20131104: Bollywood Review--Tere Mere Phere

Tere Mere Phere (The Open Door)

1. Fundamentals, reception.
1. Indian live action feature length film, 2011, NR, 120 minutes, comedy, drama, romance.  Spoken word is Hindi, Punjabi, English; subtitles in English.
2. IMDB: 5.2/10.0 from 165 user ratings.
3. Rotten Tomatoes: 'No reviews yet,' and no data through audience ratings.
4. HuluPlus: 'Tere Mere Phere is a comic look at the battle of the sexes...'
5. Directed by: Deepa Sahi.
6. Starring: Vinay Pathak as Jai Dhumal/Gollu, Riya Sen as Muskaan/Gillie, Jagrat Deshai as Rahul Bhasin, Sasha Goradia as Pooja Pahuja/Pooja R. Bhasin.


2. Setup and Plot
1. Bollywood style slapstick: we watch as plans and intentions are doomed by circumstances beyond one's control.


2. Plane is in flight.  Passengers start a row to the point where the captain returns plane to the last takeoff airport.  Of course, some people have urgent business.  We can see the disappointments coming.  Back at the airport, people are still unruly; some of those who started it decide to leave before the cops arrive.


3. The couple who started the row was Pooja and Rahul, who are married, but deeply soured on love and on marriage.  When they attempt to get away in a recreational vehicle, Jai shames them into taking him where he needs to go.  Of course, his large pistol helped enforce the shame.


4. At a rest stop, Jai encourages the warring couple to tell him how they met and the like.  Just before they first spoke, Rahul's father proclaimed, they are both too silly, who will take care of them?  Judging from this film, the man was correct.  Getting them together was a disaster from the beginning.  They did fall in lust, though, and Rahul proposed during a train ride.  It looked like he did it to get Pooja to be quiet for a moment.  The cynical younger brother of Rahul tries to talk him out of the marriage, even at two hours before the ceremony.  The flashback to the honeymoon trip was extensive; the unhappiness started even then, and the stupidity continued: destroying their cell phones, picking up hitchhikers and so on.


5. Eventually Jai starts telling Rahul and Pooja about Muskaan, his beloved, who is going to be engaged to someone else.  That's where Jai's imagined deadline comes from; he wants to stop the engagement.  They miss the deadline of course; Jai really needed the airplane from the first segment.  They change course to try to prevent Muskaan from getting married, since she's already engaged.


6. Jai asks about why they were on the plane flight in the first place.  This triggers the flashback to the disastrous end of the honeymoon.


7. Will Jai reach Muskaan in time?  Will Rahul and Pooja stay together?  Will Jai shoot both of them?


3. Conclusions
1. I have not seen adults have a mud fight in a film in a long time.  I think the last one was a Western starring John Wayne.
2. One line summary: Bickering newlyweds encounter man determined to win back his girlfriend.
3. Four stars of five.


4. Scores
1. Cinematography: 9/10 Slightly jumpy, but mostly fine.  The on location filming in the mountains was beautiful.  Nice plus on the credits, which were the most entertaining I've seen for quite a while.


2. Sound: 8/10 Ever so slightly tinny for conversation; rich for the musical numbers.


3. Acting: 7/10 Enjoyable once I started to embrace the silliness.


4. Screenplay: 7/10 Loved the musical numbers, but the film dragged on too long.  80 minutes might have been nice.  Too much time was spent on absurd fights.


5. Musical Numbers: 9/10 The numbers during the honeymoon trip were gorgeous.  I wish there had been more.