The film is pivoted around Paresh
Rawal. It showcases how an innate listless script can still be a watchable if
it held together by a sincere performance specially by an artist of immense
talent. The film has things going as long as Paresh is around. You do not mind
the trite, the bombastic, the loud and achingly formalistic as long you have
him on screen. Rarely in recent times has a film actor single handed taken the
script and navigated it with his credibility and repute.
Based upon David Baddiel’s Infidel. While the original script dealt with a
British Muslim who goes through an identity crisis when he discovers he was
adopted as a child and born to a Jewish family, we have the protagonist here –
Dharam Pal Trivedi (Paresh Rawal) who is a leading caterer in Gujarat with a
family in place. Things begin to fall apart when he realises that he is born to
Muslim parents, adopted by a Hindu family.
His ongoing feud with neighbour Mehboob Nazeem Ali Shah Khan Bahadur (Annu
Malik) an advocate goes through a need based metamorphosis and the warring two
some become friends. In the backdrop is a God man Neelananda Baba (Naseerudin
Shah) who is making good commercial use of societal shortcomings and is making
hay with the naïve and the weak. There is Dharam’s son in love with Shradha
(Aurita Ghosh) but the marriage can take place only with the ‘blessings’ of the
swinging Baba.
Dharam Pal faces a serious identity crisis in a social order that denominates
you by your religion. He apes the new found Islamic roots, but fights hard to
hide it from his friends and family. He tries real hard to learn the tehzeeb
from the new found friend Khan Bahadur and impress upon the local Movlvi
(Murali Sharma) that he is Islamic enough to meet up with his ailing biological
father. Digs galore at religious practices, hues aplenty of the cultural
variations are the constructed cat walk of the script. The script is a fine
opportunity to take a good look at the crisis of identity. It could be fearsome
to wake up one morning and be shaken at the roots of your route this far.
Mentally, emotionally and perhaps even physically it could drain and challenge
you. It could have thus been dealt at that level. It could also have been a
cultural journey of self discovery a la Alex Hailey. It could have been a
critical reflection of how the gloss has taken over the crux. It could have a
myriad of wonderful layers. Yet it meanders into a crass take on God men and
the religious divide. Fawad Khan fails to convert a great opportunity and walks
a very predictable – nay clichéd road.
Naseeruddin Shah is name enough for the connoisseur to head to the theatre. He
delivers back to back thuds. Dirty Politics and now this. He is completely out
of sync and hams beyond acceptance. Yet the film is worth watching without too
many expectations, thanks only to the brilliance of Paresh Rawal. He proves
that he is by far the best that has happened. Watch the film for him, if
nothing. Without him the audience would be in the mental state the film’s title
suggests.
Rating : 2 stars.
+ Paresh Rawal
– Cliché ridden.
L. Ravichander.