MUMBAI: Ever since films like Hum Aapke Hain Kaun and Monsoon Wedding succeeded at the box office, the Indian wedding has been a genre in Hindi films. You don’t need a story. You can collect a motley crowd and use all the colour and light you want when you make a wedding film.

However, there has to be some excuse for a story. Here goes: Akash Chopra proposes to his childhood sweetheart, Tahira Kochhar. The wedding, following an engagement ceremony, is fixed. The guests and relatives start gathering and a festive atmosphere prevails all round. But Chopra is most thrilled when his elder brother and idol, Arshad Warsi, arrives. Warsi is Chopra’s mentor. Soon Warsi learns that Chopra has been a one-woman man and not only has he not indulged in chasing other women, he is still a virgin.

Warsi has a theory that such a marriage can’t last and not cheating on one’s wife leads to a failed marriage. He decides to do something about the problem in three steps. He is determined not to send his brother to the altar a virgin man. He also plants on the wedding scene a girl who was interested in Chopra earlier to seduce him. Warsi keeps creating situations where Chopra would bump into her. This charade goes on while on the side the other characters’ traits are etched out in an effort to create funny situations.

Producer: Moti Sagar. Director: Amrit Sagar Chopra. Cast: Akash Chopra, Arshad Warsi, Paresh Rawal, Raj Babbar, Shakti Kapoor, RiyaSen, Tahira Kocchar, Himani Shivpuri, Anuradha Patel, Tinu Anand, Navni Parihar .

Raj Babbar is the eldest of the family and comes across as a ‘khadus tau’ until he confesses to almost going wayward. Tinnu Anand was a muscular hulk once upon a time but has reduced to looking like a walking stick because he is always scared of his wife, Himani Shivpuri. He will learn about something wrong he did years back. Paresh Rawal plays mind games with his wife, Sushmita Mukherjee, and keeps her hooked to drugs while he keeps flirting with young girls. Shakti Kapoor likes to chase girls too as his wife, Supriya Karnik, keeps nagging him about smoking. Then there is the pair of Rakesh Bedi and his wife, Navni Parihar, who married out of love but are seen bickering and fighting all the time. These are fillers to entertain you while Warsi tries his devices to rid Chopra of his virgin status.

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Finally, as expected, Warsi’s ploy backfires. Chopra’s marriage is called off as Kochhar catches him with the other girl. Warsi is foolhardy and bravely tells his wife how he was cheating on her all the time. There is no logic in Warsi’s confession to his wife except to create a little drama at the end. His wife walks out and so does Kochhar.

Chopra does well while Kochhar is okay. Warsi is his usual self. Rest fill the bill. Musically, Bari Barsi…. And Muh meetha …have some lively moments. Direction is fair.

Rabba Mai Kya Karoon may find some takers in the North. Its beginning has not been very encouraging.

Chor Chor Super Chor: May just manage to steal a few smiles

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Producers: Ved Kataria, Renu Kataria. Director: K Rajesh. Cast: Deepak Dobriyal, Anshul Kataria, Priya Bathija, Alok Chaturvedi, Bramha Mishra, Paru Uma, Chandrahas Tiwari, Jagat Rawat, Anurag Arora, Nitin Goel, Avtar Sahani, MeghVarn Pant, ShrikantVerma, Tina, Kafil Ahemad.

Tehelka magazine introduced India to sting operations and like all fads, soon filmmakers caught up with the idea too. They found ways to add sting operations to their scripts without always understanding the essence of a sting. Chor Chor Super Chor is a sort of Oliver Twist revisited, however, with an interesting concept.

In a side alley of old Delhi, Shuklaji runs a photo studio. But that is just a façade for he actually controls a gang of young pickpockets and petty thieves. The boys have grown up under his care and are very loyal to him. One of the boys, Deepak Dobriyal, does not want to be part of such a way of life anymore and wants out. He tries to land jobs and finally gets one: to stand dressed as a Punjabi ‘samosa’ outside a savoury shop at one of the Delhi metro stations. In his earlier attempt to find a job, he has come across a girl, Priya Bathija, with whom he has fallen in love.

As luck would have it, Bathija arrives at the same metro station everyday at a fixed time to go to her job. One day, Dobriyal sees her handbag being picked. She is stopped by the station security and asked to show her ticket or else pay a fine, both things she can not do since her ticket as well as money was lost with the bag. Dobriyal uses his clout with the security man and gets her out of this tricky situation. Dobriyal knows one of his own people took it. He retrieves her bag and returns it to her the next day. The ice is broken and Dobriyal now becomes her friend. She wants to know how he got her bag back and he owns up to knowing them. She convinces him to show her the gang in operation and the smitten Dobriyal duly obliges.

