Saturday, March 16, 2013
Mere Dad Ki Maruti
Dude, It’s
The Car
Yashraj Productions’ youth wing, that has made films like Mujhse Fraandship Karoge and Luv Ka The End, comes up with another
film aimed at teens, who just want to have some fun at the movies. They
presumably want to see young actors, bubble gummy- brightness, surface
emotions, a danceable track or two, and hear their own ‘lingo’.
Ashima Chibber’s debut film, Mere Dad Ki Maruti, delivers all this in measured doses, and as the
skinny plot unfolds with a bit (not quite enough) of Punjabi quirkiness, there
is much to keep the young viewer amused—most importantly mild teen rebellion
against stern dads. Moms just hover around nervously! The story, such as it is,
has been lifted from Dude, Where’s My
Car? and suitably sanitized.
Chibber does manage to catch the aspirational vibe of
Chandigarh, where young people speak heavily accented English; the boys lust
after mini-skirted girls, who wish to be seen as hot. Saqib Saleem plays middle-class young Smeer
(Punjabis tend to swallow the ‘a’), who can’t get girls to look at him because
he doesn’t have a car. But when, quite
by chance, he lands a date with “Chandigarh Ki Shakira, call me Jazlin” aka
Jasleen (Rhea Chakraborty) he obviously can’t go fetch her in a cycle rickshaw.
So he steals a brand new car (it’s a Maruti which gets great product placement)
that his father (Ram Kapoor) has bought as a gift for his potential son-in-law... and manages to lose it.
With friend Gattu (Prabal Panjabi) in tow—the kind of all-weather
buddy found only in films-- he has many split second scrapes in trying to
prevent his father from finding out, and desperately making sure the car
reaches home in time for the wedding.
Life in Chandigarh, an extravagant wedding where money is
spent on rituals and shopping, but the booze is adulterated, the typical Punju
colloquialisms-- Chibber pays attention to details, while keeping the pace
brisk.
Saqib Saleem does well as the good-for-nothing teen, who
reveals a clean heart behind all the dad-bashing. Ram Kapoor is perfectly cast as the loud
Punjabi father, who for a change, dotes on the daughter, and gives the son a
tough time. Chances are the film will be
forgotten the minute it ends, but while it lasts, at least it makes you care
for the hapless Smeer.
Labels: Cinemaah
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