Padmashree Laloo Prasad Yadav Review

Padmasree Laloo Prasad Yadav would have been a good movie if the Honorable Minister for Railways had been in it for more than his special appearance. It has to be said that he alone could give all its stars a run for their money.

A frame by frame, and then some, replica of "A Fish Called Wanda" the movie very deftly defies all stereotypes in Bollywood, even those of expectations that a big movie brings with itself. It starts off well, and then reaches a new high - when it falls face first on the ground.

Not to be confused with the man, Laloo (Suniel Shetty - after two indigestible movies in a week it might not be a bad idea for him to revert to his earlier spelling) is the right hand man of Tommy (Sharat Saxena), Mumbai's most feared underworld don. He is in love with Padmasree (Masumeh). And, irrespective of what you are told, there is nothing between him and other women, not even a sheet.

Just so they could go to South Africa, Padmasree has some uncle who swindled from his dad diamonds worth Rs. 50 crore. Johnny (Gulshan Grover) and his sidekick, Yadav (the inimitable Johnny Lever), abet them in robbing the diamonds from a bank. Johnny goes to jail, which introduces to us Prasad (Mahesh Manjrekar).

Prasad is married to Polly (Anupama "hot as ever" Varma), and they are both henpecked to her mother (Kunika Sadanand Lal). Sufficient toilet humor later, Prasad, Johnny, and Yadav fall for the overflowing charms of Padmasree. Laloo and Padmasree recover the diamonds and are on the run in a BMW or a Mazda or a BMW or a Mazda, depending on which scene you were awake for in the entire chase sequence. After them are Johnny and Tommy in a Land Rover or a BMW SUV or a Land Rover or a BMW SUV, again depending on which scene you were awake for in the entire chase sequence.

Technical glitches like the one above apart (seriously, if you look for editorial continuity in Hindi cinema you need to get a life), the movie lacks in one very fundamental aspect of movie-making. It is called a script, and it needs to be especially great if you are attempting comedy. One hardly attributes any acting credentials to Suniel Shetty but that does not mean that he would not even deliver that. For a newcomer, Masumeh is good. She is cute, too, and that never hurts. The background score is like-able, although it is a bit on the loud side.

A last bit of observation. Is this really a Mahesh Manjrekar movie or one that is ghost-directed? If it is not ghost-directed, then were his previous movies made that way?