Review - Cheeni Kum: A non-syrupy delight!

Cheeni Kum comes across as the perfect recipe for the weekend. Great performances, great dialogues, hilarious situations, well-defined characters, great visuals…the ingredients are all there.

R Balki (Balkrishnan), the debutant director, has done a commendable job, and not since Farhan Akhtar’s Dil Chahta Hai has a first directorial venture come out so impressively. Like Farhan in DCH, Balki has done the story himself and has come up with well-etched out characters. The characterization has been done so well that even cameos like the chef’s crew or medical store-owner impress.

The performances of Amitabh and Tabu are of the highest quality, though Tabu impresses a little more than Big B, and her screen persona at times reminds you of Shabana Azmi. Both lead actors impress with their comical timing (non-slapstick) and their Urdu diction is always spot-on - I wish the irritating journalists of ‘Aaj Tak’ could speak Urdu like this.

The movie also marks the return of music maestro Illaiyaraja, and he has done a tidy job. The mellifluous "Jane do na" number by Shreya Ghoshal has a lilting effect. Singer Vijay Prakash has done Amitabh's playback wonderfully well - thank god there is no Sudesh Bhonsle for a change!

Editing by Chandan Arora is slick and glitch-free. PC Sreeram’s Cinematography is impressive, and he has captured the locales of both London and Delhi beautifully. The dialogues of Cheeni Kum clearly take the cake, with the sarcastic repartee every now and then being the flavour of the movie.

Remember Ayesha kapoor? The girl who bagged all the awards for her role in Black. Well, she is not there in the movie, but she might have been one of Balki’s inspirations while writing the movie (more on this in the notepad section).

The movie is primarily a comedy, but it is neither devoid of a story, nor is it a palliative for the neurons. And what’s more, it has a message too, which the young at heart would surely love.

Vis-à-vis other movies of its ilk, Cheeni Kum comfortably scores over Jogger’s Park (though JP had richer & varied music) and Nishabd. Amitabh’s role is cleanly developed and thankfully there are no traces of the gaucherie of Sexy Sam.

All in all, Cheeni Kum is a movie that should certainly be watched. The movie has one or two small sequences (though comical), which may warrant parental discretion, so decide for yourselves if you would like to take your kids along.

Happy viewing!