20131105: Bollywood Review--Mere Baap Pehle Aap

Mere Baap Pehle Aap: My Father's Wedding (2008)

1. Production Fundamentals; reception
1. 2008, NR, 157 minutes, Bollywood.
2. IMDB: 4.8/10.0 from 824 user ratings. Spoken word is in Hindi; English subtitles.
3. Rotten Tomatoes: 'No reviews yet,' and 57% liked it from 10 user ratings.
4. HuluPlus: 'Chirag and Gaurav are two kids brought up by their father Janardhan Rane.'
5. Directed by Priyadarshan; screenplay by Manisha Korda; story by Priyadarshan.
6. Starring: Paresh Rawal as Janaradhan Vishamber Rane, Akshaye Khanna as Gaurav J. Rane, Minoj Joshi as Chirag J. Rane, Genelia D'Souza as Sheekha N. Kapoor, Om Puri as Madhav Mathur.


2. Setup, Plot
1. 'Who says only young people can get married?'


2. Janaradhan wants to get married again.  His two sons try to keep him out of trouble, which he seems drawn to, especially when he is with his friend Madhav.  The son Chirag is married with two children.  The other son Gaurav does most of the caring for the elderly father.


3. Madhav has been divorced for sometime, while Janaradhan is a widower.  Madhav is more the prankster who gets them in trouble.  Gaurav is usually the one to bail them out and face the attendant embarrassment.


4. A young woman named Rose (well, Sheeka) keeps calling Gaurav, and acts like they used to know one another. Sheeka does not seem to know when to stop a practical joke; more to the point, the director does not. That and the father's hijinks move the film forward.  Somewhat.


5. Once the joke is stopped, events can move forward again.  This is sixty minutes into the film, and I don't feel more informed than I did at three minutes in.


6. After Janaradhan takes a spill and ends up in hospital with a broken leg, Gaurav and Sheeka take care of him.  This appears to be their courtship as well. That is, until Janaradhan asks her about romantic possibilities.  The problem is that she is more of an American now and he intends to stay in India.


7. At the pre-wedding party for Sheeka's friend, Janaradhan recognizes Sheeka's teacher as his old flame.  Madhav sets his hopes on her, but both Gaurav and Janaradhan think this is a rather bad idea.  The day of the wedding, Sheeka introduces her teacher to Janaradhan, and it is clear that they know one another.


8. Janaradhan cleans himself up, shaves, dyes his hair, and gets a haircut.  He looks quite different.  He goes to the college where his old flame works, but finds she's on leave.  Things go down hill from there.  He and Gaurav have a row about it later.


9. Janaradhan gets more comfortable with his younger look.  At a party it seems like a good opportunity to him and the old flame to get together.


10. Will Sheeka go back to America?  Will the old secrets be revealed?  Will Janaradhan get what he looking for?


3. Conclusions
1. The mixed acting and bloated script are mostly balanced by the cinematography and the musical numbers.
2. One line summary: Thirty minutes of comedy dissolved in a 157 minute film.
3. Three stars of five.


4. Scores
1. Cinematography: 10/10 Fine.


2. Sound: 7/10 Good, but hollow now and then, usually on conversation, not singing.


3. Acting: 5/10 Whereas Akshaye Khanna is a star, Paresh Rawal is a blackhole of lack.  The absence of Rawal would have improved the film greatly.  Om Puri was next to terrible to watch.  The performance of Genelia D'Souza was enjoyable.


4. Screenplay: 6/10 Too drawn out, too long, too much filler.


5. Musical Numbers: 7/10 The first musical number accompanied the opening credits and was fine. The five numbers after that were quite nice.