Cheeni Kum

No candy floss love, no melodrama, no item number, can’t be Bollywood! Cheeni Kum proved me wrong. This movie is a laugh riot with its perfectly timed sarcastic humour that has never been tried in Bollywood before. K. Balki has his own style, it’s not like the David Dhawan slapstick goofy jokes that we have had endure for years.

Bhuddhadev Gupta played by Amitabh Bachchan, is a 64 year old arrogant, cocky chef whose only sole passion in life has been Spice 6, his Indian restaurant in London. He lives with his 85 year old mother and his only friend and advisor is his 9 year old neighbour – Sexy! Until one day, Nina Verma walks into his restaurant challenges him at what he knows the best – cooking! They fight, make up, fall in love and he proposes marriage.

“Men tolerate marriage because of sex and women tolerate sex because of marriage. Does marriage still appeal to you?”

Nina looks away and says, “Yes.”

The funny part is when Buddha has to meet Nina’s dad, played by none other than Paresh Rawal, who is six years younger than him!

The movie tends to get slightly melodramatic towards the end, but I don’t really blame Balki, Bollywood does that to you.

Iilayaraja has made his come back, although I was pretty let down with the music score. It was a remake of his classic numbers from Mouna Raagam. Amithabh sports a ponytail and looks dashing in all the Armani suits (he is a great brand window). Tabu looks gorgeous as ever, only her clothes make her look older than 34!

It’s a romantic comedy with little or no mush. On the whole a great movie; a must watch.

Being a young advertising professional I wouldn’t miss a movie by Balki. What amazes me is more and more creative directors are taking a dive into Bollywood, I wonder if this industry has no money left in it!