MUMBAI: Delhi Belly generally refers to a bad stomach suffered by those not used to spicy and oily Indian food and there is a character in this film taking his suffering all over Delhi, breaking wind and being in an unending search to relieve himself.
But Delhi Belly is also about the very underbelly of Delhi, specifically Old Delhi in its sordid details, some real and some exaggerated. It is about the Old Delhi nobody sees, hears or knows exists. The seeds of the story would be in something as innocent as a Famous Five book, which catered to generations of children with stories of adventures and thrills.
Delhi Belly is about escapades of an adult kind of three young media men, seemingly well bred and well placed but perpetually broke and living in a one room apartment right out of a horror film in Old Delhi surrounded by prostitutes and nautch girls.
The three men, Imran Khan, Vir Das and Kunal Roy Kapoor, live for the moment and against all society norms. Holding nothing as sacrosanct; they blend rather easily into the filthy world around them which abounds in expletives as the native tongue among other things. Since the film needs a story, there is this girl, Shenaz Treasuryvala, Imran Khan’s girlfriend, an air hostess who is used by villains as a courier to smuggle diamonds.
In a chain command to deliver the diamonds to their destination, that is to the gang leader Veejay Raaz, they end up in a pathology lab while what was meant for the lab, a sample of stools, end up on his table. He is livid and the three boys get embroiled in the hunt with the goons on their heels; a cute story even without the filth thrown in.
The idea seems to be making the film macabre in its surroundings as well as language and approach; kind of like what Death Metal music was in early 1980s, all gore and growls and guttural sounds. Even in the English version the expletives are in Hindi so as to make maximum effect.
If the villain is prone to shove a bomb up someone’s backside as torture trick, the lyrics go “Ye shaadi nahi ho sakti……..she gave me a BJ and I also did oral sex with her…..being a 21st Century man…”!! Finally, Indian erotica seems to have caught up with him in the 21st Century! However, the fun and novelty of the events on the screen soon wear off. (The film sure sets a new bench mark for films in future with the Censor authorities.).
Direction is good, bold too. Music is a lot of noise with Aamir Khan item number at the end serving no real purpose except in the promotion of the film. Dialogue packs a punch with ample humour. Photography is good. In performance, of the three, Vir Das excels, Kunal Roy Kapoor is passable while Imran Khan is his usual self.. Poorna Jagannath fits her role to the T. In fact, it is the villain’s lot that is uninhibited with Veejay Raaz coming out tops.
Delhi Belly is an adult fare which rules out a certain age group; its content puts paid to the family audience leaving it to make the most of its young ‘with it’ crowd in 20s. Accordingly, its best bet is from select multiplexes.
Bbuddah Hoga Tera Baap gives feelings of a spoof
MUMBAI: Bbuddah Hoga Tera Baap is just another Amitabh Bachchan action film, albeit coated with a generous dose of humour and light moments; the title adds a pinch of salt because that is how you are expected to take it lest you compare this film with his earlier ones.
The title also gives him a cause to recount his glorious past whenever addressed as Buddha, in the process indulging in a great deal of self glorification.
Amitabh Bachchan is a flamboyant ageing man, having spent many years in Paris away from his criminal past in Mumbai. He is back in Mumbai and to his flamboyant ways for soon he has befriended two 20 something girls, Sonal Chauhan and Charme Kaur, meeting up with them at a coffee shop. When he is not doing that, he lands up at a shady local bar to impress the goons with his expertise with guns; these goons are the lower rung of a mafia don, Prakash Raj, Amitabh Bachchan’s ultimate target.
Amitabh Bachchan; he has a past too. For one, there is Raveen Tandon who has had hots for him since long and starts behaving younger than her young daughter when she sees him again; the other is his wife Hema Malini and son Sonu Sood, his genetic extension, as he describes him, now a police ACP. In a true film style, Amitabh Bachchan single handed achieves all that he did in his 70s films.
The story looks like one the legendary maker Manmohan Desai had second thoughts about and did not make; it often gives the feeling of a spoof. Amitabh Bachchan is a know-all and all pervading man, faster on the spot than a cell phone SMS. Unknown to his ACP son, he plays his protector from the mafia don, Prakash Raj. During gaps, he is dancing or cavorting with a bevy of white skinned girls.
Direction is average. The original songs in the film have one ring tone type in the title song, Bbuddah hoga tera baap….. and a very hum-able soft number, Haal e dil… also sung by Amitabh Bachchna but very reminiscent of Hariharan-Alka Yagnik tracks in the album Tum Aaye.
Dialogue is witty and a saving grace. Amitabh Bachchan seems to treat this as a spoof too and is seen having fun doing his part. Sonu Sood’s casting is apt and he does well. Hema Malini is sincere while Raveena Tandon overacts. Prakash Raj is repetitive.
Bbuddah Hoga Tera Baap has very limited prospects at the box office.
