Chalo Dilli

Cast: Vinay Pathak, Lara Dutta, Akshay Kumar,

Director: Shashant Shah

Hindi cinema hasn't shown much inclination in the past on road movies. The fewer ones that came by didn't quite make a mark. And the latest one to take a plunge into it is former Miss Universe and now Mrs. Bhupati, Lara Dutta. With a simple story in hand, Lara under an amusing banner name Bheegi Basanti tries establishing a likable situational comedy. Whether her road movie reaches its destination or not remains to be seen. Chalo Dilli is centered on a dynamic business woman Mihika Mukherjee (Lara Dutta) who is very hoity-toity. She doesn't respect the little things in life, suffers an obsessive compulsive disorder for cleanliness and is very condescending. Mihika has to reach Delhi to her husband Vikram (Akshay Kumar) but her flight lands in Jaipur instead of Delhi due to technical problems. So she decides on other means of transport to reach her destination - but the only glitch is the glitches that she keeps encountering on her way; more so, courtesy her co-passenger Manu Gupta (Vinay Pathak), whom she calls bhaisaab. But how by the end of the journey she sheds her inhibitions and becomes a better person is what forms the rest of the story.

Inspired by Steve Martin starrer Hollywood comedy Planes, Trains & Automobile Chalo Dilli takes a topic unexplored in the past. Being a road movie the film has a simple story purely about the journey that the lead characters take. Owing to which, director Shashant Shah relies heavily on the narrative, the situations and the characterization. However, though pleasant initially, the numerous situations that the characters encounter get tad stretched, predictable and monotonous. Even the climax is extremely lengthy and could've been edited. The film only rides high on Vinay Pathak's shoulder. His character of a Ladies Dress Material Salesman who is never short of advice, conversation, cheap jokes or company, is very likable. Lara Dutta though fit in her part gets overshadowed by Vinay's brilliance. Yana Gupta's item number appears needless in the film. It could've easily been used only for promotional purposes. On the whole, Chalo Dilli doesn't quite reach its destiny. The films works only in parts.Once in a while you come away from a film with a lot more than you expected. Except for a somewhat flabby 15 minutes post-interval, "Chalo Dilli" sparkles with the pleasurable punchy emotions that we seem to have forefeited in our journey from the cinema of Basu Chatterjee to the present day films of the Kashyaps and Bazmis of the show-world that are all form and virtually no content with very little contentment to take home.

"Challo Dilli" is a film with a lot of heart, and some soul. There are practically just two characters in the skillfully-conceived plot about two mismatched travelers on the road from Mumbai to Delhi via Jaipur and places in Rajasthan you had never known about until now.

That the two seemingly-incompatible traveling companions are played by Lara Dutta and Vinay Pathak is a stroke of good fortune that takes the story much further than it would have gone in the hands of two other actors. Before any more comment on the captivating product, let's speak right away about Vinay Pathak, whose unorthodox personality and talent have been on the look-out for suitable resting places since the unforeseen success of "Bheja Fry" four years ago.

In "Chalo Dilli", Pathak as the Dilliwala with a heart many sizes larger than his luck and bank balance sheds so much solar energy into the plot you feel grateful that someone out there in the mediocrity-infested entertainment industry looks out for talent like Pathak's. And Lara Dutta? Quite easily one of the most beautiful and underrated actresses of our times. She's smart, sexy, savvy and supremely confident. What has stopped her from cracking the top rungs of stardom? You think about this quite frequently while watching her make all the correct moves as the hoity-toity investment banker who misses her flight but gains so much in terms of human experience that you wish we would all miss our flight if we don't want to miss the bus as complete human beings.

Apart from the wrong use of the word 'forcefully' in place of 'forcibly' for Lara's character the people in director Shashant Shah's film remain true to their words. Really, you can't catch the people in Shashant Shah's films making false moves. Whether it is the cabbie who falls asleep on the deserted highway, or the bashful truckdriver who gives Vinay and Lara a ride, or the rashogolla-sweet Bengali couple on the train, you can't miss the heartwarming sincerity of this little film with a big heart.

