War Chhod Na Yaar

How many times have we wondered about the true story of the supposed skirmishes at the border to the west. I'm sure most of us have thought about the political motivation behind the news reports that we keep hearing. Quite certainly, we have also thought of the involvement of entities other than our favourite neighbour in the larger scheme of things.  War Chhod Na Yaar is a satire on all of these and a little bit more.

War Chhod Na Yaar (WCNY) has its heart in the right place because it tells you what War actually is these days - nothing but a political exercise with an aim to increase preference towards whichever party capitalizes on the opportunity. It is also a huge opportunity for the irresponsible forces that govern media to make a killing - at the expense of actual lives. WCNY is a satire on these embarrassing truths.

Sadly, while WCNY's messaging is reasonably clear, it is almost lost in its stale delivery. More often than not, you get caught in an a position where it only seems to be an Anti Pak Propaganda. There are stale jokes about the Pakistani Army thrown at the drop of a hat. How their "launchers" will be of no use when they get married. And how one can easily get a pakistani out of a bunker by releasing chicken. Mostly in bad taste.

There is little or no emphasis on detailing even when it comes to the costumes of the Indian Army or Soha's strikingly clean top that is stainless over a 24 hour period. Snide references to Laloo Land, Mallika Sherawat, Sania Mirza, Chinese Weapons and Chinese products in general are successful in deviating attention away from the 2 root problems that WCNY probably wanted to address - War and Abuse of what happens after / during a war.

Thankfully, WCNY has a few silver linings. Despite your best efforts (and their best efforts) to dislike Jaaved Jaffrey (Qureshi) and Sudhir Mishra (Khan) - the 2 bungling Pakistani Army personnel - you cannot help but laugh at times. Surely, they were following the director's instructions. Sharman Joshi is THE most under rated actor in this country and saves the movie from absolute disaster along with a decent performance from Soha Ali Khan. Dalip Tahil in his 4 roles, puts you through quite a bit of pain.

Unfortunately for WCNY, the script, screenplay, dialogue, cinematography, editing, sound, music, make up, costumes and of course direction were all dramatically below par. I cannot give the movie more than 4 on 10 because it was just not close to being watchable on screen. See it on DVD or Tata Sky or Cable TV if you have nothing better to do. There are some dialogues (probably 2) that keep the movie afloat. Barring these and the acting, quite a disaster.

Watch the trailer on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RmVj0zaTL5s