Chup Chup Ke Hindi Movie
The good news is that Kareena Kapoor doesn't talk in this film. The bad news is that everyone else does... the problem is that they don't just talk but shout, scream, shriek, screech and yell.
CHUP CHUP KE continues Priyadarshan's stint with loud comedies. Unlike his earlier movie GARAM MASALA, this Priyadarshan film has a story to narrate. The only sad aspect is that it is yet another remake of a Malayalam film named PUNJABI HOUSE (unlike MALAMAAL WEEKLY that was his only original Hindi attempt)
However the story is interesting enough. Jeetu (Shahid Kapoor) is drenched in debts that he is unable to payback. So he attempts suicide by jumping in the sea only to be caught in the net of fisherman Bandya (Rajpal Yadav). Bandya and his master Gundya (Paresh Rawal) discover a note in Jeetu's pocket that leads them to assume that he is a millionaire.
Gundya in turn has taken heavy loans from Prabhat Singh Chauhan (Om Puri). As a loan security, Gundya keeps Jeetu as a deposit at Chauhan's house, who fakes to be a mute and deaf guy. Chauhan's niece Shruti (Kareena Kapoor) who is actually mute falls for Jeetu. Confusion seeps in the story when Jeetu's ex-fiance Pooja (Sushma Reddy) comes into picture.
Priyadarshan's brand of humor is neither bland as David Dhawan's recent films nor credible or natural as a Hrishikesh Mukherjee or a Basu Chatterjee film.
The movie starts with a bang getting straight to the point. The director doesn't waste time in establishment of the characters. Right from the first scene, the story of the film keeps moving ahead, thereby keeping your interest alive. Priyadarshan doesn't experiment with the treatment of humor though, going on with his trademark style of comedy. The characters play out loud and to the gallery.
Another problem with the Priyadarshan brand of comedy is that he stretches the humor in a scene a bit too much and doesn't know where to stop, thereby making it repetitive and monotonous at times. However thanks to some well-written scenes and Neeraj Vora's dependable funny one-liners that range from the witty to the corny ones, the film does succeed in making you laugh.
One more bone of contention is that the genre of the film is not just focused at being a comedy. That lasts for the first two hours after which the genre shifts towards drama. After a good dose of laughter in the first half, you don't feel like changing moods with the subsequent onscreen emotional outbursts. And while Priyadarshan handles the comic portions of the film in a larger-than-life manner, his treatment of emotions is very much natural. (Not many might remember Priyadarshan as the director of touching emotional films like GARDISH, VIRASAT and SASAE EE KALAPANI much before he molded himself as a comedy specialist). Conversely, how one wishes it were just the opposite in this film i.e. the comedy to be more natural while one could overlook the heavier side with some passable artificial emotions.
The fluctuating genres very much remind of Priyadarshan's Hulchul that too turned intense in the last one hour. Moreover the family setting and characterizations of Suniel Shetty and Kareena Kapoor seems to be directly derived from Hulchul.
Priyadarshan has a standard team of actors like Paresh Rawal, Rajpal Yadav, Om Puri, Asrani, Manoj Joshi and Suniel Shetty with whom he extracts fine work. Paresh Rawal is getting repetitive though you love to see him repeat the act. From being a serious actor, Om Puri has already made a transition into the comedy arena with elan. Rajpal Yadav yet again goes over the top, but somehow in this film, this actor steals the show amongst others thanks to the best scenes and lines that he gets. His timing and expressions add to the effect.
Like his team of actors, Priyadarshan also has a standard team of technicians in his film like cinematographer Tirru and art director Sabu Cyril. Sabu repeats the typical pillars-in-the-garden set design for the song sequences.
