Paying Guest- Review

Starring: Shreyas Talpade, Javed Jaffrey, Ashish Chowdhry, Celina Jaitly, Chunky Pandey, Riya Sen, Sayali Bhagat. Direction: Paritossh Painter Music: Sajid, Wajid Production: Mukta Arts Ltd It has been quite a while since Mukhta arts entertainment enjoyed a hit; their last hit was Apna Sapna Money Money which was released in 2006. Will their new project with a debutant handling the affairs and a cast comprising of Shreyas Talpade, Jaaved Jaffrey and Aashish Chowdhary be enough to bring back the glory days? Let’s analyze. Paying guest might well be the only movie worth spending the 2 odd hours in a theatre in almost a month, since ‘99’ to be more precise. But that doesn’t make it a brilliant movie but definitely not unbearable. The story is about four young men who are without a job and trying to find a place to live in Pattaya. They do find a couple Jhonny Lever and Delnaaz Paul who are ready to give their place for rent but only for couples. So Aashish

Chowdhary and his cousin Vatsal Sheth comes up with a plan of making Jaaved and Shreyas act as their wives and successfully they occupy the house too. So what happens next? Ok that’s easy to figure out, but how things falls in place forms the rest of the movie.

The story has an uncanny resemblance to Golmaal, and thinking of which Aashish and Vatsal could have easily used the ‘Dostana’ way to get the place, but then there wouldn’t be a story, would there? Paritossh Painter, the first time director shows immense talent in some of the scenes but loses his grip in the second half. There are a few laugh-out-loud scenes but the problem is that the movie is not laugh-a-minute like Golmaal or any other recent mindless comedies. The climax, inspired by ‘Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro’ is presented shoddily and is unwarranted for. And the scene before the climax, Jhonny Lever signs a contract with the bad guys just because he came to know the truth about the paying guests, Wah! Kya soch hai Paritoshh bhai, but answer us this, why was he involved in the chase after that? It just proves once again that most of the Indian filmmakers are clueless on how to give a proper ending to a script.

The technical aspects of the movie is decent, Cinematography by Selva Kumar is noteworthy, editing by Manish more is slick with the first half going in a rapid pace but does slacken in the second half. Dialogues by Lawrence John are great at places but the heavy usage of English language puns will surely limit its prospects in reaching the target group. Music by Sajid Wajid is mediocre with no songs being able to woo the audience, the “Jack and Jill went up the hill” song is sure to catch on but again just because it’s a little different and not because of its quality.

Shreyas Talpade, gives his best and so does Javed Jafferi, they crack everyone up quite easily. Aashish Chowdhary has improved by leaps and bounds from his Dhamaal days, he does have good screen presence too. Vatsal Sheth is strictly ok. None of the heroines get much scope but in that little space only Celina is enjoyable. Apart from her, Riya Sen is boring, Sayali Bhagat is wooden and Neha Dhupia is predictable. Chunkey Pandey overdoes his part, so does Paintal. Delnaaz Paul and Johny Lever as the couple are brilliant in their roles and are very enjoyable.

Overall, this movie is not a great movie but is bearable. Lack of any big opposition and good movies in the theatres (except the re-run of yester hits) can go in favor of this movie. Whether it would give Mukta films a final break? I guess.

Courtesy:www.behindwoods.com