Just by asking this question, I am bestowing the first mentioned film an honour which is quite vertiginious in my books. As my long-suffering wife and Mad Momma would testify, I have always put AAA in the league of the greatest comedy films of all times. So, Bheja Fry - on first viewing - does show immense promise.
Never since Amitabh Bachchan in Shahenshah (or Lal Badshah or Sarkar) has one film depended so much on the lead player as BF does on Vinay Pathak. And the ex-VJ just gets into the skin of the author-backed character with the smoothness of Lata Mangeshkar singing 'Aayega Aanewala' in Mahal!
His scrapbook of 1733 songs describing his life ('meri kahani, sangeet ki zubani'), his Bhojpuri accent (as Madan Gopal Mohan of Naya Daur Productions producing Hamar Bhaujai Tohar Lugai), his commentary of connecting a phone call ("redial... ringing..."), his crinkly packet for the aforementioned scrapbook, his combination-locked briefcase are all so wonderfully silly that it takes your breath away!
As a film, I can poke a hundred holes in the characterisations, continuity and all that but when the basic premise is inane hilarity, then I guess all that becomes an academic exercise. All those just become a prop for Bharat Bhushan's (Vinay's character) gags!
And this is what most of the reviews I read did - and gave the film a middling to poor rating. But the guffaws in the theatre and the fact that it is one of the sleeper hits of the year underline the appreciation we have for the laughs it provides!
Bottomline, its hilarious... and especially priceless are the Bollywood music trivia Mr Bhushan throws at us. After all, what do you expect of a guy whose father was a fan of the eponymous actor and named his son after him?
So, we have two questions:
1. How many 'Aayega's are there in the song 'Aayega aanewala' from Mahal?
2. How many 'Chalte Chalte's are there in the song 'Chalte Chalte' from Pakeezah?
And did you think Calcutta Chromosome will just give away the answers from the film (28 and 44 times, respectively) without any sort of verification and research?
Well, I promptly went and re-listened to the two songs and while the latter answer matches perfectly, the first one seems to be different - at least in the version I downloaded. Each set of 'aayega' consists of 7 nos. and I could count only 3 such sets. But the logic of the answer is perfect and probably the full length song has 4 sets!
So, BF enters the league of the rare kind of films which not only entertains but also forces you to think!
Thoughts for the day:
How many 'chumma's are there in Jumma Chumma De De?
How many 'kajra's are there in Kajra Re?
And how many YAHOO's did the eponymous song in Junglee have?
Hey Vinay - is there a job somewhere which pays to answer these questions?
Never since Amitabh Bachchan in Shahenshah (or Lal Badshah or Sarkar) has one film depended so much on the lead player as BF does on Vinay Pathak. And the ex-VJ just gets into the skin of the author-backed character with the smoothness of Lata Mangeshkar singing 'Aayega Aanewala' in Mahal!
His scrapbook of 1733 songs describing his life ('meri kahani, sangeet ki zubani'), his Bhojpuri accent (as Madan Gopal Mohan of Naya Daur Productions producing Hamar Bhaujai Tohar Lugai), his commentary of connecting a phone call ("redial... ringing..."), his crinkly packet for the aforementioned scrapbook, his combination-locked briefcase are all so wonderfully silly that it takes your breath away!
As a film, I can poke a hundred holes in the characterisations, continuity and all that but when the basic premise is inane hilarity, then I guess all that becomes an academic exercise. All those just become a prop for Bharat Bhushan's (Vinay's character) gags!
And this is what most of the reviews I read did - and gave the film a middling to poor rating. But the guffaws in the theatre and the fact that it is one of the sleeper hits of the year underline the appreciation we have for the laughs it provides!
Bottomline, its hilarious... and especially priceless are the Bollywood music trivia Mr Bhushan throws at us. After all, what do you expect of a guy whose father was a fan of the eponymous actor and named his son after him?
So, we have two questions:
1. How many 'Aayega's are there in the song 'Aayega aanewala' from Mahal?
2. How many 'Chalte Chalte's are there in the song 'Chalte Chalte' from Pakeezah?
And did you think Calcutta Chromosome will just give away the answers from the film (28 and 44 times, respectively) without any sort of verification and research?
Well, I promptly went and re-listened to the two songs and while the latter answer matches perfectly, the first one seems to be different - at least in the version I downloaded. Each set of 'aayega' consists of 7 nos. and I could count only 3 such sets. But the logic of the answer is perfect and probably the full length song has 4 sets!
So, BF enters the league of the rare kind of films which not only entertains but also forces you to think!
Thoughts for the day:
How many 'chumma's are there in Jumma Chumma De De?
How many 'kajra's are there in Kajra Re?
And how many YAHOO's did the eponymous song in Junglee have?
Hey Vinay - is there a job somewhere which pays to answer these questions?
Comments
thoroughly enjoyed bheja fry too. many ppl pretended to hate it calling it banal and slapstick but for me it was total paisa-vasool.
yes...soon we'll have a bheja fry fan club on orkut and then it will have truly arrived :)
you got a great blog!