Tere Bin Laden

Ali Hassan (Ali Zafar) is your regular UDP (Ullu Da Pattha – as the song claims) from Karachi whose only obsession in life is to move to Amreeka as a journalist. Unfortunately, his first attempt leads to him getting deported thanks to something he does (which is why he is called a UDP) and then 6 unsuccessful attempts later, he finds himself as a small time reporter @ Danka TV run by a self obsessed Majeed Khan (Piyush Mishra). Ali’s cameraman is Gul (Nikhil Rathnaparkhi).Majeed ensures that his employees, especially the editing guy Mohammed Latif (Chirag Vora) is given as much hell as possible. Ali on his part keeps stepping in to save Latif from Majeed’s tantrums.

Ali is still not willing to give up on his Amreekan Dream and makes contact with Jamaal Bhai, proprietor of Lashkar-e-Amreeka (invading Amreeka since 2002). Jamaal claims to be able to send anyone to Amreeka thanks to his contacts @ the right places. But his services come @ a hefty price of Rs.272000 OR he could send you over free in more questionable methods at your own risk.

Ali and Gul are always given insignificant coverage areas one of which leads them to Muqabla-e-Baang, the local Rooster Crowing Contest which is won by Sikander, owned by the local chicken farmer Noora (Pradhuman Singh). While editing the shots, Ali & Gul realize that Noora bears an uncanny resemblance to none other than Osama himself. Desperately in need for the money, Ali hatches a plan and convinces Noora to shoot for a programme for an Arabic Channel. Latif poses as the owner of the channel. Being the proud chicken farmer that he is, Noora is more than glad to get his 15 mins of fame with Sikandar.

Now Ali is faced with a task of building the rest of the team and he ropes in Zoya, a local make up artiste who works with Jamaal Bhai and wants to start off her own beauty parlour if she has the monies. The last team member would be the voice over artiste who goes by the name of Comarade Qureshi and is currently a small time Radio Jockey. Qureshi takes some convincing but finally gets on board.

Our gang of 6 now goes on to shoot the video where Noora, unknown to himself, is sending out a warning threat to Prez George W Bush about how his atrocities will not be tolerated anymore. After this, Ali (posing as Khabri) locks in a deal for Rs.10 lacs with Majeed himself who in turn sells the video to Live India for Rs.30 lacs. What follows is a brilliant satire on how paranoia strikes the US and how our heroes cope up with the same. The humour is very slick and definitely way ahead of the slapstick junk that we get these days.

What makes TBL extremely good for Indian Cinema is that most of the names are vastly unknown. First time director Abhishekh Sharma should be thrilled at what he has achieved with TBL. Thank you so much Abhishekh for reaffirming our faith that the breed of good tasteful humour is not dead.

The acting is significantly above par with the exception of Nikhil Ratnaparkhi who could be perceived to be a little over the top – but only just a little. Ali Zafar shows good promise. The rest of them have always been cast as less than supporting roles in other movies but TBL gives them a good chunk of screen time which no one else has got to date with the exception of Sugandha Garg in Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na.

Tere Bin Laden is an exceptional effort and a welcome relief to the world of Bollywood Comedy. This one is a must watch @ 7 on 10.