Another Aamir Khan production, another shrewdly publicized release, another claim to be ‘different’, another disappointment? Not really. As the thing about the master strategist Aamir Khan is that he does set the audience expectation w.r.t his movies perfectly and even sometimes plays with it to his own advantage. Delhi Belly is a clear example of this.
Delhi Belly is one of the few Hindi movies that’s not Hindi in content and language, though you do hear traces of it in between the abuses, but strangely doesn’t look like a misfit for the Indian audience. The story is about 3 room mates - Tashi (Imran Khan), Arup (Vir Das) and Nitin (Kunaal Roy Kapur), who because of Nitin’s ‘Delly Belly’ land up in a mess where they are hounded by a local don played excellently by Vijay Raaz. In between all the chaos, Imran Khan after getting engaged to his girlfriend almost gets killed by his friend’s/colleague’s maniacal husband who suspects her of being unfaithful. Whereas Vir Das gets dumped by his ‘chudail’ girlfriend and also does what every man wishes for…fearlessly abuse his boss! Kunaal during all this, only abuses his belly and Vir’s orange juice.
The movie begins with a Russian handing over a parcel to Imran’s girlfriend Shenaz Treasurywalla who in turns hands it over to Imran who asks Kunaal to deliver at given address but due to his upset belly gives it to Vir for delivery and that’s where the madness begins.
Overall the story is predictable though the treatment is unusual for a mainstream bollywood movie and that’s where the movie scores. There are some genuinely hilarious scenes like the one in the jewelery store when Vir Das in a burqa tries to prevent the cop looking at the security camera footage; also the scene where the ceiling cracks open with the girls leg stuck in between. On top of these is the brilliant musical score by Ram Sampath, most of the songs are there as background scores barring the Chudail song. Even the much maligned song DK Bose is refreshing and lyrics are brilliant and Aamir’s item song is also well choreographed, much better than the recent item songs by shaalus & jalebi baisJ.
Performance wise, the show stealers are Ram Sampath and Abhinay Deo as the music composer and the directory respectively (especially considering Abhinay’s last outing as a director was AB baby starrer ‘GAME’). Imran Khan is average but better than his last couple of movies and looks at ease mouthing the dialogues in English. Kunaal Roy Kapur manages a tough role pretty well and Vir Das with his blank stares and goofy looks is equally good. Vijay Raaz as the don is great and is surprisingly believable as a tough criminal though his physique may suggest otherwise.
Finally, a word about the language used in the movie about which a lot has already been shown in the promos and the suggestive songs. I think it was a brilliant ploy by Aamir Khan to get the right set of target audience into the theatres and keep the ones who will spread a negative word about the movie out and it seems to have worked out profitably. After watching the hinglish version, I didn’t really find it to be too abusive (though it is a bit gross due to the multiple toilet scenes) as compared to say an Omkara or few recent movies. It did not really make me uncomfortable watching the movie since I saw it with a friend because that’s how it was promoted, Watch it with a friend and not family; whereas movies with crude humour sometimes turn out to be an embarrassment as you turn up with your family.
Definitely a must watch …but only onceJ.
My Rating – 8/10
(Script - 7/10; Direction – 8/10; Performance – 7/10; Entertainment - 8/10; Music – 9/10)
(Script - 7/10; Direction – 8/10; Performance – 7/10; Entertainment - 8/10; Music – 9/10)
Starring: Imran Khan (Jaane Tu…, Kidnap), Vir Das (Badmaas Company), Kunaal Roy Kapur (Loins of Punjab Presents), Vijay Raaz(Monsoon Wedding, Run), Poorna Jagannathan
Director: Abhinay Deo (Game)
Producer: Aamir Khan (Lagaan, Taare Zameen Par, Jaane Tu…, Dhobhi Ghat, Peepli Live)
Writer: Akshat Verma
Music: Ram Sampath (Khakee, Peepli Live)
