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Of course, there are other films releasing too, but it seems to be a battle between Mumbai and Delhi at the box office (not IPL) this week, as SHOR IN THE CITY takes on CHALO DILLI.
Talking about CHALO DILLI, Lara Dutta has chosen a road movie for her first film as a producer. DIL HAI KI MAANTA NAHIN and JAB WE MET are some of the road movies that we've seen before. Directed by Shahsant Shah, (DASVIDANIYA) CHALO DILLI also features the unusual pairing of Lara Dutta and Vinay Pathak.
The film is about Manu Gupta (Vinay Pathak) and Mihika Mukherjee (Lara Dutta), for whom Dilli is literally very door (far). It traces their arduous journey from Mumbai to Delhi. Mihika is a high profile investment banker, who wants everything to be just perfect. Manu Gupta is a paan chewing, loquacious saree trader from Chandni Chowk. Both are as different as day and night. But what starts as an impossible trip, turns out to be a highly exhilarating one for the two.
Director Shashant Shah had an interesting premise, but fails in its execution. The graph remains unidimensional, with hardly any engaging moments in the narrative. It fails miserably in the humour aspect. You are constantly treated to sad jokes by Manu, which make you cringe. The first half in particular, is very tiresome.
On the other hand, the director does a smart thing by not having a cliched romantic angle between Manu and Mihika, which is a good thing. There is also a nice twist in the climax, but that's about it.
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After decades of sure shot formulas, Bollywood is now witnessing a wave of experimental cinema. Seemingly for the first time a brand philosophy has been developed into a full-fledged feature length film. Red Chillies Idiot Box's (TV arm of Shahrukh Khan's Red Chillies Entertainment) latest release MEN WILL BE MEN, which also happens to be the tagline of Seagram's (alcohol brand) Imperial Blue, has been expanded into a 76-minute feature film.
MEN WILL BE MEN is the story about four guys who are working together in the same office in different departments. Preet (Rajesh Kumar) is the only married person in the group and doesn't mind cheating on his wife. Bobby (Rahil Tandon) is presently engaged to a girl in Bareili. Though unhappy, he has accepted it. Jimmy (Gaurav Chopra) is the hot shot who is single and a guy who knows how to live the good life and then there is Sunder (Rohit Khurana) who is fun loving, penny-pinching and single, but by choice. Meeting over a drink at some bar after office hours is a usual thing for them. Stuck by monotony, the guys want some thrill in their lives and this is when they decide a spontaneous vacation to Pattaya. The four of them take a time off to Pattaya with the sole intention there will be girls, alcohol and too much fun. However all four fall for the same girl and throughout the film chase a single girl, Deepa (Zeenal Kamdar), the relationship manager of the hotel (where the boys are staying) and a part time yoga instructor. But what happens when their little game gets caught?
After watching the film MEN WILL BE MEN the very first question that comes to mind is 'Were the makers serious about making this film?' or 'Was it an abrupt decision taken in a jiffy to give the small idea a shape of a film?'
Certainly we have seen movies with similar concept in the past, which were skewed towards male bonding or male humour. We would have still welcomed MEN WILL BE MEN with open arms had the makers taken some keen interest in making the film in a much better way right from script to casting to dialogues and punches to acting. There have been enough well made small budget films then why did the makers miss the bus of creating a full to dhamaal movie?
