Review : Chalo Dilli - Page 2

Lara has done ok for her role. Vinay was disappointment given that we have so huge expectations from him. He seriously need to shed "play the idiot" role and venture in different roles. Movie editing is crisp. There is a surprise actor in the movie. Yana does the Laila-Laila song, offcourse she can't match the sexiness of Zeenat.

more at http://kheladi.com/News/2011/4/29/Chalo_Dilli_Review_Half_baked_comedy

3.5 stil good

Mihika (Lara Dutta), a high-class head-honcho of a Mumbai multinational is on a flight to Delhi, which unfortunately lands at Jaipur due to technical problems. She hires a cab to Delhi and Manu Gupta (Vinay Pathak) tags along with her, en route. What follows is a 'literal' roller-coaster ride involving a sleepy cabbie, a coy truckie, a roadside dhaba , a ticket-less train journey, a shady hotel-room, a town under curfew and more craziness alike.
Deriving the plotline from Steve Martin's Planes, Trains and Automobiles (1987), writer Arshad Syed smartly adapts the story into Indian context for a rollicking road movie. The good thing is that the writer and director Shashant Shah know precisely what not to do with the rather rare genre. Though the makers replace Steve Martin's character from the original with a female protagonist, there is no additional effort to link Mihika and Manu romantically, which would have been a common tendency in the love-struck Bollywood. So there is no unnecessary burden on the writer to chalk out chemistry between the two, which would ultimately culminate into them falling in love.

Secondly, though the journey traverses through countryside, the film doesn't get into the sermon mode on sarso-ke-khet or desh-ki-mitti . And thirdly, despite the class-divide between the two protagonists, the narrative never falls into the trap of belittling the higher-class or taming the rich girl, another ideal inclination.

The constant hindrances in their journey are credibly written to make way for an eventful expedition. There is not much of action-adventure, usually associated with a road movie but the constant twists and turns in the plot are more circumstantial. One does feel, at times, that the screenplay doesn't tap to the hilt, the potential that the road-movie genre offers. Nevertheless it's anytime better than going overboard and resorting to slapstick or senseless subplots.

Like his earlier gem Dasvidaniya , Shashant Shah, once again, opts for simple storytelling and while he handles the humour very smartly, he also imparts a strong human touch to the drama with a poignant climax.

With Vinay Pathak having played similar blabbermouth and idiosyncratic characters in the past, one is somewhat apprehensive, at start, if he would appear repetitive. Thankfully he adds his new quirkiness to the character making it adorable. He calls everyone from driver to waiters by their full names. He farts, burps, snores yet amuses and is disgustingly cute (if there is a terms like this).

Lara Dutta works towards being the exact opposite of Pathak, and since opposites attract, their unusual chemistry is still delightful. She looks somewhat old yet charming. Moreover in a role that is more performance-oriented over being glamour-inclined, she does decently well. The Yana Gupta item number is downright crass.

Films like Chalo Dilli are slowly and steadily making a revolutionary call towards story-driven cinema over star-based propositions. Certainly likeable in 'capital' letters!

Chalo Dilli defies the notion that December is the only month for ridiculous Hindi movies that make you believe every studio head in Bollywood is engaging in Rahul Mahajan levels of drug use. The best way to describe this Vinay Pathak-Lara Dutta joyride is as an emotional stream of senselessness.

In his sophomore feature, director Shashant Shah (Dasvidaniya) has a solid lead in Vinay Pathak, whose goofy goodness somehow never becomes cloying.

Chalo Dilli surprisingly opens with wildly unintended farce, but its second half is meditative, chewing on the unconventional ' it is a tremendously constricting example of how we as humans are supposed to watch Hindi movies.

Whether you ingest Akshay Kumar's mind-numbing extended cameo or spit it out is largely dependent on your predetermined emotional attitude about the actor.

So here we have Fortune 500 company head honcho Mihika (Dutta), a punctual, precise woman who has a terrific career. She makes plans to travel to Delhi to visit her husband, but alas, inclement weather disrupts her schedule, and she finds herself in Jaipur along with her co-passenger, the exasperating, loquacious, overweight, gassy Manu (Pathak).

She's desperately in need of an operational vehicle, and since Manu is more than willing to oblige, he saddles himself with driving her to Delhi. As expected, their trip goes in fits and starts. They're waylaid by sleepy drivers, fuel leakage, the peculiarities of the Indian railways, gangsters, and her failure to see eye to eye on sundry trivial matters that are dismissed eloquently by Manu with his 'Kaunsi Badi baat ho gayee'(what's the big deal?).

Unfortunately, the deliberately mismatched pair's screwball template gets mangled, simply because both of them come off as infantile nitwits, undercutting any comic rapport.

Dutta is a snooty, neurotic woman who wears six-inch stilettos as she makes her way across the Jaipur desert sand, while Pathak is a salt of the earth commoner.

Now here's the problem - Dutta is shrill and repugnant instead achieving the desired quirky charm her character calls for. She drowns out the light from every scene she is in, and consistently fails to surprise; it's a miraculous performance, really.The very uptight Dutta (she wears makeup and has a Blackberry, you see) can't handle Pathak's openness and is more than a little jealous of how casually he takes life.

Shots of Dutta's high-heels sinking into mud passes for visual humor, and Pathak's loud farts are made to suffice as verbal wit. There's only so long that a Hindi film that is this shallow can keep interest alive in this happily unconventional couple snoozing in a remote dhaba though - and so a tragic illness is introduced, presumably to ensure that tears will flow now matter what.

Whatever reservoir of goodwill Shashant Shah builds during the first hour is exhausted by the laughable climatic melodrama.
Of course, let's not think of the nonsense about how ridiculously impossible it could be for someone to have her plane diverted to Jaipur because of weather, and to end up alone at an airport taxi stand and then not receive any help from the other 100-odd Delhi-bound passengers from the flight. That kind of logic and geographical knowledge is so unBollywood. You simply must agree that this sequence of events is utterly flawless and logically sound.

And just when the story seems to arrive to a welcome climax, Mr Shah pulls the rug from under your feet by offering Akshay Kumar and an extra half hour of butt-numbathon. And the film keeps droning on without producing any laughs whatsoever.

Watch Chalo Dilli for its mildly interesting first half, but leave during the interval. If your company forces you to stay on post-interval, don't be surprised if you find yourself praying for the sweet release of death.

🤔 I thought this was going to be Lara's breakthrough! But, it is a shame the movie will not be an average grosser, so sad! 😭

just finished ..superb movie😊