Phas Gaye Re Obama

Comedy is still alive!!!! And the low budget comedy which goes onto make big bucks @ the Box Office is definitely here to stay. To the entire bunch of people who were inspired by that work of art called “Bheja Fry” – More power to you I say!!!! Keep them coming!!!! You are the reason why the semblance of faith in the movies still exists. And I thank you from the bottom of my heart for that.

Om Shastri (Rajat Kapoor) is in trouble. He has been a victim of the R word which for some reason did not hit India with the vengeance that it hit the land of the free. It has eaten up his life slowly but surely. First his outlets, then offices and now his house. The so called millionaire has pretty much been reduced to rags. He is now faced with the possibility of losing his house to the bank unless he pays up dues of $100K to retain ownership. Not left with much of a choice, he has to make the arduous trip back home to sell his ancestral property.

Armed with loads of hope and a one way ticket (he has no money to take a return trip) he lands up in the hinterland of the most populous state in the country after 7 years. He is pleasantly surprised to see a welcome party of almost everyone that he knows back home. But he is not very pleasantly surprised when he realizes that they have come over not to receive him but are themselves not in the best of shape and have made the Haveli their residence for good. And the caretaker, Om’s Chachaji (Paternal Uncle) doesn’t have the heart to ask them to leave.

Simultaneously we see the gang of Bhaisaheb (Sanjay Mishra) rueing their fate of being in the kidnapping business. Business is slow and people are not willing to give as much money as they used to for their Phirauti (return). One of the gang members, Anni, has always been in awe of the US. Now that Om is in town, Anni is not going to lose a golden opportunity. In atypical UP ishtyle, he begs and pleads Om to take him to the US. Slowly but surely, the rest of the town also gets to know that Om is visiting. And the person most excited is Bhaisaheb who looks at this as an opportunity to get a few crores of Phirauti. A plot is hatched, much to Anni’s disgust, to kidnap Om.

Phas Gaye Re Obama (PGRO) is a satire on the kidnapping “business” in UP and its presence all way upto the top. It is packed with tasteful humour which has you in splits most of the time. A welcome change from the crappy slapstick humour that gets dished out to us day in day out. In several ways, it is like Tere Bin Laden and kind of takes off from where TBL left – in terms of humour that is. Director Subhash Kapoor has done a fabulous job of handling a bunch of theatre artistes and very few star value actors. Rajat Kapoor is as calm as ever in his role of Om Shastri. Sanjay Mishra is simple superb as Bhaisaheb and so is Amol Gupte as the evil politican. The most surprising performance comes from Neha Dhupia as the notorious Munni. Subhash Kapoor must have talent if he can get someone like Dhupia to perform with a commitment that I have never seen before. Most importantly, for the first time, she shows that she CAN act. The icing on the cake are the brilliant performances of the support cast of Devendra Choudhary, Brijendra Kala & Sumeet Nijhawan.

Fantastic movie for any day of the week. The only reason I would give it 7 on 10 is due to some minor inconsistencies which could have been avoided. Without that it would have easily got an 8. Don’t miss it.