Khichdi The Movie

In what is India’s answer to The Brady Bunch, we have the Parekh family. A bunch of lovable losers, they are – Tulsidas Parekh a.k.a. Babuji (Anang Desai), Jayashree (Nimisha Vakharia), Praful (Rajeev Mehta), Hansa – Praful’s wife (Supriya Pathak) and Himanshu – Hansa’s brother (J D Majethia). Their idea of a panic situation is the maid not turning up. So much so that they would be distraught when the maid doesn’t come but not when their own father passes away. And they are capable of psyching the brains out of even God – in this case Buddhi Dev (Satish Shah). Adding to the confusion are their neighbours – A Sardar joint family which has 65 members to be precise. And all of them are called Parminder. Welcome to what is truly a KHICHDI.


Now things take a slight turn when Hansa’s father, Chandrakant, kicks the bucket. But before he dies in a very painful slapstick manner, he makes Tulsidas commit to doing whatever is possible to fulfil Himanshu’s biggest wish. He passes away before telling him what the wish is. So now we are left to believe whatever Himanshu says. Now the dude’s wish is as ridiculous as himself. He wants to have a memorable love story that has a happy ending with him getting married. Now there is no woman in the picture and getting married seems to be a distant dream. But that’s when Jayashree Ben gets into action and starts calling everyone from Sonia Gandhi to Barrack Obama to spread the word that Hee-Maan-Su is now marriageable. But despite her best attempts, they are unable to find any alliance – leave alone a suitable one. And as Himanshu’s dream starts seeming very distant, they are subject to one more phone call for the Parminder’s. Which is when a female Parminder (Kirti Kulhari) who is the darling daughter of the family comes into play as the love interest of of Himanshu.

If there was any award in the category of slapstick comedy, Khichdi – The Movie would be way up there. If you really like the slapstick variety of Indian comedy, then u must must must watch Khichdi – The movie. If you are not the kind then avoid it like the plague. It can be one of the biggest ordeals in your life. But then that’s probably what u could expect from the Brady Bunch kinds correct. Guess I had my expectations a bit misplaced. The saving grace though is that it is very very clean. The music is also fairly decent and I wonder why “Bhonsale Market” hasn’t really picked up on the charts.

Coming to the acting department, nothing really stands out. In fact, even someone as talented as Supriya Pathak seems to be extremely forced in her effort. If anyone does stand out it is Nimisha Vakharia in her role of Jayashree Ben. Seems like a natural talent to say the least. I am not sure if Aatish Kapadia also directs the Television version but the movie version has too many consistency issues. Editing is not worth writing home about. All in all not the best movie made by a country mile. However, a vast majority of the Indian audiences would definitely love it for the kind of humour. There are enough and more Harish Bubnas (an ex colleague) in this country for sure. I give this 4 on 10.