Ready

Cast: Salman Khan, Asin,Arya Babbar,Paresh Rawal,Mahesh Manjrekar, Akhilendra Mishra, Puneet Issar, Manoj Joshi,Anuradha Patel, Sudesh Lehri,Manoj Pahwa,Sharat Saxena, Nikitin Dheer,Arbaaz Khan, Zarine Khan, Ajay Devgn, Sanjay Dutt, Kangna Ranaut,Gargi Patel,Eva Grover,Hemant Pandey, Mithilesh Chaturvedi, Jaswinder Gardner, Shilpa Mehta,Prachee Pathak, Pravina Deshpande, Kiran Ahuja, Rajiv Kachroo,Shalini Sahuta, Mohit Baghel,Kubraa Sait

Director: Anees Bazme

As expected, 'Ready' turns out to be the kind of a film which is all about 'masala' ingredients that are packed in just the right proportions during those two and a half hours. A story that could have been stretched for 30 more minutes or wrapped up 20 minutes earlier, it gives what one was waiting for a long time when it came to movie watching for an entire family 'Some real good entertainment'. A case of mistaken identity brings Asin in the life of Salman who stays with his joint family made of millionaires. Asin too comes from a family of millionaires but there is trouble in paradise as her uncles want to usurp her wealth. Oblivious to them, Prem starts getting closer to their respective families with his own near and dear ones ensuring that Asin's uncles leave their 'mafia giri' aside and start living life like normal people. In this entire series of events, there is a CA (Paresh Rawal) and a stranger Romeo (Sudesh Lehri) who get involved as well.

As one expects from a storyline like this, all is well eventually. However there is a lot of comedy, drama, emotions and action involved, something that Salman truly justifies just before the interval when he tells Asin 'What would we tell our kids if there are none of these 'masala' ingredients in our love story?'So 'masala' one does get with everything from 'Hum Aapke Hain Kaun' to 'Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge' to even 'Hero No. 1' coming together in the right mix to pep up this affair. While the film's beginning portions are exactly like 'Hum Aapke Hain Kaun' and 'Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge', the second half of the film, where Salman takes it upon himself to unite the family and bring kids on the right path, is straight out of what Govinda did in 'Hero No. 1'.

The film takes a mass route throughout but that doesn't mean that there isn't anything for the class audience. I witnessed it myself while watching a packed show with family audience at a premium multiplex on Friday evening and the reactions said it all. This is not all as the complaints that some have around the first half aren't much justified either. Based on what I saw, audience were thoroughly enjoying both the halves with laughter coming in on a more or less continuous note. Expectantly, Salman is what stays constant right through the film even as other characters surround him from all ends. One can sense the kind of renewed confidence that he has in himself and this is the reason why he can afford to commit a murder and get away with that. Asin is easy on eyes and comes up with a natural act. She looks million bucks in 'Dhinka Chika' though one doesn't see much of her in the second half. Paresh Rawal and Sudesh Lahiri are fantastic though one wishes there was more of Manoj Joshi.

Music is fantastic with 'Dhinka Chika' (in both the India as well as Bangkok version) as well as 'Character Dheela' are fun. Action is in small doses though one wouldn't have minded if it was longer, especially the climax sequence involving auto rickshaws which just ends abruptly. It isn't always an easy task to remake a film, especially the one which has been a successful venture. You do it right and you end up getting no credit whatsoever as it is said to be 'way too easy'. You do it wrong and all the flak comes you way as you are accused of not being able to manage even a successful formula. Thankfully for the audience, Anees Bazmee doesn't forget any of these facts while also ensuring that he maintains his own identity. An out and out entertainer that doesn't let the audience engagement slip away for even five minutes, 'Ready' is fun and clean film that gives exactly what one expected out of it.It's a daunting task for any reviewer to assess a Salman Khan film. After all, he/she may either earn flak from the Salman fans or would hold no worth. The ones who like him will definitely go for it whether the review is in favor or not. That's the magnanimity of the star power riding on Salman Khan; a case in which assessment of story line, screenplay, editing or cinematography doesn't count.

Prem (Salman Khan) has a happy giant family where as Sanjana, an orphan lands in India to be with her mamas (Sharat Saxena, Akhilendra Mishra), who are greedy and want to usurp her property. Sanjana in the garb of Pooja gets into Prem's family and the two falls in love with each other. Enters a major problem, Sanjana's mamas are at constant loggerheads with each other and want Sanjana to marry their respective brother in laws in order to acquire her property. How Prem manages to win over Sanjana and brings the two sworn brothers together forms the rest of the plot.

