Saare Jahaan Se Mehenga

Indian cinema has always come up with some very interesting pieces of satire or comedy.  Every once in a while, you get some low budget comedy movies that provide wholesome family entertainment.  You know, the likes of Do Dooni Chaar (Rishi Kapoor & Neetu Singh playing a middle aged couple from Lajpat Nagar) or the more recent Vicky Donor.  You get what I am saying right?

Saare Jahaan Se Mehenga, unofortunately is just a meek attempt to come upto the high standards that were set by either of those movies mentioned earlier.  To its credit, there is a genuine attempt from first time director Anshul Sharma to come close to those benchmarks.

 

Rupesh Thapliyal & Vijay Manral, have definitely created an interesting storyline for. One that focuses on a real life social issue of rising costs.  But for some reason, the movie didn’t cut too much ice with me at least.  And a big reason for the same would be the weak screenplay.  The dialogues are not as sharp as they should be and therefore, the movie falls a bit flat.

 

Puttanpal (Sanjay Mishra) is married to Noori (Pragati Pandey).  The former works at a local veterinarian clinic in Sonepat, Haryana (where there are several bikes that roam around with Maharashtra license plates – when will our directors start paying attention to detail???).  The latter runs her own beauty parlour from home.

 

Between husband and wife, they struggle to get some decent food on the table thanks to a retired father (Vishwa Mohan Badola) and a good for nothing brother – Gopal (Ranjan Chhabra). As they are coming to terms with their inability to enjoy even the simple pleasures of life, Puttanpal hits upon a scheme that could insulate them from inflation.

 

He decides to use a government scheme to take an interest free loan of Rs. 1 lac (100000) that can be returned in 3 years.  The money should be used to start a business.  But the smart family decides to use the money to stock up supplies for 3 years instead.  At least the non perishable ones.  All well till the Loan Inspector (Zakir Hussain) pays a visit.

 

A movie made from the heart for certain.  It shows in the overall story and the commitment of the team to reduce expenses (and I don’t mean that in a sarcastic manner).  If only there was a little more effort put into getting the right acidic dialogues and a little less effort in getting the story to meander around aimlessly talking about money lying in swiss bank accounts.  Could have been so much better.  5 on 10.  Worth a dekko.

 

Watch the trailer on http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi830449433/?ref_=tt_ov_vi