Mumbai Se Aaya Mera Dost Review

Unwritten rules of the film industry (and human emotion) say that people laugh when they see a funny movie, sigh during a romance, grimace when they see a bad movie and cry for a tragedy. MSAMD doesn't really fit into any of these categories - but it will still make you laugh, sigh, grimace and cry (now, isn't that paisa vasool?). You can laugh - at the unintentional humor. Grimace - at the intentional humor. Sigh - when you realize that Abhishek Bachchan will probably never live up to his fabuloso lineage. And cry - if the theater-wallahs refuse to let you out before the end of the movie.

Read anywhere that this movie's about a villager who struggles to bring electricity to his village? Well, that's the publicists' attempt to bamboozle you into thinking that this is a serious movie. Seen the promos featuring Lara Dutta, umm, strutting her stuff? That's only to lead you to believe that this is a romance- cum skin-flick. The marketing guys were obviously confused, and so were we - even after sitting through 130 minutes of the film. Nobody, including the director, quite knows what the movie is meant to be.

Uh oh... it's that part of the review where we tell you about the story. If only it were possible to stretch the word "zilch" into a couple of paragraphs... Anyhow - here goes... (deep breath).

Kaanji (Abhishek Bachchan) works as a servant in a yuppie Mumbai household. His grandpa lives in the village and wins some "National Award", so a minister grants the village power-supply. Kaanji comes to the village for a vacation, and brings home a 29" BPL TV and a dish-antenna for crystal-clear reception. The villagers are get hooked to movies, soaps and (for the ubiquitous religious touch) Ramayan and Mahabharat.

Kaanji also falls in love with Kesi (Lara Dutta). They sing some hummable Anu Malik numbers, play Holi and snuggle up with each other, once too often, in broad daylight. The evil Thakur (Yashpal Sharma) finds out that Kaanji is getting a little too close for comfort to his little sister, and he gets mad. He is also told that Kaanji's TV is bigger and better than his own, so he gets madder (happy already you didn't buy FDFS tickets?). The lovers elope, Kaanji finds out that the Thakur murdered his dad years ago and gears up for revenge. There is a battle between the villagers and the Thakur's men and... do you really want to know more?

There are close resemblances with Bollywood's most recent classic, Lagaan - the locales, the colours and the artwork in this movie are just as stunning. TV takes the place of cricket and the cricket match is replaced by a good vs evil battle (that is meant to be gory, but is actually comical). The gaon ki gori graduates to be a sizzler in the desert. Lagaan had a gripping screenplay, and MSAMD's screenplay grips you too - in the neck. Had MSAMD been promoted as a spoof of Lagaan, it might have just worked.

The performances - well, you'd feel sorry for Bachchan Jr. He doesn't have even one powerful monologue - most of the time, he shares footage with his cronies or lets Lara Dutta do the talking. The acting in his DNA continues to be suppressed by unknown proteins. Dutta exudes sultriness in every frame, and manages to act a li'l bit, too! The supporting cast is the saving grace of the film. Shubro Bhattacharya and Akhilendra Mishra provide a few laughs, but the TV related jokes are driven into to your head till you want to scream out, "Okay, okay - I GET it!!"

Finally. If you're wondering why the movie has been bestowed with two and half stars:

* is for Apoorva Lakhiya for directing the pointless movie to completion.

* is for Chunky Pandey and Raageshwari (think hard and you might remember who they are) for making caricature-like "Friendly Appearances".

And the half star is for the half-metre lengths of cloth used to make Lara Dutta's cholis - perhaps the only crowd-pullers of the film.