Home Delivery: Movie Review

(Recently I joined the Indian Film-viewers' Critics Association (InFiCA) as a critic. They have established a systematic method to rate and review the Bollywood movies. The following review is my first contribution to the website. They are looking out for more guys who would be interested to review movies for them. Please take time to read more about it on the website.)

Confused actors & misguided script,
Ends up getting viewers flipped,
Put in some trust,
Avoid you must,
Movie like this better be skipped.

The expectations from Sujoy Ghosh were very high after his last movie - Jhankaar Beats. While his latest offering - Home Delivery - is *not* a beaten-to-death theme movie, just like Jhankaar Beats, it lacks the punch that JB had. The movie tries a tad too hard to look different and "cool" that it loses the its focus on the script. If the most essential part - script - is missing, its very difficult, if not impossible, to come up with an entertaining movie.

The story revolves around Vivek (Viieeviek ?!) Oberoi - Sunny - who is a "Gyaan Guru", an agony uncle who gives "gyaan" on love, relationships and almost everything under the sun and still finds time to work on a script for Karan Johar. However, he himself has serious commitment issues. By sheer stroke of luck, he bumps into his teenhood fantasy, Mahima Choudhary - Maya - and his lust for Maya leads him to a breakup with his steady girlfriend, Ayesha Takia - Jenny/Naani. Well, almost. It took an annoyingly imbecile Pizza delivery man, Boman Irani - Michael, to get Sunny back on the track.

The main problem with the story is that its very hard to relate with it. Especially the character of Sunny, other than some of the scenes, the character is so full of gas that after some time it gets very irritating. Its a complex character and both the writer and Vivek were not able to define it well. In the second half, the script gets really haywire. I'm still at loss to grasp how the incidents on that day changed Sunny OR what was the significance of the serial killer in the movie OR how come the "besura" neighbour got the contract! Sujoy has managed to put in some interesting moments in the movie but they are hardly good enough to salvage the movie.

The acting part was disappointing too. Vivek Oberoi is totally over the top in his attempt to portray the lecher gyaan-guru. Other than his efforts in Masti & Company to some extent, he has been far from impressive in all his films. Probably, its time for him to think a little harder about his career. Ayesha Takia has a relatively small role, which she has done fairly well. Mahima Chaudhary as the sex-siren Maya looks repulsively bawdy, which is perhaps the effect the director wanted! Other than the cleavage show, Mahima's role is quite limited. The two annoying neighbours were supposed to provide additional dose of comedy, but they end up stretching the movie unnecessarily. Biggest waste of the movie is Boman Irani. With an actor of his calibre & talent in your cast, it becomes utmost important to give him a decent role to deliver. His character - Michael - is really annoying. You need not be irritating to be an imbecile - Forrest Gump was too an idiot, but he wasn't irritating!

The music part doesn't have much to talk about other than the "Cuckoo-Cuckoo" song, which I feel was picturized superbly as a spoof on South-Indian movie songs. Extra care is taken to polish the look of the movie with neat sets & well-suited costumes for the actors. But all the embellishments look hollow as the movie doesn't have a good base to start with.

In the end, I think Sujoy should be given due credit to try and make a different movie than regular masala Bollywood stuff. Not to deny the fact - Home Delivery might be different from rest of the Bollywood movies but its not worthy just like most of them.

My rating: 2/5