Nehle Pe Dehla Movie Reviews

It is silly. It is inane. It is unbelievable.

It is so easy to lash a movie when the chips are down. Years in the making and struggling to hit the marquee, NEHLLE PE DEHLLA, was never meant to be a classic. Heck, it never even intended to take itself seriously

This is why there is a surprise in store if one watches the film with no apprehensions or expectations. Because those 2 hours do come packed with enough fun moments to make you come out of the auditorium smiling and some of the sequences linger in your mind even hours after the film is over.

Meet Johny [Sanjay Dutt] and Jimmy [Saif Ali Khan], two small time crooks. Often meeting each other in jail, they love to hate each other.

Once out of jail, they hit upon a dying accountant [Avtar Gill at his down-market best, something that he does quite well] who has been knocked out by the partners of Balram [Shakti Kapoor], a scheming Manager who has done a 30 crore worth €˜ghotala€™ off her niece Pooja€™s [Bipasha Basu] Hotel business. Since the accountant is in the know-how of this scam, it was imperative that Balram along with his €˜tikdi€™ of Punjabi brothers, Mukesh Rishi, Asif Sheikh and Shiva, get him out of their way.

So far, so 90s and so nostalgic!

All this and more continues in a comic mode without giving the situations any overtly dramatic or thriller mood and credit goes to script writer Yunus Sejawal, dialogue writer Rumi Jaffrey and director Ajay Chandok who have just one plan in mind €“ to keep the situations light hearted and let the audience enjoy the proceedings with a smile on their face.

Coming back to the plot, once the dying accountant gives Jimmy and Johny the hint about 30 crore scam, they get themselves employed as waiter in the same hotel to get to the root of the problem and unearth the mystery. There they meet Pooja and her best friend Kim [Kim Sharma], and in true 90s style, they all become soul mates.

While non-stop fun continues as Jimmy and Johny try to search for the money in the hotel, there is a twist in the plot as they realize that it is Balram who is the mastermind behind all the scam. Meanwhile Balram too wants his €˜tikdi€™ to knock off the two and calls them all for a visit to Mauritius. But the trio has a plan of their own as they now intend to be the boss and instead kill Balram himself.

Once Jimmy and Johny arrive to meet Balram, they realize that he is dead and along with him goes their dream of getting 30 crores. But the fun is not over as the dead man is their key to survival. And now they need him to be with them more than anyone else who was alive.

Many more funny situations follow as the trio is given an impression that Balram is alive. And now they want to kill him at all costs. What happens next is a €˜bhel-puri€™ of funny situations that involves the nostalgia of David Dhawan films and makes you laugh along at the absurdity and inanity of situations.

It is easy to write off a film like this but at the end of the day one needs to realize the fact that penning a script like this is also not a joke. With a paper-thin plot, what is of utmost importance is to plug the narrative with so many fun moments and gags that the audience doesn€™t get time to think.

This is the reason why some of the scenes make the audience gets into collective laughs:

a) Sanjay Dutt introducing a child and a female as Avtar Gill€™s family to Shakti Kapoor
b) Sanjay Dutt laughing at Saif Ali Khan after being promoted as a Lobby Manager
c) All the scenes featuring Asif Sheikh as a dumb Punjabi wannabe gangster. Wish we see more of him.
d) All the scenes featuring Shakti Kapoor as a dead man. Watch out for the one when his spirit dances to the hit Mauritian number

Sanjay Dutt is effortless in his performance. He does well in a comic act that shows once again that he is the most versatile when it comes to actors of his generations. His comic timing is impeccable and it is a surprise not to see him going full throttle for the film€™s publicity.

Saif Ali Khan is fine though his image has changed so much in the last 5 years that it is difficult to imagine him doing such roles till a few years back. He looks raw in some of the scenes, especially in the initial reels, and one misses Govinda here since he could just have been an ideal partner-in-crime with Sanjay Dutt.

Bipasha Basu is poor, both in looks as well as acting department. While she looks dull with her costumes too being sub-standard, it is difficult to decide what is worse €“ her overall persona in the film more her acting. In fact what comes as a pleasant surprise is Kim Sharma who looks every bit a kitten she is expected to be in the film and carries her western costumes quite well too. She looks absolutely smashing and acts reasonably well too as required in mainstream paradigm.

After looking at the film, what is sure is the fact that one can€™t imagine anyone other than Shakti Kapoor to be able to carry off such a role. His 3 decades of experience works for him as he plays a dead man quite well with his body language and changing facial expressions working for a movie belonging to such genre.

It may have become almost fashionable to criticize him and his act in each of his films but then from the €˜aam junta€™ point of view, he is still the man when it comes to front bench crowds.

Amongst the trio of villains, Asif Sheikh wins hands down while Shiva too brings on smiles with his Punjabi-Brit accent and mannerisms. Mukesh Rishi is fine. Supriya Karnik, who comes towards the pre-climax of the film as a €˜tantrik€™ is decent too.

Cinematography of the film is good while background music by Daboo Malik deserves special mention as it contributes a big deal in making this dated film look and sounds fresh. Though none of the songs are great shakes audio wise, they look fine on screen. Watch out for the way €˜Husn€™ and €˜Neeli Neeli€™ have been edited €“ it€™s a good job out there!

In nutshell, the film does take the David Dhawan€™s formula of the 90s forward. What€™s so wrong in that? Agreed that film making has reached a different level together over last decade while audience taste has also changed. But then since when has audience stopped laughing?

Just because a film has been poorly promoted, its cast has withdrawn support from the film and more than half the people criticizing the film have probably not even watched the promos, let aside watching the film in entirety, it is so easy to kick a film down and out.

The film is fast paced with no dull moments whatsoever and if you have the will power of laughing at the absurd yet funny situations and do not try to pseudo-analyze the film, chances are high that you would go home satisfied.