Mere Baap Pehle Aap: Aging young!
Priyadarshan’s name itself is enough lure crowd swarm into the theatre. The filmmaker who has always given comedy some sense however failed to create the same impact with Mere Baap Pehle Aap. The trio Priyadarshan, Akshaye Khanna and Paresh Rawal has brought out comedy flick like Hungama and Hulchul but this time they don’t fulfill the expectation.
Rating: 2/5
If you had bet on this film one to ten then probably, you can earn one to four but not more.
Strictly speaking, this film can be called an emotional romance story in the guise of a comedy. The story which is pretty sublime here; about a young son trying to find love for his aging father is no doubt noble, but what fails to impress in Priyadarshan’s Mere Baap Pehle Aap is the story that is narrated weakly, the dialogues are hardly up to the mark and the comedy is forced into the narrative like a patchwork.
The single middle-aged men in Priyadarshan’s films are all desperate to get female company. The fact is any single man may or may not be in need of a wife, there is nothing comical about it, and when you make the likes of Om Puri, a veteran and strong actor film industry can boast of now looks pitifully saggy while ogling at bikini clad babes shot in a scruffy beach.
Now, all Malayalam movies can not be remade in Hindi, obviously Priyadarshan has taken this flick from Ishtam (2001) but you generally don’t expect such humor from Priyadarshan.
The movie manages to get mixed responses solely due to the comic timing of the father and son duo in the film played by Paresh Rawal and Akshaye Khanna.
Paresh Rawal is one of the fathers that Bollywood can bank on any time of the year and it would succeed. He looks so much like a easy-going-having-fun kind of a pa that is certain to please the audience. Even Hungama, Paresh and Akshaye share some most hilarious scenes. They just compliment each other and the same with Mere Baap Pehle Aap.
The relationship between a father and son shown here goes a full circle, which impresses even with the loose script. A single widowed father dedicates his life to bring up his two sons; he must have loved, reprimanded, fought everything in love and thought of the well-being of the child. Now when his sons have grown big enough, they are doing their share of loving, reprimanding and stuff, this is a complete circle that is positive in nature and gives a sense of security to any audience. Then the son, finally looking for a wife for the father who is his first love, makes you really feel good about the father and son relation but only if the dialogues and comic sequences were as good, the film would have scored well.
The film as shown in the promos is about a middle-aged father Janardhan Vishvanbhar Rane (Paresh Rawal) and a young handsome son Gaurav (Akshaye Khanna). Janardhan who became a widower when his two kids were only toddlers has spent his life taking care of them. He shares a unique relation with his older son Gaurav but is slightly rigid with his younger son Chirag (Manoj Joshi).
Gaurav understands his father well and is very protective towards him just like a son. He does everything to keep is gullible father safe from his naughty prankster friend Madhav (Om Puri). Madhav is in need of a wife and seems to be more interested in the tinny-minny clothed young girls, which always puts him into trouble but he is hardly chastised. Madhav and Janardhan are constantly rebuked by the Chandramukhi Chauttala type police inspector Archana Puran Singh who hates eve teasers the most in her life. But the prankster duo end up in custody more than once and are bailed out by Gaurav, who has to face all the criticism for nothing.
Meanwhile, Gaurav stars getting blank calls from a girl and later finds out that it was his college friend Sheekha (Genelia D’Souza). When Sheekha and her guardian Anuradha (Shobhana) meet Gaurav and Janardhan, cupid strikes between the older couple. It so happens that Gaurav and Sheekha find out that Anuradha was the first love of Janardhan but the two couldn’t marry. Now, Gaurav and Sheekha do all sorts of monkeyism to unite the tow lovers and in the process they themselves fall in love.
The film’s dialogues are overdone and loose the charm. Writer Manisha Korde was not supported by the actors and acting was far better than the dialogues were meant to express. As a music album, Vidyasagar’s music in MERE BAAP PEHLE AAP is ok with no track giving the required high. The cinematography by Piyush Shah is nothing spectacular so are the sets by Sabu Cyril. The background score from Ranjit Barot is too loud and do not go with the scenes.
Over all, the film is a good one time watch, with the first half being comic enough to tolerate and the second part manages to drag along.
Rating: 2/5
