Mujhe Meri Biwi Se Bachaao Review

They got the "Bachaao" right. That's what you want to scream out loud if you are unlucky enough to have wandered into the midst of this totally pointless, meaningless and unbelievably mindless saga of rich fat biwis, unfaithful husbands, amateur tricksters, irritating policemen and frustrated newlyweds turned kidnappers. The title itself should give you enough clues about the quality of the movie. To those who are curious enough to attempt to watch it, I will just say that curiosity can kill more than cats.

Harry Baweja does a brilliant job of getting on your nerves. What makes the experience all the more frustrating is the presence of actors like Naseeruddin Shah and Rekha. What were they thinking! In fact, it might be an interesting exercise to speculate on the reasons the two agreed to do Mujhe Meri... Did Baweja kidnap Naseer's kids? Or does he know all of Rekha's deep, dark secrets? Other (rather unprintable) reasons leap to attention, all of which I'd rather believe. The idea that the two volunteered to act in such a monstrosity is more than any fans of theirs can take.

For those interested, Mujhe Meri Biwi Se Bachaao is a remake of the Danny DeVito starrer Ruthless People. Kamini (Rekha) is the grossly fat wife of Anand Mathur (Naseeruddin Shah). When her father dies leaving all his property to Kamini, Anand sees a bleak future for himself. He then falls in love (?) with painted doll Anuradha (Suman Ranganathan) and decides to kill Kamini (by referring to a book titled "How To Kill Your Wife Naturally"). All his plans fail, basically because Kamini is fat. Get it?

Anand also manages to cheat Rocky (Arshad Warsi) out of some money, and so what does Rocky do? He kidnaps Kamini, and demands a huge ransom, which, of course, Anand refuses to give. Life goes on. Kamini miraculously thins down and returns. Huh? And did I forget to mention that Anuradha too, along with a boyfriend, is trying to cheat Anand out of his money?

That's the crux.

With the kind of deliberate gestures that we have come to associate with the Tom And Jerry cartoons (my apologies to them), padded cheeks and a even more padded you-know-what, Rekha is revolting, and it's really sad. Naseeruddin Shah's role doesn't even offer him the comfort of physical comedy, and that's equally sad. The others aren't worth a mention, though there was a really good-looking dog that deserves one. The songs are terrible, and I must put in a word about the choreography, too - bad.

Bachaao! Bachaao!