This Saturday, on a rainy afternoon, I rented a DVD of Cheeni Kum, a movie that received glowing reviews. With large expectations I settled down to watch it to realize the DVD print not being the best, not a great talisman of things to come. Thankfully the audio wasnt as bad as it could have been. But, 2 hours 20 minutes later I was more than pleased with the experience and for a change, my large expectations (from the reviews) were quite well exceeded.
At a meta-level, Cheeni Kum can be viewed as 2 different movies stitched together. The first movie is nearly 1:30 hours in length, while the other goes on for about 45 minutes. Without a doubt, the first part of it is slendid, an amazingly written and incredibly acted love story. The second part, while doesnt really measure up to the first, is merely a routine bollywood potboiler.
Although, everyone knows and believes that Cheeni Kum is a love story between a 60 year old man and a 30 year old woman. While, that is certainly true, Cheeni Kum (definitely the first part) can be viewed as just a ‘love-story’. To repeat, you hardly need to add the age-factor as much to the proceedings.
Cheeni Kum tells the story of a london based chef, Buddha (Amitabh Bachchan) who runs, by his own admission, the finest indian restaurant. Buddha is a lonely, arrogant, uncompromising and stuborn man who is just not open to a conversation. He knows what he is upto and know how things are to be done. In short, he is mostly an unsocial character. One fine day his ego is punctured bigtime by this girl, Neena (Tabu) who while dining at his restaurant, not only returns a dish but also turns up with her own version, only much better.
Buddha is shaken out of his slumber. How the two come together forms the crux of the first part of the movie (by first part I infer the 1:30 hours duration of the movie as mentioned earlier). The plot-outline sounds simple, actually is very straightforward. But what really sets this one different from the million other lovestories being told, is its amazing script. It isnt about how Buddha suddenly changes from the person he is, or some life-changing events unfold. Buddha retains his core. He remains the difficult character that we are introduced to earlier. Its only that these very idiosyncracies vibe somewhere in Neena. Neena is a similar strong-headed woman, who knows her mind. Both these people find a sense of comfort together and are drawn to each to other. They are, i guess, not put off by the other’s bluntness, which is the probably the reason that they are still single (Neena is also single at 34).
There are so many moments in the first part which were laugh-out-loud ones for me. And none of these were the Paresh Rawal brand of comedy that is lauded these days. All of these moments arise not out of ‘jokes’ being narrated, but because of the way these characters react to each other and things that happen around. The dialogue is mind-blowing. There are just soo many witty lines all over, its really difficult not to enjoy every single moment of this. Also, the spoken word is realistic and is the language of this day. People talk about everyday non-sense, they dont shy away talking about sex and stuff.
What really works here for me is, that this is more of a conventional love story than a age-difference attraction thing, like Nishabd. Both these characters, ever so slowly get drawn to each other, until a point they both know it, in their hearts. And then they just wait until that moment, the other will profess it first, until which time, both keep playing at it. This is done soo masterfully by the director that how you wish you could see more of such love-stories than the KJ variety one has to live with in Bollywood. Suddenly, the love-story genre opens up as something which is so watchable.
The second part (the final 45 minutes) which mostly unfolds in Delhi and deals with AB and Tabu trying to convince her dad, Paresh Rawal for this unconventional match gets quite over-the-top and irritating. I know this is something which was hard to avoid, as in, the need to show opposition from some quarters atleast, but it doesn’t play out at the same subtle level as the first part. A lot of weird things keep happening, and all these characters play out much more straighter and in a routine Bollywood fashion. Clearly, the second part lacks the bubbling fizz and the charm inhabited by the first part.
Both Amitabh and Tabu inhabit their characters in ways only they can. Now, these days I am in more of an anti-Amitabh phase, with every other flick ‘starring‘ AB. But this one is a genuine movie where AB doesn’t ’star’ in to add value to it or to oblige a friend. The role suits his to the T, and he makes an incredible outing as the loud-mouthed, smooth-talking Buddha, who is going through the throes of a new attraction. Tabu plays a slightly reticient yet equally stubborn Neena.
In supporting roles, Zohra Sehgal playing AB’s mother is quite amazing. Paresh Rawal has ‘thankfully’ a short role as Neena’s father, who is quite obviously shocked to hear about her daughter’s plans. The script has Paresh doing a lot of hocus-pocus which gets quite irritating frankly. Also, personally, I thought the little girl playing 6 year old cancer struck Sexy, who has this special bond with Buddha, a little irritating initally. Later on, though, I think, I could understand the reason for her character to be the way it was.
At another level, Cheeni Kum is about how in life a person will connect with someone not due to a reason or a design, but only out of destiny. Buddha bonds with only two people in this story, one of them is Neena, clearly a misfit for a typical romantic liasion, and the second is his ‘best friend’ Sexy, again clearly a misfit for a typical friendship. As per the more tradional wisdom, neither relationships can be understood. But they do exist, because they just do. It think this was a very beautiful context within the film.
Another underlying theme in the movie has to deal with how short-lived relationships and friendships can be. The Buddha-Sexy friendship ends abrupty with her death. While Buddha-Neena relationship also doesnt have hopes for a long lasting tenure, with Buddha’s age a factor. But even with the short-termness of these relationships, hapiness can be drawn and maybe even preserved.
