This CHASHME BADDOOR moves wickedly at its own volition with a crazy pattern of comic chaos that stops short of being anarchic due to the finely tuned situational satire simulated in the writing out of a material that was created 30 years ago when there were no mobile phones and the height of male voyeurism was the PLAYBOY magazine. Dhawan's movie doesn't take characters' contemporary courtship games into areas that would offend the moralists. Unlike his earlier movies where-in there were some double meaning dialogues with no restraint, this time he knew where to stop and that has worked in his as well as movie's favor.
SCRIPT & SCREENPLAY : The credit for the original story goes to SAI PARANJPE only but the story of the movie has been revamped to keep it in sync with present times. The screenplay has been written by RENUKA KUNZRU and the crisp as well as witty dialogues are the brainchild of duo SAJID FARHAD. Exclamation marks are the only punctuations in this seamless comedy of courtship played at an impossibly high octave, without getting shrill. 'Farce' things first. Barring the core theme of two friends maliciously nipping the third friend's romance in the bud, and some mischievous sequences and characters from the original, which have been entirely re-interpreted as 'swines of the times', Dhawan's "Chashme Baddoor" is far(ce) removed from Paranjpye's original. Those were days of relative innocence. Whistling at girls at bus stops, chasing unwilling girls to their homes, and landing up at their doorstep under assumed identities were all considered innocuous bachelor bacchanalia. . While the writing gets 'chalu', it miraculously steers clear of being cheesy by a wide margin. Under the veneer of vicious courtship games played by two desperately single guys, Dhawan's "Chashme Baddoor" retains a core of innocence. A tongue-in-cheek virtuosity remains the film's greatest triumph. Sajid-Farhad's writing is wild, naughty and witty, but never vulgar. The whimsical word-play flows from a tap-dance of prankish internet-styled banter which is border-line silly but nonetheless very engaging in an off-handedly smart way. Story of Chashme Baddoor revolves around three friends - Omi, a ridiculous shayar (Divyendu Sharma) Jai, a bawdy struggling actor (Siddharth) and Sid, a goody-two shoes who prefers to play safe (Ali Zafar). While the first two audacious blokes live to lust after women, third simpleton laughs over their failed love escapades. Trouble creeps into their happy go lucky lives when the three find themselves chasing the same girl, though with different intentions. The girl in question is bubbly Seema, who keeps absconding from her home to escape an arranged marriage until she finds true love in Sid. But, will the Sid-Seema romance bloom in the troublesome jealous atmosphere created by kamina friends Omi and Jai? Find out as you watch the film. There are more characters in the film including the heavily tattooed Goan, Joseph Furtado, who finds love in a graciously beautiful Lillette Dubey and together they share a chemistry that's more endearing than the lead couple's.
STARCAST : Among the three protagonists DIVYENDU SHARMA playing a self-styled shaayar gets the most tawdry lines of bumper-sticker wisdom which the actor delivers with such punctuated panache, we can’t help guffawing out our implicit ‘irshaad’. He displays good enough confidence in his body language as well as expressions when we take into account that he is just a couple of movies' old. Comic timing is of vital importance to this film. And every actor gets it right, dead-on sometime dead-pan. To me the film’s most natural-born scene-stealer is the Southern star SIDDHARTH. Seen earlier in an intense character in Rang de Basanti, Siddharth nails his character’s filmy flamboyance. Many would say Siddharth has gone over the top. But to sustain that high-pitched level of crazy energy throughout the film is no laughing matter. Or, on second thoughts, this talented actor’s performance is indeed a laughing matter. ALI ZAFAR is far more sober and controlled than his co-stars. It takes some doing to remain steadfast in your stipulated sobriety while all your co-stars pull out all stops. Ali has got those innocent next door boy kind of looks which was the requisite of his character in the movie. Coming to leading lady TAPSEE PANNU, the less the better. I dont know why & how David got convinced to cast her as female lead in this movie. Firstly she looks a tad young like a typical schoolgirl and not at all a seducing Shikaar which the character is supposed to be. On top of it her acting skills as well as expressions are not at all impressive when compared to the other cast of the flick. Oh ! How can i forget talking about RISHI KAPOOR who has simply looked kewl n adorable in his new Avatar in this movie. It was a visual treat to watch him riding a Harley supporting tattoos on arms n wearing reflectors in the movie and his chemistry with LILETTE DUBEY has also come out very well as both of them have given a fine performance. One super fine actor who has been completely wasted is ANUPAM KHER, although he's been cast in a double role but his screenplay characters were so irritating & irrational that even great actor like Anupam could not put any soul to them. Same goes for BHARTI ARCHEKAR too.
