Published in Tehelka Magazine, Vol 5, Issue 47, Dated Nov 29, 2008 But to stress these things is to deny an honest film its due. The conversations-with-self routine grates, with our endearingly boring protagonist sharing screen space with a winking, backslapping, long-haired version of himself. Perhaps the cinematic references are overdone a little, what with Pathak asking his guitar teacher to teach him the title song from Kal Ho Na Ho, and his estranged brother (Gaurav Gera) being introduced with a parody of the Mere paas Maa hai dialogue. And, instead of Raj Kapoor’s teary romance with a Russian ballerina, we get a short-but-sweet encounter between Indian tourist and Russian hooker, ironically - but perfectly - set to “Pal bhar ke liye koi hamein pyar kar le”. Noteworthy are a dumb charades sequence with Neha Dhupia (again drawing on the joker/mime association) and the car-buying episode (Purbi Joshi’s lovely as the salesperson). ![]() There’s nothing earthshattering or unpredictable about these episodes, but moving moments abound. His plodding but determined pursuit of these everyman desires - buying a shiny red car, travelling abroad, telling his childhood crush he loves her - make up the rest of the film. He just replaces his dreary things-to-do list with a ‘things-to-do (before I die)’ list, substituting ‘repair geyser’ with ‘learn guitar’. ![]() But quietly well-executed performances and a charmingly straightforward script keep the film in a suitably low key.Īmar (whose very name provides the possibility of pathos) does have a moment of revelation, but he doesn’t become a new person overnight. ![]() When it turns out that his ulcer is actually an advanced stomach cancer, the film threatens to keel over into full-blown weepie territory. Vinay Pathak’s Amar Kaul, a 37-year-old accounts manager with a ridiculous katori-haircut, who lives with his senile, TV-obsessed mother (the wonderful Sarita Joshi), has never had a love life, and mutely suffers the daily indignities inflicted by his gross and gluttonous boss (Saurabh Shukla), is already a version of the sad joker. Still remembered for its significant bit role in Raj Kapoor’s Mera Naam Joker, the use of the word in Shashant Shah’s film nudges the viewer gently towards a host of associations - the Indo-Russian connection as cemented by Hindi films, the clown who makes people laugh while himself desperately unhappy. WITH DASVIDANIYA, THE Russian word for goodbye (or ‘till we meet again’) makes its second appearance in Hindi cinema - this time in a starring role. STARRING » VINAY PATHAK, RANVIR SHOREY, RAJAT KAPOOR, NEHA DHUPIA
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