| Mere Baap Pehle
Aap Movie
Review |
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Music :
Vidyasagar |
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Lyrics :
Sameer |
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Direction : Priyadarshan |
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Producer :
Raman
Maroo |
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Leading Cast :
Akshaye
Khanna, Om Puri, Manoj Joshi, Rajpal Yadav, |
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Archana
Puran Singh, Sameer, Paresh Rawal, Genelia D'Souza, |
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Shobana |
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Any movie is sure to generate enough interest just
by the fact that it's a Priyadarshan film. And Mere
Baap Pehle Aap has all the more reason to raise
expectations considering it brings back the Akshaye
Khanna and Priyadarshan jodi together. They have
worked in two movies before this – Hulchul and
Hungama – and both have been hits.
Mere Baap Pehle Aap does have an interesting story.
And this story has worked before in Kerela when the
film was made in 2001. For the ones who don't know
yet, MBPA is the remake of a Malayalam film Ishtam
directed by a once-upon-a-time assistant of
Priyadarshan. It's not an out and out comedy and has
quite a bit of an emotional track too. |
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MBPA is about about a 55 years old Janardhan Rane (Paresh
Rawal). He has spent his life bringing up his two
sons Chirag (Manoj Joshi) and Gaurav (Akshaye Khanna).
Rane's wife dies right after giving birth to Gaurav.
And now that the kids have grown up, Gaurav thinks
it is his responsibility to look after his father –
so much that he starts treating his father like his
son. He even scolds his father like his own son.
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Janardhan has a friend Madhav (Om Puri) who wants to
get married. He has his own story behind this. And every
time Madhav finds a new girl on a matrimonial website he
rushes to his friend so that they can go and talk to the
girl. Both end up in trouble and Gaurav rescues them every
time.
In the meantime, Shikha (Genelia) starts bugging Gaurav over
the phone as she wants to see him in trouble. That is
because Gaurav had ragged her during college. Things change
when Janardhan discovers that Anuradha (Shobhana), with whom
Shikha stays, is his lost love. They had tried to elope when
young but could not because of Anuradha's brothers. Now both
Shikha and Gaurav try to get Janardhan and Anuradha married.
There are disturbances in the plan, but isn't that a part of
every story? |
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The novelty of
the story is obvious. What's endearing about the story is
the relationship between a son and his father – something
which is present in films but always stays in the
background. This film brings this bond right to the central
plot of the story. The script is good so is the screenplay.
The starting of the film – the way every character is
introduced is particularly interesting. However, the grip
loosens sometime. Every action that should have created some
excitement and humour fall short. May it be Akshaye getting
tensed over his father's absence at home one night or
Janardhan dreaming about Gaurav and Shikha. And yes, the
climax sequence where Madhav tries to provoke Janardhan does
not work out well either. But the dialogues are good almost
throughout. |
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Technically the film looks with good camera. Kerela
looks beautiful. However, the film could have been
edited better. The film's length (almost two hours
and forty five minutes!) undoubtedly is something
the director could have worked on. The music is
strictly ok and does not charm you. So is the
background score.
Performances in the movie, however, are worth
checking out. Akshaye Khanna and Paresh Rawal are |
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simply superb. Their camraderie together shows their
capability to handle any scenes very well. Shobhana and
Manoj Joshi are good. Om Puri could have been more
restrained but he is very good in certain scenes. Genelia
has good expression but probably needs to work on voice
modulation. Right now she just looks cute! Archana Puran
Singh and Rajpal Yadav are hillarious. But Naseeruddin Shah
in a cameo is wasted.
Overall, Priyadarshan has tried something new. But the
emotions don't really come across the way the audiences
would have liked – neither do we laugh out loud in the comic
scenes nor do we feel the pain with the characters when they
go through a rough patch. Mere Baap Pehle Aap remains as an
average fair from a good director. |
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Rating: 2.5/5 |
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