Delhi Belly

Cast: Imran Khan, Shenaz Treasuryvala, Rahul Pendkalkar, Vir Das, Kunal Roy Kapoor, Vijay Raaz, Paresh Ganatra, Raju Kher, Rahul Singh, Rahul PendkalkarDirector: Abhinay DeoProducer: Ronnie Screwvala, Aamir Khan, Kiran Rao, Jim FurgeleBanner: Aamir Khan ProductionsMusic: Ram SampatLyrics: Amitabh Bhattacharya, Akshat Verma, Munna Dhiman, Ram Sampat, Chetan ShashitalStory/Writer: Akshat Verma

None of you, I am sure, is DK Bose. But the first thing you ought to do after reading this review is bhaag and get yourself a ticket for the most hilarious comedy of the year -- Delhi Belly. It’s a film that brings the house down, both figuratively and literally.

The camera scans through the cracked roof and the messy interior of a run-down room, through the musty bathroom and its antediluvian flush, and rests at last on the partly exposed bumline of the fatso who’s going to have the Delhi belly after eating a piping hot fried chicken handmade by a crotch-scratching vendor. Writer and associate director Akshat Verma sure has an imagination to cook up a plot that’s clever and hilarious without ever succumbing to the slapstick.

In this ramshackle room reside three chums - Tashi (Imran Khan), Arup (Vir Das) and Nitin (Kunaal Roy Kapur). Tashi is a journalist with a girlfriend (Shenaz Treasurywala) he doesn’t really want to marry. Arup is a cartoonist in an ad firm, and Nitin a photographer. The plot thickens when Nitin suffers from diarrhoea, and a package containing his shit sample is mixed up with another package containing smuggled diamonds.

In one of the best and yet yucky scenes in the film, the gangster (Vijay Raaz), after receiving the package, lays out a velvety cloth on the table, carefully brushes away the dust, and opens the container and upends it for the glory of sparkling diamonds, but what comes out is slushy shit. 

The squeamish souls be forewarned. Delhi Belly is stuffed with scatological gags. There’s more orange juice in the refrigerator than water in the bathroom for the diarrhoeal Nitin to potty wash. And hardly a few reels go by when he isn’t scurrying to a seedy toilet to relieve himself, and also farting liberally on the way. This apart, there’s a lot of risqué humour. Like that scene when Arup, dumped by his girlfriend for a Canadian techie, imagines himself ruining her marriage with a revelation that’s simply ‘blows’ everyone’s mind. A lot of funny scenes involve the gangster Vijay Raaz and his cronies, particularly a nitwit baldie who calls laundry “lundry” and is caught up in the confusion of putting on and then taking off the gun silencer when the moment comes to pull the trigger.

Performances are pretty spot on. Imran Khan doesn’t crack much humour, but is verily the non-committal guy with the gumption to take on a gangster or rob a jeweller or simply concuss an irate brat with a flower pot. Vir Das does chip in humour in the edgeways but it is Kunaal Roy Kapur who takes the cake with his creditable portrayal of an immoral, blackmailing, shrewd character with an upset tummy. A special mention for Vijay Raaz and his gang of oddballs. Raaz is decidedly amusing yet has a subdued menacing streak. He’s particularly brilliant with the cuss words, which Delhi Belly is generously sprinkled with. Poorna Jagannathan does make her presence felt as Tashi’s colleague.

Songs only play in the background and the cinematography verily captures the essence of downtown Delhi. As someone who has shuffled through the grime of Delhi streets for a good part of struggling life, I did not watch Delhi Belly in its original English version. Nah! The spirit of Delhi, its gullies and gaalis, cannot be captured in a language that’s still at best cosmetic for Indians. You need the absolute vernacular of desi Hindi when mouthing cuss words of the G@, L# and Ch%%% variety. It’s a pity that the film is only dubbed in Hindi, which should have been its original language.

Yet, credit to producer Aamir Khan and director Abhinay Deo for making a film that’s unpretentious, crass, but extremely funny. Yes, it takes a few cinematic liberties which leave you a tad disappointed (like the trio going scot-free after a bloody shootout), but all in all Delhi Belly (Hindi dubbed) is a film that anyone who’s an adult and not a DK Bose, shouldn’t miss. 

So don’t think or blink. Just Bhaaag!!!!!!!!!!

Rating: 4 stars out of 5

Bbuddah - Hoga Terra Baap

Cast: Amitabh Bachchan, Raveena Tandon, Hema Malini, Minissha Lamba, Sonal Chauhan, Neha Sharma, Sonu Sood, Prakash Raj,
Charmi, Mahie Gill, Makrand Deshpande, Shahwar Ali, Rajeev Mehta, Rajeev Varma, Vishwajeet Pradhan,Atul Parchure , Abhishek BachchanDirector: Puri JagannathBanner: AB CorpMusic: Shekhar Ravjiani , Vishal DadlaniSound: Rakesh RanjanLyrics: Anvita Dutt GuptanCinematography: Amol RathodEditing: ShekharArt Direction: Aparna SudStory/Writer: Poori JagannathAction Direction: Vijay (3)Choreography: Remo D'SouzaCostume: Nahid Shah




Bbuddah - Hoga Terra Baap. Before the newly anointed superstars paved their way to stardom by doffing shirts or by their flared-nostril stutters, there was a mega star who at his best then could have been the baap of every self-proclaimed star today had he retained his pizzazz and had directors continued to come up with scripts and roles to match his talent. Director Puri Jagannadh tries to bring that baap back with a bombastic tribute toAmitabh Bachchan in the film Bbuddah Hoga Terra Baap. 

Alas Jagannadh’s idea of a befitting tribute doesn’t go beyond recreating the panache and swagger and paying token homage to the best cinematic moments of the superstar. So we have Amitabh Bachchan dressed in the gaudiest of togs, boogieing with a bunch of blondes to a medley of his popular songs from ‘Paan Banaras Wala’ to ‘Rang Barse’. In action, Big B bashes up the baddies singlehandedly and flaunts his ambidexterity with guns. And all this he does in the film that has a threadbare script to prop the comeback megastar’s shtick.

So a good length of the film unspools by with Big B just bumming around with pretty babes (Charmee and Sonal Chauhan) or training his gun on a copper (Sonu Sood) or impressing the goons (Makrand Deshpande and Prakash Raj) in seedy dens with his sharp shooting skills.

Bachchan plays an ex-hitman Viju who returns from Paris to Mumbai on his last assignment which seems assassinating the crime-busting ACP (Sonu Sood). However, as the story progresses new equations are unravelled and a family picture emerges.

The troubles with Bbuddah Hoga Terra Baap are many. It’s disjointed, it’s hardly got any story or plot progression, and it hinges only on Amitabh Bachchan’s strut and swagger. The superstar doubtlessly delivers and saves the film from being an outright disaster, but one expected a better tribute to the man who’s immortalized many a role, many a dialogue in Hindi films, including a seething monologue with the almighty.

In supporting roles, Raveena Tandon (as Viju’s smitten admirer) is almost reduced to a caricature while Hema Malini (as Viju’s wife) rekindles the old chemistry of Naseeb days. Sonu Sood doesn’t do much more than woo Sonal Chauhan who looks pretty and acts okay. Charmee simply disappears after the first half.

All in all, Bbuddah Hoga Terra Baap is strictly for Amitabh Bachchan fans.

Rating: 2.5 stars out of 5