Let’s cut to the chase – EMI aka Easy Monthly Installment, has its highs and lows. For those of you who are looking for a light-hearted comedy with Sanjay Dutt still in Munnabhai mode, then you’re in the right place. However, Dutt only appears in the movie post-interval, often making us wonder..err where is he? How does he fit into the script? Basically the premise is simple. We are introduced to a variety of people who all have taken loans from the All India Bank. This is all, of course, pre-economic recession days.
Meet deejay Ryan (Arjun Rampal) who is constantly trying to impress his money-obsessed girlfriend (Malaika Arora Khan) and uses plastic to pay for his fancy expenditures. She, of course, walks out on him eventually for a richer dude leaving him with a huge debt.
Next in line are newlyweds Anil (Ashish Chaudhary) and Shilpa (Neha Uberoi) who take a loan to begin their blissful wedded life (which pays for a honeymoon and a lavish car). Unfortunately, it only causes a bitter separation. The couple then gets caught up in a web of tu-tu-main-main causing their loans to default.
Prerna (Urmila Matondkar) takes some financial help from the bank to pay a local goon and prove her husband was murdered (he committed suicide) in hopes to collect a monstrous sum of insurance money.
Lastly, say Namaste to Chandrakant Sahib (Kulbushan Kharbanda). An emotional father, who borrows money from the bank to send his son to study abroad. He is later abandoned by that very son and is left to repay the loan back in his old age.
Pre-interval we are introduced to the above characters and are told that they cannot repay the loans they took from the bank. Post interval, the bank hires Sattarbhai (Sanjay Dutt) to reclaim the bank’s money. “Bhai,” he is not, and instead of using his usual goon-ish ways of extracting dollars from the debtors, he decides to use the Good Samaritan method to help them. So, thanks to Sattarbhai, Ryan’s heart is mended followed by some great jobs offers; Anil and Shilpa’s marriage survives its downfall; Chandrankant Sahib uses his Sattarbhai as a shoulder to cry on as he realizes his son for his uselessness and lastly, Sattarbhai falls in love with Prerna. All’s well, that ends well as the debtors pay back their loans and mend their lives. And then the credits start rolling. You are also told as the movie ends, to take loans as and when you need them…and oh yeah, pay them back too!
First time director Saurabh Kabra, has given the audiences an interesting insight into the hidden world of credit and money lending as well as a social message. It also works as a warning to people that take loans easily and are unable to pay it back. Problems in the movie arise because of the raw plots and unanswered questions throughout the script. Add to that, the ending seems hurried as if the director was bored or wanted to get the movie over and done with.
On the bright side, Sanjay Dutt as Sattarbhai is the highlight of the movie. Despite the fact that the Munnabhai act has been done over and over again, he still manages to bring something different and comical to the film. It would have been nicer if he was seen more throughout the movie instead of post interval only. Some interesting parts occur when Ashish Chaudhary is caught watching porn by his wife, and Arjun Rampal dancing with hot and sexy Malaika Arora. Besides that, the performances are all average including Urmila, who seemed a bit bored.
Watch this one if you’re a Sanju Baba fan and are not bored of his usual tapori act. Otherwise, the movie starts and ends so abruptly, you’ll wonder what happened when you see the credits. My take? Watch Munnabhai (M.B.B.S or Lage Raho) again instead.
