Review - Dhoondte Reh Jaaoge: shabby shot at spoof

A wise man (Leon Trotsky?) once said, "Everything is relative". So if you compare Dhoondte Reh Jaoge to the regular "three men get together to earn some easy money" plot, you'll feel like a rag collector in the backyard of a 5-star hotel. Because it doesn't once loose focus. Other masala comedies start with mayhem, keep it going with chaos and end with utter pandemonium. The commotion created by this one though works towards the ultimate goal. But commotion there is, I guess it maybe called inevitable for this genre.

This goal is a hilarious one. A producer (Paresh Rawal) gangs up with a smart Chartered Accountant (Kunal Khemu) to make a flop film. Why? When? What? You have to see the movie to find out. But what starts off with a decent sense of humor turns into one random poor joke stringed after another random poor joke. The smartness of the basic idea doesn't run through the film. And by the way, bring me a Chartered Accountant who wears anything other than blue, gray and white...and ok black.

The individually funny elements are ultimately forced together, the flow ignored. The major concern of movies like this one must be - "How do we end this madness?" If you give it a mellow end, it'd feel like an anti-climax. If you give it a realistic end, it contradicts the tone of the rest of the film. If you end it on a happy note, it is predictable and cliché. So let's just make it obvious that we weren't interested in the climax and be done with it quick and easy.

And fairly quick and easy it must have been for Paresh Rawal (Raj Chopra) to play the conniving conman. A couple of his scenes had me in splits. Sonu Sood (Aryan Kapoor) wears a sullen look almost through the movie. However, I enjoyed watching him go all starry-eyed when his girl is around. Kunal Khemu (Anand Pawar) seems to have done everything alright but yet he's not convincing as a geek or a guy who's in love or a schemer or a guy with confidence issues. Maybe it was the way his character was written. Soha Ali Khan (Neha) actually looks too smart to play such a dumb character. There seems to be no connection whatsoever between Anand and Neha. Both the actors and the way the romantic sub-plot is put together can share the blame for that one.

It would be sheer stupidity if there are characters in a movie who are producers and film actors and it didn't have mention of other Hindi movies, right? And stupid they aren't. So there is an attempt to collect all the references they wanted on one page. Thread them together in a reasonably funny sequence with witty one-liners evenly spaced out. And go berserk. Then slowly deteriorate into a predictable pun-mode. There are a few additional bits they spoof well though. Like the comment on the role of women in Hindi movies. But that again was a good excuse for not giving the women characters any attention. Another comment is on the audience's capacity to lap up one irrational movie after another. And how there's no formula to make a successful film. Also it alludes to the fact that the makers have no judgment of the viewers' expectations.

Actually, Dhoondte Reh Jaoge is in a win-win situation. If it goes down well with the audience - Yay! Hurray!! Chak De!!! If it doesn't the makers can say - "Duh! It was intentional!!"