Chashme Baddoor Movie Review

In these times when Bollywood has suddenly discovered the tested option of remaking of old hit films, it’s now the turn of director David Dhawan to try and recreate the tries his hands on recreating the magic of the 1981 cult comedy ‘Chashme Buddoor’ that was directed by the acclaimed Sai Paranjpaye. The original had starred Farooque Shaikh, Deepti Naval, Ravi Baswani, Rakesh Bedi, and Saeed Jaffrey in the main roles while this remake has Ali Zafar, Taapsee Pannu, Siddharth, Divyendu Sharma and Rishi Kapoor in corresponding roles. The movie has used a lot of innovative promotional techniques over the last couple of weeks and is finally set to release tomorrow. Let’s see whether the remake manages to retain the purity and joy of the original film…

Story:

The movie starts with the bromance of three best buddies, Siddharth (Ali), Omi (Divyendu) and Jay (Siddharth) who live a carefree life in the sunny land of Goa. While Omi’s income depends on his labored poetry, Jay is a struggling actor and these two regularly skip paying for their rents and food expenses for months together while trying to find girlfriends without any luck. Sid is their innocent buddy who is a simpleton and is conned into covering his friends’ misdeeds all the time. The trio is deep in debt to the friendly hotelier Joesph Furtado (Rishi Kapoor) and their gorgeous landlady Josephine (Lilette Dubey).

In this situation enters Seema (Taapsee), the daughter of Army Major (Anupam Kher) and she is supported by her father’s twin brother. Seema is a bubbly and open hearted girl whose good looks and personality attracts Omi and Jay who are totally smitten by her but Seema instead finds her soul mate in Sid. Omi and Jay are unable to digest this fact about their failure and so they try and create a drift between the two lovers.

The rest of the story is whether these two will succeed in breaking up Sid and Seema’s love for each other!

Positive Points:

Apart from a small spelling difference, the remake is a refreshing alteration of the original. While Sai Paranjpye’s Chashme Buddoor was an amalgamation of innocent, delightful and warm humor, David Dhawan’s Chashme Baddoor is flat out funny where David has managed to create a movie of unadulterated family humor that will be enjoyed across all age-groups.

Speaking of performances, David has smartly chosen a young star-cast, who give splendid comical performances. While Ali plays Farooque’s character perfectly with a little contemporary twist and Taapsee is refreshing and pleasing, however it’s Divyendu and Siddharth who are definitely the show-stealers. Divyendu is a talented young chap who should be going places soon and he is given his career best performance. Siddharth on the other hand portrays a totally different character when compared to his intense character in Rang De Basanti. Siddharth’s expressions and dialogue delivery is outright hilarious and these two actors have a fantastic comic timing which is absolutely remarkable.

Rishi Kapoor and Lilette Dubey’s old-age romance is portrayed with excellence. The two Anupam Khers and their loud and energetic mother Bharti Achrekar effortlessly bring back the old-school David Dhawan comedy to life.

Negative Points:

Some of the scenes within the screenplay are left unexplained and this leaves the audiences perplexed. While Divyendu and Siddharth are introduced with a motive, the main lead Ali makes an impromptu appearance out of nowhere. Some of the sequences are also overdone by the actors. Also, the frequent flashbacks and usage of old Bollywood tracks tend to overstay their welcome over time.

One main shortcoming is that the romance between Ali and Taaspsee couldn’t reach the level of innocence portrayed by Farooque and Deepti in the original. Taapsee is definitely beautiful but fails to match upto Deepti Naval’s aura.

Technical Aspects:

Even though Sajid Wajid music have scored peppy and contemporary music, the placement of songs after every few scenes is nothing but tedious. The track ‘Har ek friend kamina hota hai’ by Sonu Nigam is the best song in the film.

The movie will surely prove to be a comeback for David Dhawan especially after his disastrous outing in ‘Rascals’ and this movie will be on par with the laughathon ‘Mujhse Shaadi Karogey’. Special mention goes to writer duo Sajid-Farhad for penning surprisingly funny dialogues in the form of Jay’s side-splitting PJ’s and Omi’s drooling poems. The camera has beautifully captured the beautiful sun-kissed environs of colorful Goa while the editing is decent.

Verdict:

Overall, Chashme Baddoor may have not been able to recreate the chemistry, innocence and fun of the original, but it definitely is a laugh riot. The movie offers one giggle after another and will work great with the masses. So just leave your brains at home to enjoy the movie thoroughly with your family and friends

Movie Rating.........3/5

Posted in: Bollywood