Chala Mussadi Office Office Review

Jenhe Naaz hia Hind par who Kahan Hai? Poet Sahir threw up the rhetorical questions a few decades ago.  Things have only worsened since.  A look at corrupt society – a corrupt India is breeding ground for a cliché filled screenplay and the film is as exasperating as the issue it seeks to tackle.

Some of the reasons you can avoid the film: frivolous over frolic; caricatures for characters; sensitivities taken for granted; no performances except Pankaj.  The list could be endless and longer than the duration of the film- which incidentally is its prime advantage. The film is a very Bollywood (borrowed from TV) look at what Naipual long ago diagnosed: India: A wounded Civilization.

One of the most memorable scenes from our cinema is when the protagonist in Guru Dutt’s Pyasa screams against hypocrisy and corruption in Pyasa: Jala do ise phoonk dalo yeh duniya ; yeh duniya agar mil bhi jaye to kay hai? Stretch that poignancy to a ludicrous riot and you have the film.

Traverse beyond the basic liberty (license!) to choose the theme for the pulpit delivery and you begin to snigger at how the contemporary problem of corruption can be trivialised. That is the biggest draw back of the film.  This is perhaps why the film is not dedicated to Anna Hazare.  It how ever does not explain why it is not dedicated to Baba Ramdev.

The story line is about a honest retired school teacher (Pankaj Kapoor) who goes on a pilgrimage to immerse the ashes of his wife (Farida Jalal). The Pension department on a callous inspection record that he is dead.  When he makes his claims, he is called upon to prove that he is alive. His ordeals with the system is rest of the film

The film is a reiteration that episodic television serials cannot be navigated to the big screen automatically. The film seemingly takes n corruption. It is not a tongue in cheek or light hearted take. It is a joke.  It is a collage of extracts from the television serial.

Search minutely for positives and you would zero on Pankaj Kapoor’s sincere performance, the scene in the near end when he raises the debate on Global warming Vs. Corruption and of course the length of the film. One moment of efficiency in the film is the ease with which a character cuts Okra in the hospital.  That apart everything is loud to a fault and is self defeatingly exaggerated.

Anger has often been the grammar against corruption.  Humour can be a wonderful alternative paradigm. This is not.  The film is as entertaining as a trip to your office- with or without the Monday morning syndrome.

L. Ravichander.