On a shaky ground

Manpriya Singh 

By now Pollywood has a fairly safe template in place when it comes to mainstream entertainment. A few jokes that never fail to strike a chord with the audience, for instance Punjabi words with English pun and vice versa, a pind da munda, who has just moved abroad, ladies who speak heavily accented English, and above all, Punjabis’ struggle with English…Throw in a song in the mustard fields back home and another one at a London pub and it’s a cheers from the cast and crew. Where they raise a toast to cinema halls with footfalls and happy audience.  The scores, a point or two on all of the above counts. So far, it’s all good. 

Fitting in the template are three good friends, played by Jassie Gill, Ranjit Bawa and Ninja. Who have all been given convenient backgrounds though we wish they were given convincing backgrounds. Karan Veer is your regular Richie rich, Casanova if you must, who doesn’t have to labour to secure a date or even dump one. He is introduced as, Dil Da Khali, Jeb Da Bhareya Hoya. Whose parental lineage immediately reminds you of the one Deepika Padukone in Cocktail. 

So, with mom and dad perennially busy in business meetings and making more money, he nevertheless has all the time to party all night, chase girls by the day and still pursue a management degree in London’s prestigious business school. 

For a film riding purely on its comic quotient (let alone an action sequence, there are no fight scenes whatsoever, nor does the movie bank on its songs), the punches could have been more hard hitting and the situational comedy more frequent. If the girl is shifting home and has a “lot of setting to do” in her new house, so do the guy. No prize for guessing, it’s Karan Veer, who also has a “setting to do” with the girl. 

Ranjit Bawa lifts the story, and all of the screen time, despite his poorly etched character. A jatt who leaves everything behind, mortgages his small piece of landholding to pursue an NRI girl he just met. As the third friend, with his own love and relationship troubles, Ninja supports the cast well. 

Navneet Kaur Dhillon manages to do the little part she’s been entrusted with. As for director Pankaj Batra, with his direction and cast he does evoke frequent laughs among the audience, if not the crazy whistles. But given his track record comprising the likes of Bambukat, it certainly doesn’t fall in the first quarter of his career best.  

The biggest flaw, perhaps, is the sketchy script, if one moment the three friends fall apart because in a drunken state Jassie almost date rapes his lady love, two scenes later, it’s unbelievable that they all come back together for no rhyme or reason but simply because the end of the two-hour run time is approaching. Which also means it’s imperative to bring all the couples together and have a happy ending. Never mind if that happens abruptly. 

 manpriya@tribunemail.com