Dil to bachcha hai jee

Bahut sune hum is picchar ka baare mein, par saala dekhan ka taim ich naahi mila.

And then yesterday I finally got around to watching it. I'd rate it a 4/5 for the originality of the story line and the treatment and depth of its characters.
Naseer as Khalujaan, the romantic, "culchured" and overtly optimistic father figure and Arshad as Babban, his "wham bam thank u ma'am", uncouth and pragmatic bhanja both fall for Vidya as Kisna, a "widow" who is very much the femme fatale under a damsel in distress garb. While Khalujaan and Babban are on the run from Mushtaqbhai (played by Salman Shahid, Pakistan's Naseer) , a villain to love, and seek refuge at Kisna's place, she has plenty of plans of her own. And in the end like any old Hindi picture each of them has a happy ending.

So where's the originality, you say? Literally every frame from start to end is original. Be it the ajeeb dastaan hai ye @ the start, the tota toti joke (btw if you hadn't heard it before, the end of that joke has the 2 pious totas [on seeing the toti] remark "Our prayers have finally been answered"), nandu and kaaki's characters and lines, naseer and arshad's onscreen chemistry and lines, naseer's flirting with vidya, ku-ku and the "beauty parlour" phone call irony, to name a few. And the very fact that the end is kept ambiguous is so unlike any Hindi triangle, where one guy has to get the girl. And they all seem very human and flawed, noone's willing to play the Rajendra Kumar of Sangam, if you get my drift.

The songs are nicely mixed, a good reflection of new age rural India. The commentary on Hindu caste war as a backdrop to the movie is also very subtly done. Overall the director, Abhishek Chaubey does ample justice to Vishal Bharadwaj's script, and largely tries to stay out of ur face and let these amazing actors weave magic on screen (pretty much what every director should do).


Last but definitely not the least: Dil to baccha hai jee is "the" song. Raahat sparkles yet again. I'm so looking forward to his concert @ Oracle arena in May. All in all I absolutely loved this movie.

There is this distinct possibility however, that you may not love the movie or it's pace and think that I'm smoking dope. If you do then I have only one thing to say to you
Bus na: aapka ishq ishq....aur humaara ishq.....