20131106: Bollywood Review--Perfect Mismatch

Perfect Mismatch (It's a Mismatch)

1. Fundamentals, reception.
1. Indian live action feature length film, 2009, PG, 92 minutes, comedy, drama, romance
2. IMDB: 6.0/10.0 from 56 audience ratings. Estimated budget: 2 million USD.  Spoken language is English.
3. Rotten Tomatoes: 'No reviews yet,' and 20% like it from 12 audience ratings.
4. HuluPlus: 'three couples and how they approach the modern day Indian marriage.'
5. Directed by: Ajmal Zaheer Ahmed.  Story by Anubhav Anand.
6. Starring: Anubhav Anand as Aman Sukhwinder Bhalla, Anupam Kher as Mr. Bhalla, Simran Bhar as Young Preeti Bhalla, Ranjita Chakravarty as Mrs. Bhalla, Nandana Sen as Neha D. Patel, Rashmi Rustagi as Meena D. Patel (Neha's mother), Boman Irani as Dinesh Patel (Neha's father).


2. Setup and Plot
1. NRI (non-resident Indian) in California, specifically in Riverside.  Aman the architect gets his job sold out from underneath him.  About the same time he meets Neha.  They get to know each other; Neha wants her parents to meet Aman, but they favor the son of their doctor.


2. Sigh.  Aman is Punjabi, while Neha is Gujarati; as Dinesh says, 'They eat meat, they drink, they are loud, and they are not classy like us.'  Mr. Bhalla does not like taking his shoes off, having no meat, no alcohol, no enthusiasm for loud jokes.  His gift of a bottle of booze is not well-received.


3. Aman prepares a presentation for an architectural design contest.  He makes the final 100, and gets a trip to New York to pitch his design in person.


4. After being a tad harsh toward his uncle, Aman accidentally discovers correspondence between his uncle and his father.  His father has suffered catastrophic losses against the large loan that his uncle had taken out for him.  His uncle is in a deep well of debt; that's why he works even on Sundays.


5. The offer from New York does not come through.  At least that is the lie that Aman tells at first.  Aman takes a position with his uncle's company.


6. Neha and Aram stage a song and dance number.  This starts out very well, but does not stay that way.  Aram and Neha break up after that, and a lot of derivative sadness starts.


7. For their own reasons, Mr. Bhalla and Dinesh agree to try to fix things up for Aman and Neha at the Diwali celebration.


8. Will that work out?  Will Aman straighten out the misstep with the design contest?


3. Conclusions
1. Story by the lead actor; this sounds like a vanity film, which are usually not worth seeing.
2. One line summary: Punjabi versus Gujarati customs on several levels.
3. Three stars of five.


4. Scores
1. Cinematography: 9/10 A little too soft focus for me, but otherwise fine.


2. Sound: 7/10 Good.  Music and singing are often in the background instead of in the foreground with dance.  I missed the spoken word being in a language from the Indian subcontinent.


3. Acting: 6/10  Liked Anupam Kher, Boman Irani, Nandana Sen.  I could have done without Anubhav Anand, the anchor about the neck that drags the movie underwater.


4. Screenplay: 5/10 Vanity project; plays like a protracted soliloquy.