Producer: Firoz Nadiadwala
Director: Neeraj Vora
Starring: Akshay Kumar, Sunil Shetty, Paresh Rawal, Bipasha Basu, Rimmi Sen, Johnny Lever, Shakti Kapoor, Rajpal Yadav
Music: Himesh Reshammiya
Lyrics: Sameer
Genre: Comedy
Recommended Audience: General
Approximate Running Time: 2.5 hrs
Film Released on: 09 June 2006
Baburao is back! The wonderfully artless “off-on-a-tangent” comedy of Paresh Rawal returns in this sequel to Priyadarshan’s Hera Pheri (2000). After a rousing and overly confident opening, I’ll confess that I find Bollywood comedies difficult. It’s not because I don’t have a sense of humour but rather because I don’t understand Hindi and comedy is so often dialogue driven and culturally bound. That’s why a lot of the gags just sail over my head. However, I enjoyed Hera Pheri and although its sequel directed by Neeraj Vora lacks the simplicity and charm of the original, it’s still a light, energetic romp of a movie.
We start where Hera Pheri left off. The guys – Raju, Baburao and Shyam, are living it up in Mumbai, enjoying the trapping of the money they’ve earnt by vaguely fraudulent means. Yet Raju (Akshay Kumar) is restless and embarks on a scheme to increase their wealth, not realising that the Laxmi Chit Fund, where he deposits their total savings, is a fraud. The woman at the front desk (Bipasha Basu) vanishes leaving the trio where they started - in desperate financial straights. Worse still, Raju has unwittingly involved them in a complex web of gangland intrigue because he’s also lost money borrowed from Pappu (Rajpal Yadav) – a local hood. And so begins a new episode of moneys lost and gained, of schemes and deceptions, complications and frustrations.
Predictably, he of the slipping dhoti, thick lenses and misguided remarks – Baburao, is centre stage throughout. Akshay Kumar’s Raju provides a foil for those outrageous ramblings but the third character, Shyam (Sunil Shetty) who was given prominence in the original film, seems to be a weaker presence in Phir Hera Pheri. He’s certainly there in the physical humour – in the fights, tussles, and chases but he doesn’t have much to say or a real identity in this film.
The love interests played by Rimmi Sen and Bipasha Basu also appear inconsequential. They’re both victims of wrongdoing but their characters are so weakly drawn that they could be interchanged and no-one would be the wiser. At least Tabu had a small but adequately configured role in the original hit. In Phir Hera Pheri the women appear to be purely decorative. One can only hope for a colourful female companion for Baburao in Hera Pheri 3 – someone like Bindu Zaveri (Mrs. Kakkad in Main Hoon Na) to make for some real “garam masala.”
Phir Hera Pheri seems to lose momentum pre-intermission and picks up again towards the end with a climax reminiscent of the Marx Brothers’ At the Circus – an extended slap-stick sequence complete with clowns, aerial stunts and one fake-looking gorilla. From where I sat reading the often inadequate subtitles, the exchanges between the gangsters didn’t seem to be all that funny. I realise that to have the complete chaos of the climax, certain miscommunications and a build-up of conflicting agendas need to eventuate. However, the process became tedious because the gangsters were numerous and poorly defined, the musical items (Himesh Reshammiya) were rather irrelevant and clumsily integrated and the screenplay (Neeraj Vora) seemed too intent on developing a tangle without a corresponding upsweep in the humour.
Maybe less intrigue and a better balance between fewer characters would have given a more satisfying result. The problem with many sequels is that the characters and theme (formula) are already established so that film makers are working within a tighter framework and have greater constraints on their creativity. As a result they often end up grand-standing, overplaying and draining what was originally a promising idea. Although I like Baburao, the notion of a third chapter as suggested by the ending, seems a bit daunting, unless some fresh characters and situations can be factored into the screenplay.
I hope that the snatches of Las Vegas that are shown in one of the songs, isn’t a sign of things to come. Big, flashy settings do not enhance a tale which originally unfolded so nicely in Baburao’s humble home and back yard. It’s more of the characters that people want. Rawal didn’t have to do anything; people just laughed when he appeared on the screen.
Humour is personal, can vary between cultures or draw upon local or specific knowledge where spoof and parody are concerned. Slap-stick and clowning though, are fairly universal. The ending which was unadulterated slap-stick got the most laughs by a long shot. Chases through the hall of mirrors, the trapeze fiasco and the clowning had the audience hugely entertained. Personally, I was amused by Raju’s inability to change a 1000 rupee note with Nilima having to pay at every turn. I also liked the scene where Baburao was bucketing water from his swimming pool so that he could bathe. Less entertaining were scenes of Johnny Lever rolling his eyes and looking put upon or the lisping dialogues of the gangsters but I hasten to add that it is all a matter of taste.
Despite a few lapses in the screenplay and song departments, Phir Hera Pheri delivers its established brand of humour more than adequately. Yet it doesn’t quite match the simpler but more heartfelt – Hera Pheri which really touches on the big dreams of ordinary people.
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