Jhootha Kahin Ka
Starring Rishi Kapoor, Jimmy Sheirgill, Lilette Dubey, Jimmy Shergil, Sunny Singh, Omkar Kapoor
Directed by Smeep Kang
If you ask me what this wild and crazy film is about, I’d be hard pressed to give you a summary. Let’s just say Jhootha Kahin Ka (my title would have been Phir Wohi Dil Liar) is trippy fun if you don’t think too much about the rigorously disembodied outflow of a comedy of errors where one of the young heroes poses as the son-in-law of his best friends girlfriend’s family. Shakespearean and Anees Bazmian.
I am still trying to figure out motives and character motivations in this comic subterfuge where director Smeep Kang seems to have the most fun. We just can’t help joining in. I’ve taken the help of those Bollywood-comedy buffs who wallow in this kind of jumbled identity crisis where everyone talks loudly and at cross purposes without saying anything that means anything even remotely coherent. Even they are nonplussed but tickled.
The dialogues are zippy and the wisecracks flow with a free flowing celerity leaving no room for quibble let alone questioning.
It must be said that the senior actors score much higher than the youngsters who aren’t bad but no match to their peers. Omkar Kapoor and Sunny Singh bring a roguish charm to the proceedings. But their love interests have little room to display any charm if any.
It is Rishi Kapoor who imparts a virile comic energy to his sketchily-written characters. He fumes and flirts his way through a fleet of episodes that range from the comic to the bland. Rishi is a hoot flirting with his wheelchair- bound neighbour Manoj Joshi’s coquettish wife Lillete Dubey. It’s good to see Rishi Kapoor back on screen. He was much missed and he makes a strong impression in the supremely slapstick surroundings.
Rishi is even better fuming and ranting at his brother-in-law, played with a pokerfaced asininity by Rajesh Verma. Such actors can never let a script down. And when the ever-dependable Jimmy Sheirgill joins in the confusion midway, it is time for the laughs to get louder. The gags grow more aggressive as Jimmy together with a sidekick (played by an unknown actor who is absolutely brilliant) whip up a farcical frenzy of their own.
By the time the over-punctuated climax hurls to a halt Jhootha Kahin Ka left me breathless and giggly. Silly can be fun. Very silly can be even more fun. Provided you don’t think too much,
