Re: Shaadi No 1
Movie Review
Shaadi No.1 - For a change a comedy that falls flat
Exclusive by Joginder Tuteja, IndiaGlitz [Wednesday, November 02, 2005]
OK, so Shaadi No. 1 could put a full stop to all the infidelity/extra marital threesomes that we have been witnessing since ‘Masti’ followed by ‘No Entry’. Agreed that its just the germ of ‘grass-greener-on-the-other-side’ syndrome that is prevalent in ‘Shaadi No. 1’ with the screenplay being different but still this time around the funny bone isn’t really tickled great deal. There are occasional laughs and chuckles but at number of places they just fall flat. And sad, but the truth is that Sanjay Dutt’s act just doesn’t lift the movie. In fact at places it makes you wonder why didn’t the makers of ‘Shaadi No. 1’ try attempting something different than this. Net result - ‘Shaadi No. 1’ turns out to be the case of too much too soon for the viewers.
When the opening credits roll, the story is clear that ‘Shaadi No. 1’ is set to be another no-brainer flick. And you in fact love the feeling as you have come prepared for exactly the same from this Vashu Bhagnani-David Dhawan comic flick. The movie begins with an attempted suicide by Raj [Fardeen Khan], Veer [Zayed Khan] and Aryan [Sharman Joshi] who are frustrated since neither do they have a great job in the day nor do they have a great night lives with their respective wives Bhavna [Ayesha Takia], Diya [Esha Deol] and Sonia [Soha Ali Khan]. Reason being that while Bhavna believes in ‘pooja-paath-mannat’ 30 days a month, Diya is an upcoming actor who hardly has any time for home. Meanwhile Sonia is a lawyer who spends much of her time preparing for her case. To top it all, there are also an admiring Pandit [Menon], director [Rajpal Yadav] and lawyer [Ali Asgar] in the lives of three of them.
While our three men are unable to commit suicide, they end up saving the life of businessman Kothari [Satish Shah] who is facing heavy losses due to strings of unsuccessful business ventures. They offer Kothari some advise to save his business who offers them a job in his company in return. They continue to be depressed and frustrated until Kothari gives them another offer that they cannot refuse. He wants his ‘phoren-returned’ daughters Dimple [Sophie Chowdhary], Madhuri [Riya Sen] and Rekha [Aarti Chabbaria] to be brought on a right path so that they choose the men he selects for them. Plan is for Raj, Veer and Aryan to ‘patao’ them and later ditch them so that the gals realize the value of arranged marriage! Though the men are initially reluctant to grab the offer as they wanna be loyal to their wives, the greed of better pay package force them to take the plunge.
Kothari arranges for the six of them to meet on a “foreign location” and soon the girls fall for the charms of the three boys. Even Raj, Veer and Aryan are happy now as they get a chance to bit the forbidden fruit. Not able to believe their luck, now they want the best of everything. Solution? They decide to convince their wives to allow them to marry twice!!!
Excited about their plan they return back to India only to find the thorn in their flesh - ‘Lukhwinder Singh Lukha’ a.k.a ‘Lucky bhaiiya’ [Sanjay Dutt], who turns out to be a distant brother of their wives. From here begins a hide and seek game between the Lucky and the trio of Raj, Veer and Aryan. While Lucky is all out to expose the deeds of his ‘jijus’ to his sisters, Raj, Veer and Aryan need to keep the wives and girlfriends away from each other. This cat and mouse game continues for another hour or so before it reaches its conclusion that is highly reminiscent of ‘No Entry’!
In the beginning things still go a bit smooth with the introduction of the characters and especially the escapades of the three men and the girlfriends. The way they go around ‘pataofying’ them does make you smile and even laugh a bit. There is a good dose of skin show also in the first half that should keep men happy. One believes that things would brighten up with the introduction of Sanjay Dutt. But this in fact brings the movie down as more than making you laugh, his character irritates you at most of the places.
Sanjay Dutt follows the same pattern yet again as in ‘Jodi No. 1’ and ‘Ek Aur Ek Gyarah’ and this time around it is a complete overkill. His over-the-top ‘Punjabi’ man trying to give ‘misaals’ at every opportune moment brings on smiles only at a few places with viewer getting tired of them after some time. Second half was expected to be exciting [as promised by Sanjay Dutt at the interval point] but that is sadly not the case. Things get predictable with the story not moving at all and coming to an almost standstill. Entire sequence of trying to bump off Sanjay Dutt over a hill and him returning back from the dead is outright predictable with one looking forward to something better happening.
The pre-climax around the true colors of the men being revealed and the climax that follows is also not the best conclusion of ‘Shaadi No. 1’. There is also a glaring gap about the relationship of Sanjay Dutt between the three wives and is out rightly avoided. Also, the characters of the three men towards the end has been projected as if they were at fault all the time with wives going completely scot-free!
Director Dhawan (with help from cinematographer Johny Lall) packs each and every frame of ‘Shaadi No. 1’ with colors and gloss but some very average screenplay lets him down. Dhawan tries to make best of what is available to him but the final result is hardly of the kind that would make you clap and scream.
Dialogues by Milpa Zaveri are forced to follow a synchronized pattern in order to give equal footage to the all the actors. So if Fardeen Khan has a comment for a situation then Zayed and Sharman follow suit. Same happens in the case of wives and girlfriends. Due to this some of the lines are indeed funny whereas the rest completely fall flat. Anu Malik’s music is another downer as none of the songs remain with you after the movie is over.
There are 12 important characters in the movie in addition to Sanjay Dutt and Satish Shah and frankly everyone manages to come up with just an average performance. None of them are able to rise above the script and the end result is just about fine. If Dhawan thought that Sanjay Dutt alone would be able to lift the movie then that unfortunately doesn’t happen. Those expecting Rajpal Yadav to steal the show would be disappointed as he is hardly in 3-4 scenes and a song.
In the end, ‘Shaadi No. 1’ is one of the weaker products from David Dhawan in recent years. Those looking for some non-stop ‘masti’ and ‘hungama’ would at maximum manage to have a few smiles in their way but that’s about it. Quite average!
Rating: **
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Kisi ne dekhi yeh movie???