Chalo Dilli film review

One more Delhi based film... The weirest couple ever... A comedy road movie... And Yana Gupta's classic item number Laila-O-laila... All this has made Chalo Dilli the most awaited movie of the season!

The cast:
Manu Gupta (Vinay Pathak) and Mihika Mukherjee (Lara Dutta)

The storyline:
Shashant Shah, after an emotional debut Dasvidaniya, has brought in a clean comedy for the sheer entertainment of all the desi audiences. Type-casted as a road movie, Chalo Dilli highlights the local affairs in the cities of Mumbai, Jaipur and Delhi and proves to be a pure desi film. The story revolves around a mismatch pair ever Mihika Mukharjee, an uptown investment banker who is on her way to Delhi to meet her husband and Manu Gupta, a saree trader from Chandi Chowk going back home from Mumbai. This journey from Mumbai to Delhi via Jaipur is obstructed several times and is full of adventures, madness and crazy comic moments. After all this fun journey the cultural and class divide gets bridged up. Mihika finally lands up at Delhi, tired worn out and the moral of the story dawn upon her, ‘Do not judge anyone by the face value…including yourself’

What worked:
The film is in whole a desi watch, with elements like dhabas, camels carts, deserts and train journey. The dialogues sounded sharp and witty, specially because of the perfect timing by actor Vinay Pathak. Even after giving a few rough performances, Lara gets the character right and convinces the viewers of being an upper crust entity. Though songs don't play an integral part of Chalo Dilli, 'Laila O Laila', featuring Yana Gupta and 'Matargastiya', were the most noticeable tracks. the director does a smart thing by not having a cliched romantic angle between Manu and Mihika, which is a good thing.

What didn’t:
The writing is inconsistent and so is the direction. Probably, a more crisp and tight writing would have resulted in a more impactful climax. there are shades of the other cult road movie, Jab We Met, which cloud the originality of the script. You are treated to sad jokes by Manu.

Overall:
Chalo Dilli is an exciting and amusing watch, with terrific moments. If you are looking for a decent light watch, with Indian touch, then Chalo Dilli is something that you will like to watch.

Mumbai Masti Ratings: 3/5

Dum Maro Dum Review

Rohan Sippy’s latest movie Dum Maro Dum is in news for various reasons. The controversies made it as the most awaited movie of the season.

The cast:

Lorry (Prateik Babbar), ACP Vishnu Kamath (Abhishek Bachchan), Joki (Rana Daggubati), Zoe (Bipasha Basu), Lorsa Biscuit (Aditya Pancholi), Tani (Anaitha Nair) and others.

The storyline:

Giving way to the logo of Ramesh Sippy Films, the movie starts with a small montage of blockbusters of yesteryears. Lorry and his sweetheart, Tani, have sworn to spend their entire life with each other. But love comes with difficulties when Lorry fails to bag a scholarship at an international university while his girlfriend Tani does and she heads to the States for further studies while Lorry stays back due to financial problems. The drug mafia see a potential scapegoat in him and Lorry gets sucked into it!

ACP Vishnu Kamath, head of the Narcotics Department is appointed to cleanse Goa of all the dirt and drugs. Lorsa Biscuit is the wealthiest person in Goa and its self proclaimed Boss, responsible for corrupting innocent lives, and Zoe is one such victim. Then there is Joki - the local lad, a musician, and ex-lover of Zoe and friend of Lorry who also wishes to right the wrongs as he has already lost his girlfriend to Lorsa and doesn’t want to lose Lorry.

There's a Michael Barbossa who controls the entire drug scene, is rumoured to be the master of the universe but is not known to anyone. Hence unraveiling this suspense forms the rest of the story.

What worked:

The slick editing by Aarif Shaikh and great cinematography by Amit Roy works for the film. The way Goa and its rave parties are captured is commendable. Abhishek Bachchan is impressive as a Cop. Rana is a promising find. Bipasha Basu acts decent.

What didn’t:

Deepika's item song is weary and didn't do the job! Out of a sudden Abhishek starts rapping on “Thai! Thai!”. Prateik’s voice is disconnected from the rest of him. The first half of the film has a great build up to an interesting suspense drama but it starts trudging in the second half and even the revelation of the suspense is disappointing. Aditya Pancholi fails to do justice to his character. Pritam’s music works only in parts.

Overall:

A one-time watch movie with a suspense element, action, item number, romance, drama etc that can entice the audience.