SCRIPT & SCREENPLAY : The credit for the original story goes to SAI PARANJPE only but the story of the movie has been revamped to keep it in sync with present times. The screenplay has been written by RENUKA KUNZRU and the crisp as well as witty dialogues are the brainchild of duo SAJID FARHAD. Exclamation marks are the only punctuations in this seamless comedy of courtship played at an impossibly high octave, without getting shrill. 'Farce' things first. Barring the core theme of two friends maliciously nipping the third friend's romance in the bud, and some mischievous sequences and characters from the original, which have been entirely re-interpreted as 'swines of the times', Dhawan's "Chashme Baddoor" is far(ce) removed from Paranjpye's original. Those were days of relative innocence. Whistling at girls at bus stops, chasing unwilling girls to their homes, and landing up at their doorstep under assumed identities were all considered innocuous bachelor bacchanalia. . While the writing gets 'chalu', it miraculously steers clear of being cheesy by a wide margin. Under the veneer of vicious courtship games played by two desperately single guys, Dhawan's "Chashme Baddoor" retains a core of innocence. A tongue-in-cheek virtuosity remains the film's greatest triumph. Sajid-Farhad's writing is wild, naughty and witty, but never vulgar. The whimsical word-play flows from a tap-dance of prankish internet-styled banter which is border-line silly but nonetheless very engaging in an off-handedly smart way. Story of Chashme Baddoor revolves around three friends - Omi, a ridiculous shayar (Divyendu Sharma) Jai, a bawdy struggling actor (Siddharth) and Sid, a goody-two shoes who prefers to play safe (Ali Zafar). While the first two audacious blokes live to lust after women, third simpleton laughs over their failed love escapades. Trouble creeps into their happy go lucky lives when the three find themselves chasing the same girl, though with different intentions. The girl in question is bubbly Seema, who keeps absconding from her home to escape an arranged marriage until she finds true love in Sid. But, will the Sid-Seema romance bloom in the troublesome jealous atmosphere created by kamina friends Omi and Jai? Find out as you watch the film. There are more characters in the film including the heavily tattooed Goan, Joseph Furtado, who finds love in a graciously beautiful Lillette Dubey and together they share a chemistry that's more endearing than the lead couple's.
STARCAST : Among the three protagonists DIVYENDU SHARMA playing a self-styled shaayar gets the most tawdry lines of bumper-sticker wisdom which the actor delivers with such punctuated panache, we can’t help guffawing out our implicit ‘irshaad’. He displays good enough confidence in his body language as well as expressions when we take into account that he is just a couple of movies' old. Comic timing is of vital importance to this film. And every actor gets it right, dead-on sometime dead-pan. To me the film’s most natural-born scene-stealer is the Southern star SIDDHARTH. Seen earlier in an intense character in Rang de Basanti, Siddharth nails his character’s filmy flamboyance. Many would say Siddharth has gone over the top. But to sustain that high-pitched level of crazy energy throughout the film is no laughing matter. Or, on second thoughts, this talented actor’s performance is indeed a laughing matter. ALI ZAFAR is far more sober and controlled than his co-stars. It takes some doing to remain steadfast in your stipulated sobriety while all your co-stars pull out all stops. Ali has got those innocent next door boy kind of looks which was the requisite of his character in the movie. Coming to leading lady TAPSEE PANNU, the less the better. I dont know why & how David got convinced to cast her as female lead in this movie. Firstly she looks a tad young like a typical schoolgirl and not at all a seducing Shikaar which the character is supposed to be. On top of it her acting skills as well as expressions are not at all impressive when compared to the other cast of the flick. Oh ! How can i forget talking about RISHI KAPOOR who has simply looked kewl n adorable in his new Avatar in this movie. It was a visual treat to watch him riding a Harley supporting tattoos on arms n wearing reflectors in the movie and his chemistry with LILETTE DUBEY has also come out very well as both of them have given a fine performance. One super fine actor who has been completely wasted is ANUPAM KHER, although he's been cast in a double role but his screenplay characters were so irritating & irrational that even great actor like Anupam could not put any soul to them. Same goes for BHARTI ARCHEKAR too.
TECHNICAL DETAILS : SAJID WAJID have composed the music for this movie and they have succeeded to quite an extent. Some of the tracks are in tempo with the movie and provide the much needed impetus to the proceedings. Cinematography of this movie has been done by SANJAY F GUPTA who has done an average job while canning the shots at the picturesque locales of Goa. In fact technical finesse has never been the forte of movies by David Dhawan who mainly relies on comic screenplay and funny punches to steer his movie ahead. Editing of the movie has been done by NITIN ROKADE who does not disappoint with the final movie run-time of 131 minutes which is fair enough. This movie mainly scores on its gags, fun quotient and some fine performances along with couple of foot tapping Chalu song numbers. Coming to the director, DAVID DHAWAN we can easily proclaim that he and slapstick humor go hand in hand. With debacle of his last couple of flicks including RASCALS, there was a widespread viewpoint that he has started to loose his grip on his favorite genre. But the filmmaker has given a befitting reply to his detractors & once again tried to appease masses with the remake of one of the most endearing cult comedies and has well succeeded in it. While the original was subtle and simple, the remake is loud and fast paced. There's too much happening at every given frame which was not the case with the original. David has made efforts to make the story more new age, young and fresher by adding some trendy impetus to it. The humor for most parts is extremely slapstick and straight out of SMS punches, which includes some lame ones too but overall they are appealing. I found it to be one of the better movies of David Dhawan with the main factor being that there are no double meaning dialogues or un-necessary provocative scenes which were present in most of his earlier movies. This time he has succeeded in providing some clean entertainment and that too in a young, vibrant, fresh look in sync with the time and in lieu of this we can forgive him for the suffering he made us go through when we went to watch his last couple of dud movies.
OVER THE HEAD : The biggest pain while watching this flick is to see Anupam Kher, an actor of real high caliber portraying a foolish character and being totally wasted. To add to his woes, he is in a double role and it seems both the characters are in a rage to prove who acts more pathetically. Instead of making you laugh they start to irritate you as the movie progresses. Same goes for character of Bharti Archekar also.
WOW MOMENTS : The repercussions that follow when first Devyanshu and than Siddharth go to Tapsee's house to woo her lead to some fine hilarious moments. Rishi Kapoor's romanctic inkling with Lilette Dubey is a treat to watch out for.
CONCLUSION : I found this is to be one of the better works of David Dhawan. His sense of dramedy and quick-footed gags coupled with an assured direction has made this movie entertaining enough for at least one time watch.
ROHIT SHARMA.
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