- Direction
- Acting
- Story
- Music
“Teen paranthe makhan maar ke.” Only a Punjabi, that too from Purani Dilli can come up with a code verse like that. As the mastermind Mummyji aka Mrs Baweja of “Bajatey Raho,” Dolly Ahluwalia is bang on brilliant. So is her odd little family – a small time wedding caterer Mintoo (Vinay Pathak), the jugaadi Ballu (Ranvir Shorey), her simpleton son Sukhi (Tusshar Kapoor), a firecracker of another son, the tech wiz called Kabootar (Hussan Saad), and the rangeen girl next door, Preet (Vishakha Singh). This is the A Team, the good guys who are out to avenge the death of an honest man, Mr Baweja. They have a bad guy to fight – the invincible beast Sabharwal (delivered with such devilish finesse by Ravi Kissen). On the sidelines are the greedy father-son duo where the son, a television actor likes to speak in the third person- “Amanji is a celebrity, Amanji is tense, Amanji wants brownies!” Hilarious. Sabharwal’s swami with an Om Mangalam ringtone and lusty drunken sods of brothers-in-law are a riot, but the scene stealer is Bagga (Brijendra Kalla), ready with a SMS-joke to amuse his feudal lord. I am personally a fan of characters, colourful, organically fleshed out people who resonate with life, and director Shashant Shah along with his writer Zafar Khan gives us exactly that. But that’s just about it.
A revenge comedy, something on the lines of “Khosla Ka Ghosla,” “Bajatey Raho” had all the makings of a super heist. Instead, it’s just too easy, not providing enough rings of fire for its characters to jump through. Considering Shah had probably the most talented starcast, he just couldn’t exploit them much.
On the upside, films like these are necessary, films that fall in the “Fun With Dick And Jane” genre, where those who’ve been duped of their hard earned savings, get back, fair and square. India is a hub of scams, and at the risk of sounding a tad preachy, folks need to bajatey raho. We too earned our ticket money when Pathak stages a Mata ka Jagran, on the “Desi Boyz” song Subah Hone Na De. That was priceless, because it can happen only in India!
