Mere Baap Pehle Aap

I’ve seen some pretty bad films recently but Mere Baap Pehle Aap has to be up there amongst one of the worst. I fancied watching a comedy and flicked through a load of dvd’s I had bought the last time I went on holiday. Mere Baap had a strong comic cast of Paresh Rawal, Om Puri, Rajpal Yadav and Archana Puran Singh so I thought I’d give it a whirl. Boy do I wish I hadn’t bothered!

Have you heard me use the phrase “the story was wafer thin” before? Well this film is the bench mark for this film. The story line is so thin even Posh Spice would be jealous! In fact you could say the film has two very short (and boring) stories sloppily put together to make a feature length crap-fest. Part one of the story follows Akshay Khanna as he tries to discover the identity of the girl that has been stalking him for the past few days, Rose played by that annoying girl from Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na. Eventually the two meet and become lovers. The second half of the film then shifts gears, the two lovers now try and hook up Paresh with his long lost lover from years gone by.

Why someone of Paresh Rawal’s calibre would do a film like this, is beyond me. On the other hand, Akshaye deserves to be in a shit film like this, because apart from his turns in Humraaz, Race and Dil Chaata Hain (none of which were single hero films) he’s not really done a lot. Even the highly over-rated Taal didn’t do much to make me like this guy. Akshaye Khanna is rubbish and so is this film. Avoid this one like the plague!

1 out of 5

My Name is Khan

One of the most anticipated films of this year happens to be Karan Johar’s latest, My Name is Khan. What’s so special about it? It is the reunion of the hit jodi, SRK and Kajol after a gap of 6 years. The film’s plot revolves around an autistic muslim played by SRK and deals with the prejudices he faces in America because of his religion. Interesting subject matter but not as interesting as the controversy that has begun before the filming has even started!

A number of Karan’s crew were refused visa’s for the USA because, get this, they were MUSLIMS! That’s right, Karan and his employees were facing the same prejudices that his character Khan faces in his movie! So what did Mr Johar do? Did he tell the Americans to do one? Nope, he copped out and replaced all his staff including drafting in Jimmy Shergill to replace a muslim actor. So, when the media hype starts to build for this one and Karan Johar tell us ‘this film is very close to my heart’, you can tell him to piss off because he’s a hypocrite!

Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi

Everytime an SRK film gets released, the haters come out in full force trying to knock his film down even before it has been shown. Initial reviews of his latest film Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi were not very complimentary despite the reunion of SRK and Aditya Chopra after 8 long years. No SRK film can ever truly live up to the spectacular hype it builds prior to release, but the truth is King Khan rarely disappoints at the box office these days and RNBDJ was no different.

RDNBDJ finally got released in our local cinema so I dragged the missus along to see what all the fuss was about. Firstly the character of Surinder Sahani was brilliant, Khan played the geeky, akward man to perfection. I absolutely loved Suri's dress of shirt and trousers with trainers, I've seen so many guys wear that exact combination.

The story centres on Suri Sahani, an ordinary guy working for Punjab Power, as fate would have it, due to events beyond his control he gets to marry the girl of his dreams. The story picks up as we arrive back at Surinder's home where he must settle with a wife who does not love him, yet he loves her whole heartedly despite only having met her days before their wedding. Being the man he is, Suri struggles to express his feelings to his new wife who is still nursing her own wounds. As the days go by, Suri and Thaani fall in to a lifeless routine, until a dance competition sparks Thaani's interest, she asks Suri's permission to go and he agrees. Suri realises that if he is to ever get Thaani to love him he must change his whole persona. With the help of his best friend Bobby Khosla, Suri becomes Raj and sets out to make his wife smile again.

As mentioned before, Shahrukh is wonderful in his role as the socially inept Suri and his potrayal of Raj is one of self procrastination. Many have commented that they hated the inclusion of Raj, but personally i feel that his role was essential to the story. Newcomer Anushka is solid on her debut alongside the Badshah, she's beautiful but still maintains the girl next door simplicity. Vinay Pathak was the only other notable character in the film, he did a great job as the outrageous Bobby.
If you love SRK, you will love this film, if you're a romantic at heart, you will love this film. If you're looking for light entertainment, you will love this film. If you like Aamir Khan, you will hate this film!

Hum hain rahi pyar ke, phir milenge, chalte chalte!

3.5 out of 5