Right from its first promo itself, it's clear that filmmaker Anees Bazmee is trying hard to encash Salman's success of Dabangg. And the way the songs Dhinka Chika and Character Dheela have become a rage, one surely expects another masala potboiler from Ready. However, within a couple of minute into the film you know you're in for a major let down. The entire film reeks of clichéd dialogues and story line of his past films. Worse still, of flops like No Problem and Thank You! Anees once again comes up with leave your brains at home kind of comedy. So while Ready has the typical "hanging by the cliff" scene reminiscent of No Entry, the dialogue aided by Salman on being asked what is he doing there is "just hanging around!" Ready also has the same old don connection used earlier in Welcome. If only dragging audience to the theatre was enough Anees! The filmmaker surely has lost touch of making decent films and should take to a long sabbatical before he plans another debacle.

Another sore point is the loud-mouthed badly written dialogues say for example, "Main kutta hoon yeh kutiya hai!" Even the dialogue "Life mein kabhi teen cheese ko underestimate mat karna I, Me And Myself" has been painfully inserted with a desperate attempt to make it click. There's also a bare-chested scene of Salman, obviously to give the aam junta their money's worth. With the kind of efforts Salman is putting in promoting this film, wonder what even 10 per cent of that into acting would've done for the film. Salman is not only taut throughout but also hamming. Blame it on the director who couldn't extract much from his actor as Salman did put up a decent show in his last two hits Wanted and Dabangg. Asin barely gets much to do. An ensemble cast of Mahesh Manjrekar, Paresh Rawal, Sharat Saxena, Akhilendra Mishra, Aarya Babbar, Puneet Issar, and Manoj Joshi among others compete with each other in hamming. Music apart from Dhinka Chika and Character Dheela is very dheela. Editor Ritesh Soni probably slept off at the editing table as there remain too many scenes that could easily be chopped off. At least a small length of the film would've reduced the agitation.

The few things that work in the film are the paisa vasool fight sequence of Salman, his pocket-fiddling dance steps or his character dheela moves. Even some repartee between Salman and Paresh Rawal are quite humorous. She's a runaway bride. He's a runaway rogue, a little rough around the edges but a good heated lovable soul. Salman Khan can play this character over and over again with his eyes closed. In "Ready" he is back to playing the lover-boy clown.

"Mr. Fix-it" and "Ms Hum Apke Hain Conwoman" flirt and get naughty in exotic locations. They don't generate chemistry. They are just being around. Jeez, these two never tire of saying cheese! And when the going gets cheesy there's always the family to fall back on. There are three families, living in homes that appear to have been built to accommodate over-sized families. The setting is almost laughably anachronistic. Salman Khan and his director Anees Bazmi pay a hefty comic homage to "Hum Aapke Hain Koun". The Salman-Asin romance unfolds against the backdrop of a commodious joint family where every family-member seems determined to have a good time even at the expense of good taste.

True, Asin lacks the gamine charm of Madhuri Dixit. But then the Salman Khan in "Ready" is not quite the Salman Khan from "Hum Aaapke Hain Koun". He hasn't aged. He's just become more smug and self-confident. Many times we catch him looking bored on camera. But that is this iconic star's style statement. When you are Salman Khan you can slip out of a character when you want. No one is complaining. Bazmi's script, a shoot off of a Telugu hit, accommodates more characters than Goa during the tourist season.

Every character is over-dressed and over-the-top. Then men are constantly looking for reasons to say goofy corny things to one another. That's the required mood of this "panga-'mirth'-lena" comedy with an attitude that stretches from one end of the lengthy narration to the other with hardly a break for the plot to gather together its thoughts. Bazmi keeps the proceedings neatly on the side of good taste. Innuendos are avoided, and partly so because Salman has an image of the good-bad boy. He never offends refined sensibilities with his wildly bratty antics, though he never shows any inclination to be one of those refined types himself.

He is happy being human in a way only Salman Khan can be. He gets able support from some solid performers like Akhilendra Mishra, Sharad Saxena, Manoj Pahwa, television comedian Sudesh Lehri and Mahesh Manjrekar whose hilarious act as Salman's dad is lifted from Sanjay Chhel's "Khubsoorat". Strangely the women performers are all vapid to the point of seeming sedated. This is a men's comedy with women welcome to join the fun. But nobody minds. And not because this is a mindless comedy. The quality of the gags is often higher than what we usually get in Bollywood comedies. But the film suffers from an overloaded narration.

There is too much effort to cram in "entertainment" at every possible level. There is also a rather lame attempt to define the status of women in feudal households. But the attempt is so hurried and cursory, it's almost farcical. Replete with tongue-in-cheek references to many earlier blockbusters including Sooraj Barjatya's "Hum Aapke Hain Koun", "Ready" is like one of those familiar tunes sung to a new set of lyrics that you may not approve of but you empathize with because it offers the comfort of the familiar. Having said that, the film, it must be confessed, doesn't really offer even die hard Salman fans the fun-quotient expected from the mega-star. Too many people colonies this domestic comedy. Boisterous uncles, over-dressed aunties, under-intellectualized gangsters and irksome henchmen are all greedy to be noticed. The trouble is, they aren't doing anything that is terribly exciting or engaging, except playing the foil to the star of the show.