|
|
Saturday, May 11, 2024
|
|
BOLLYWOOD HUM HAI RAAHI CAR KE
EDITOR'S PICK
No
sparkle in `Hum Hai Raahi Car Ke` (IANS Movie Review)
Rating: None
Shammi and Priyanka, played by newcomer Dev Goel and semi-newcomer Adaah Sharma,
are chaddi-buddies. To prove it, he even flashes his chaddi in her face.
Thankfully, he isn`t wearing it when this occurs.
This is one of the many irreverent scenes showing the couple`s comfort level
that keeps recurring with discomforting frequency in the film with the potential
to make us lough out aloud. Alas, the laughter is often waylaid.
The film comes from a banner that has given mainstream Hindi cinema such
blockbusters in the past as `Dus Lakh` and `Ek Phool Do Maali`. Devendra Geol,
who made these successful films is much respected. And when his grandson Dev
Goel makes his acting debut in a film directed by Devendra Giel`s son Jyotin, we
expect something special to happen.
"Hum Hai Raahi Car Ke" doesn`t quite deliver the kind of juicy
punch-filled material that would showcase the Goel scion`s talents. What we see
here is a film that tries very hard to be "young" (read: plenty of
below-the-hip jokes, and conversations preambled by `Hey Dude`, `Check This out`
and `Waddever`). It also in the same bustling breath tries to pay a backhanded
homage to Sanjay Leela Bhansali`s love classic `Hum...Dil De Chuke Sanam`.
Ambitious, yes. But not quite up to the task.
In the midst of trying to be hip and cool and attempting to salute a classic,
the narration packs in two hours of crazy out-of-control adventures that take
our protagonists through a ziz-zag of zonked-out adventures that involve a
notorious computer hacker on the prowl, a gorilla, who chases our hero while he
is relieving himself in the jungles, suitors dressed in Spiderman suits, a goon,
and five different roles for Chunky Pandey.
Playing a Parsi employer, a Sikh dhaba owner and so on and so forth, Chunky
certainly seems to have fun.
It`s Juhi Chawla`s cameo as a paan-chewing Lucknowi doctor trying to explain
herself to a South Indian nurse that brings the house down. Wish the rest of the
film conveyed the same sparkle.
"Hum Hai Raahi Car Ke" is a fun-filled road movie zestfully driven by
the director, but alas the road is littered with too many sleeping dogs. Dev
Goel makes a confident debut. Hopefully, he will be provided with better
material next time. Maybe a remake of `Dus Lakh` upgraded to `100 Crore`?
