Agreed, it is a comedy and we should be willing to suspend reason, even keep a little distance from sensitivity.

We, the uncomplaining cinemagoers, could have pardoned Om Puri with his ugly wig and a dance number, had the director not been so relentless in his mockery.

Here his 50-year-old man never seems to find logical ways of finding a mate. Now dancing with a bikini-clad Mumait Khan, now entering college only to be ridiculed for venturing to see a girl thus.

Add to that the cruel case of a son dominating a father – Akshaye Khanna and Paresh Rawal. The former is so belligerent, uses every conceivable word of condescension towards his dad, that he only stops short of physically inflicting violence on the helpless old man. The latter is all pulp, almost in mortal fear of being assailed by his son. Comedy gives you a leeway, but here was a classic case for the Censors to start looking beyond the skin, note the language, the tenor used in interaction with an old man.

The film has all the trademark punches associated with Priyadarshan – strokes that have served him well at the box office, critics’ contempt notwithstanding.

Big havelis with freshly plastered and painted walls, oldies in whites, the hero being the only one given to modern apparel. The exchanges are outrageously loud, the jokes either banal or threatening to get there. And music a fill-in medium for the sake of the audio cassette companies. All this supplements a story of two old men trying to find mates for themselves – a bit of crass “Shoukeen”? – and a young man, who is alternately verbally violent and unbearable. Much like the film.

Oh, by the way, Genelia makes a comeback to Hindi cinema playing Akshaye’s love interest here. She too seems to have left her brains behind during a long absence from Hindi cinema.

Z.S

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