Ironically Akshay Kumar strikes the only false note. When towards the end he appears to laugh out loud at Lara's adventures he sounds as though he's just being polite. Not quite the emotion that we expect in a film that is all heart. No two ways about it. "Challo Dilli" follows that refreshing trend of capturing India's heartland in all its sleepy supine splendour. It was Imtiaz Ali who in "Jab We Met" started the trend of making his protagonists travel across places in India that had gone out of favour in recent times. The recent "Tanu Weds Manu" carried forward the trend of traveling into the small towns. "Chalo Dilli" is an absolutely enchanting and heartwarming journey into the heart and the heartland. Skilfully scripted and with credible dialogues (Arshad Syed) and situations that you immediately recognize it revives the joy of the road movie back.

Nope, you can't imagine any other two actors but Lara and Vinay in the two main parts.

"Chalo Dilli" is a far more accomplished work than many of the big-budget monstrously unfunny comedies that infest the silver screen. Very often you find your face breaking into a smile as you watch the sophisticated female entrepreneur opening up her emotional vaults to the experiences that the Jaipur-Delhi route offer. At one point in a roadside dhaba she stares pleasurably at the sunrise. 'Iss mein kaun si nayi baat hai?' guffaws the street-smart Pathak. "Chalo Dilli" connects us to the basic element of the cinematic experience. It is all about the heart and the heartland.'Kaunsi Badi Baat Ho Gayi' - This is what one ends up saying once the curtains come down for 'Chalo Dilli'. Now that's nothing less than ironical since this is the oft repeated dialogue by Vinay Pathak right through the course of the film. While he seems to be undeterred by the mishaps around him and believes that there are bigger things to worry about in life than petty issues related to materialistic matters, the same can't be said about the audience for whom 'Chalo Dilli' comes across as a half baked attempt.

So you actually have conventional elements that one expects in a road movie, case in point being missed trains, goods being stolen, encounters with cops and rogues, interaction with strangers, a run here and there, a step into unknown small towns, lifts from trucks passing through on the highway, a visit to a 'dhabha', a song & dance routine popping out of nowhere, a stay in a shady hotel and then of course the leading lady's eventual reunion with her real love. This happened in not just 'Jab We Met' and 'Dil Hai Ki Maanta Nahi' but also recent Hollywood romcom 'The Leap Year'.

There is no denying the fact that there are genuine moments of fun between Lara, a nosey corporate woman and Vinay, a 'Dilli Ka Lala' who doesn't mind uncouth even at the dinner table. But then well, since he is Vinay Pathak, he ought to have a heart of gold a la 'Bheja Fry'. He is definitely not stupid; in fact he is a street-smart by all means and has a solution for all problems. It could all have been okay if not for the bizarre twists and turns in the second half of the film. An encounter with a bunch of goons followed by two gang leaders shooting at each other in a party happens out of nowhere, increase the length of the film, don't add any value to the narrative and worse of it all, they are plain boring. Yana Gupta's 'Laila' that arrives during this time is neither choreographed nor picturised well which means that sole glamour portion in the film fails to rise to the occasion.

Thankfully it is the ending which ties it all up for 'Chalo Dilli'. It is truly emotional, heart warming and bound to bring tears in one's eyes. Vinay Pathak is fantabulous in this part of the film and makes the most of the opportunity provided to him. Even otherwise he is the heart. Lara is happy to be a close second here and doesn't mind that either by coming up with a convincing act. Technically though the film is just about okay with background music not quite creating the kind of zing that one expected from a film of this genre. It could have been more energetic. Cinematography is average while the music is a big disappointment as there is not a single tune that one can take home.

However it is the full on laughter that one misses most in the proceedings. Never once does a scene appears that could result in one falling off one's chair. The jokes too aren't the kind that one takes on home. At the end of it all 'Chalo Dilli' isn't actually a ha-ha ride, something that you definitely expected with the name Vinay Pathak being attached to the film.