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Dobriyal starts dreaming of finding a house as he expects her to propose to him any moment. Instead what he gets is a solid shock. The TV is running a promo of a sting operation of a chain of pickpockets and how they operate in unison on one target. Dobriyal is the one on TV in a tell all session! Bathija was a TV reporter. She had fooled and used him. His pickpocket friends are also angry with him for giving them away. Dobriyal asks for seven days and the gang’s help to turn the tables on Bathija.

Dobriyal plans a TV reality show of his own and first prank he plays is on the very owner of Bathija’s channel. He and his ‘team’ also involve their earlier victims who were caught on Bathija’s sting. Their show is ready. It is taken to Bathija’s boss. The result is, not only is the show approved it also leads to Bathija losing her job. The film carries a side track of the kidnap of a miser diamond merchant by one of the gang members who wanted to do something big instead of petty crimes his gang did every day. That track helps the film end on an action climax.

The film ambles along initially but it starts getting interesting as it progresses and when the counter sting is happening. Direction is good. The performances are generally on the better side. With resources being limited, rest of the aspects are okay.

Chor Chor Super Chor is fairly entertaining but has had a poor opening due to lack of face value and promotion.

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BA Pass: May just not pass at the box-office

The title of this film suggests nothing about its content. In fact, it is irrelevant. In the quest to make shoestring budget movies, one of the genres independent makers opting for is sex. Last week we had Nasha about juvenile infatuation with a buxom teacher. This week we have BA Pass, a film about a nymphomaniac and her eye for a variety of lovers. It is based on a short story, The Railway Aunty by Mohan Sikka.

Producer: Ajay Bahl. Director: Ajay Bahl. Cast: Shilpa Shukla, Shadab Kamal, Rajesh Sharma, Dibyendu Bhattacharya, Geeta Aggarwal.

Shadab Kamal’s is a cursed family. When his parents die, his grandfather hands him over to his daughter (the boy’s bua), Geeta Aggarwal, to take care of him in Delhi, where she lives, so that he can finish his Bachelor of Arts degree. (It is a different matter that a BA does not mean much these days.) The reason to send a boy away from a house left with two girls and an old man makes no sense; the rest of the film does not either. Geeta, with her husband and a son, lives in the Railway Settlement and Kamal tries to fit in there.

With only four hours to spend in college, Kamal has a lot of spare time on hand. Some of this he spends with an undertaker, Dibyendu Bhattacharya, and rest Geeta makes him spend running errands or doing household chores. It is during one kitty party that Shilpa Shukla, his aunt’s friend, notices the boy. She asks Geeta to send the boy over to her house to help with some errands. There is no way Geeta can say no since Shilpa’s husband is her husband’s boss.

Right from his first visit, Shilpa initiates Kamal into sex and various ways to enjoy it. Her hunger for sex is insatiable. She helps him look more presentable and soon also introduces him to her other ‘needy’ friends. The boy has now turned into a regular gigolo and started making a lot of money. The arrangement works fine for all concerned. But, Shilpa’s wayward ways are whispered in ladies circles and have also filtered down to her husband, Rajesh Sharma, who decides to give her a surprise one day and drops in at home at an odd hour. Kamal had only come to give his life’s savings to Shilpa for safekeeping but she could not resist using his visit for one more act when Sharma enters.

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Kamal’s world turns upside down. Sharma makes sure he is thrown out of his bua’s house. His plans to rent a house and bring his sisters back from hostel are in limbo since all his earnings are with Shilpa. He takes shelter with Bhattacharya and also asks him to go get his money from Shilpa, which he fails to do. Kamal vows to get his money back and breaks into her house and ransacks it but the money is nowhere to be found. Shilpa enters, he brandishes his knife, but still there is no money. The scene gets tricky as Sharma is at the door threatening to break it down. Shilpa’s attempt to trick Kamal and frame him only results in his stabbing and killing her.

Kamal can’t escape from the police for long and that is the tragic end to his life.

One may call this film a bold one but what is its purpose? The film has neither a message nor any entertainment. Why is the boy so star-crossed that nothing ever goes right for him? Some people may enjoy the film till the sex scenes are enacted sans nudity; might as well because neither Shilpa nor Kamal has a body worth the full monty. Made economically, the film has neither pleasant moments nor pleasant visuals to offer, having been shot in down market parts of the capital. Dialogue is good, especially those penned for Shilpa.

BA Pass has its chances at single screens in the North. Its content grossly limits its audience.

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