer to one of his callers, a weepy Mishka (Pakhi Tyrewala). Mishka keeps calling him compulsively to talk, and he, in turn, starts to lead a double life with her as the confident and caring friend on phone and the bumbling and stuttering Sid in real life. And all this, when he already is dealing with a spitfire girlfriend who he has no love for.

Then, there's a Pakistani pair of siblings - Omar (Raghu Ram) and the pregnant Aliya (Alishka Varde) - with a Japanese desperately trying to propose to the sister. The gay love triangle, interestingly, seems to be the closest to reality Bollywood has ever come to in the homosexuality issue.

Jhootha Hi Sahi mostly feels like an amateur effort, and isn't as slick as Abbas Tyrewala's debut. The casual banter among the ensemble of friends draws in a few chuckles but doesn't seem like the best in writing. There are scenes that aren't well-conceptualized either, like the ones at the book store, and that betray a lack of clarity in thought.

And there are unclear parts, too - for example, why Aliya keeps refusing her boyfriend's repeated proposals, and why she says yes to him in the end. The movie is, like we said, ambitious to be a sitcom but doesn't quite put it all together.

It doesn't help that John Abraham isn't as much of an actor as, say, Ranbir Kapoor or Imran Khan - people who might have brought his character and the film to life. Ditto with Raghu Ram, who tends to keep bursting into self-conscious smiles in the middle of his wacky lines, thus ruining what could have been some fun moments.

The film is completely set in London, and contains pretty shots of the cityscape, specially the in the night. Rahman's music, however, is questionable material.

Skip it this weekend, and wait - not even to rent it, but for it to be aired on TV soon.