Bollywood is a treasure trove of surprises. Toh Baat Pakki is one such movie which despite extraordinary promotional skills or over hyped media appearance made it to the audiences. The audiences, though small in number, received the movie with open hearts. However, the post MNIK hype would even worsen the impact the movie is expected to create.
The movie, directed by Kedar Shinde, bears a striking resemblance to what Suraj Barjatya would have come up with in one of those ‘out of form days’. However, Kedar Shinde intentionally or unintentionally did his best to take the Suraj Barjatya’s out of form jinx and delivered TBP. The commotion and routine that exists in all close to life dramas with a tinge of comedy got the better of the director, making his helplessness pretty obvious at quite a few occasions.
Toh Baat Pakki has a variety of big, small, forgotten and ignored names all screaming, shouting and showing off their antics in this 2 hour long flick. The duration of the movie came as a surprise to me as every important element in the movie was lift off from what we as Indian audiences have been seeing for around a decade in movies like, DDLJ, Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, MYKSH, etc. What makes it distinctive was the fact that this movie wore an outfit that loudly says; ‘COMEDY’ overpowering romance, family and other blahs, unlike the ones that it draws inspirations from.
Tabu makes her comeback as a middle class housewife portraying Rajeshwari Saxena. She looks gorgeous and by far she looks best as a stereotypical Indian housewife dressed in vibrant Saris and a beautiful smile. The other important characters are of Rahul (Sharman Joshi), Yuvraj (Vatsal Seth) and Nisha (Yuvika Choudhary).
The plot builds up as Rajeshwari, a control freak who loves to talk endlessly, tries to find a groom for her younger sister Nisha. Obviously it is more a hegemony factor in the nation that is lead by things like offering a dowry. Rajeshwari however is not very keen on it so she plays the cupid as she lets an engineering student Rahul in her house as a tenant, looking at him as a prospective groom. Rajeshwari’s determination worked and the couple, as planned, lands in the middle of a whirlwind romance.
The slow paced movie picks up with the entry of Yuvraj who fits perfectly in the category of an ideal with groom as he owns a house, car and a decent salary. That’s where Rajeshwari gets greedier and tries to fix up Nisha with Yuvraj, by hook or by crook. The rest of the story is about Rahul’s efforts of winning back the love of his life, making the second half of the story more emotionally strong than the first half.
The music of the film can be ignored. Pritam once again proved that he can either be good or original. The songs don’t fit in the movie and are totally avoidable since they are not doing any good to the movie. However, there is not much importance given to the background score since the dialogues of the movie are well placed and well spoken and any additional piece of music would have taken the attention away from the beauty of the dialogues, which are laced with comedy and emotions at the same time.
The cinematographers, Rahul Jadhav and Raja Satankar, did a great job as they lend a whole new feel to an age old story and the emotions that envelope every Indian household blessed with a girl. Needless to mention, they have captured the scenic beauty of a make shift hill station of Palanpur. The credits should also be given to the monstrous efforts of the art director duo of Shailesh Mahadik and Shital Kanvinde who created Palanpur.
It is noticeable how Tabu and Sharman Joshi carry the entire movie on their shoulders without letting it dip even for a minute. With this movie in her kitty, Tabu for sure has proved that she can handle comedy, especially after not being able to make a resounding presence in Priyadarshan’s Hera Pheri, while Sharman is at its best again after the mesmerizing Raju from 3 Idiots. However, Vatsal Seth fails to get this movie working in his favour, yet again.
We Indians are surrounded by drama everywhere. Right from the soaps that are aired on television to the intricacies of our own lives over flooding with family values and emotions. It was not expected that another one of the movies which dates back to the 80s would work so well for the Indian market. Someone once said, “It’s the way you look at things,” and the movie just proved it with an unmatched amount of freshness.
If you prefer a little slow paced cinema rather than the one that always keeps you on the edge of the seat because of its frantic pace, this is something for you.
