Well Done Benegal!

India has already made it the top of the international Hall of SHAME of corruption. Well, all thanks to one Mr.Kalmadi and his Rs. 4000 worth toilet paper rolls, which still couldn't keep the toilets clean. What an irony! Then came one minister named Raja (jiska baj gaya baaja) whose telephone calls became costlier than his own seat! Lalit Modi's name is not forgotten.(though the news channels seem to have!) But his 'journey' has been 'booked' now! But these aren't just names to be taken. These are epics to be remembered. The whole of the nation looks at them as they are 'epitomes' of corruption manifested. Who isn't aware that asking for/giving a bribe is like spiting on the road side. You are relived for the time being but are degrading yourself in a civic sense. Now this is what brings us to the movie Well Done Abba.

The movie directed by Shyam Benegal is a satirical comedy on the state of affairs in the state. The plot of the movie is very focussed on the system of corruption and does take an obvious dig

at the way the 50% reservation for women in panchayats has turned up. It is no longer a secret that in most of the cases where women are elected they are just rubber stamps of their husbands who

enjoy the power. The movie also aerially touches

on how some Muslim women from poor families are literally

sold off to Sheiks from the middle-east in the name of marriage. Of course there have been movies earlier which have bombarded the social and political issues with satire. But what makes this one special is its simplicity. In no way disregarding the Munnabhai series ( which I thought was splendid!) this

movie takes a similar approach and yet stays loyal to the

central theme, giving the viewer a lot of breathing space. The movie The movie has only two songs and that too sans the thumkas and jhatkas. And yet this is not a grey movie in any angle. It is so Bollywoodish in it's treatment and colour. The reference to the ever-so-sex-hungry

couple would ideally substitute sex quotient of the movie keeping with the theme of humor. (We know how sex hungry Bollywood is!) The movie also has a lot of optimism in it that you wonder if it isn't too much? Not trying to be pessimistic here, but lot of things in the movie simply fall into place. Well, at the end of the day it's a movie and has to sell! After all thats the director's job!

Shyam Benegal has passionately represented many civic

issue on the big screen. Muslim women have for long seen his constant objects of inspiration. In this movie his

admiration of Hyderabad and Hydrabadi muslim culture is very evident as the story does not require for it to happen there. All the characters mimic the dialect with near perfection. Even Telugu is used in one of the songs. The

human perfectionist! The reference to human is to pardon the errors. Now one might want to ask me,"Error, WHO?"

Well, in a particular song sequence, a mother who has just found out that her daughter who has been beaten up by her Sheikh husband, is on her way back to India via the embassy, is found to be rejoicing at her neighbor's wedding. To me it's too hard to digest! That is the only error that caught my lazy gaze. So after Welcome to Sajjanpur (which also did well on the box office!) Benegal must be getting good at comedy. But frankly I do miss the autobiographical Benegal at times. One cannot always depend on Ashutosh Gowarikar for history u see! But the shots at comedy and satire are always welcome. I mean, in a country with Boman

Irani and the likes there shouldn't be any scarcity of comedians who know their craft.

Boman Irani here plays both Armaan and Rehman Ali, the twin brothers.Though twins, both

of them are of opposite temperaments. And hence playing them

convincingly deserves due recognition. He emotes the responsible, kind-hearted and simpleton Armaan Ali and the street smart, deceitful and

irresponsible Rehman Ali with equal ease. The transformation is almost seamless. The Eid scene where both the brothers do away with their differences was the best of Boman Irani. The next best would be the scene where Armaan Ali decides to go on strike for his 'stolen' well and conveys it to the Minister. Here the audience gets a glimpse of the stoic, yet determinant Armaan Ali. Though Boman has a certain air of inactivity in his body language, the subtle mannerisms he introduces for his two characters are relatively similar. He could have been a tad more creative there. But the balance and stability he maintains with his two characters is a spectacle. Armaan Ali's charecter is also well designed to compliment

Muskan's character. (played by Minissha Lamba)

Ten movies old Minissha Lamba got to play a fairly substantial role here. But it is for one to

decide if she rightly utilized it! Yahaan being her first movie, where she was appreciated for her

performance, Well Done Abba was a fairly good platform to re-do the magic. Considering her roles in Dus Kahaniyaan, Corporate and Bachchna Ae Haseeno as those being barely visible, and then those like Rocky-The Rebel, Shaurya and Anamika which themselves were barely visible, this could have boosted her career in serious acting. Not like her stint posing for Maxim India. Nevertheless, Minissha is seen making an effort to get into the thoughtful actress mode lately. Which is not a bad thing to do. So all the best!

The next best thing about the movie was Arif Ali. I call him the eye candy for obvious reasons.

Sammir Dattani, the eye-candy in question, played the hardworking and progressive Arif Ali who falls for Muskan. The guy is the Saviour in the plot but somehow shies away the limelight. The script of the movie calls him physically handicaped as one of his legs are crippled. I fail to

understand which one as our eye-candy here had not taken the 'crippled' part of the script seriously. Not once did i figure out that Arif Ali was crippled until it was mentioned in one of the dialogues. Even after the mention I failed to take note of which leg it was! I wonder if he acted crippled atleast once! Being an actor both in Hindi and Kannada, one can expect Dattani to give if nothing else care to such basic detailing! But that apart, his character started as an eye-candy, grew into the intellectual Saviour of the plot and retained his eye-candy status. Almost as if his character grew, yet a retarded growth.

Rest of the characters of the movieplayed by Rajendra Gupta, Rajit Kapoor,Ravi Kishan, Sonali Kulkarni, all did their small bits perfectly well. Rajendra Gupta did a splendid politician there. He maintained a stoic smile which was fake in ever angle. Totally enjoyable. Rajit Kapoor's Inspector Srikant Reddy was totally pitiable. Mission accomplished!

The movie Well Done Abba becomes all the more relevent today because of the many scams that have been brought out by the media. It is indeed debatable whether in todays media influenced scenarios a 'stolen well' approach would be trivialized or gauged with adequate acumen. Though the movie tries to incite optimism if not in the system, then on the Aam Admi and his power. The idea looks bewitching, yet elusive. But the movie gives no false hope of depurgating the system of all it's malignancy. But it sure opens a hope of a peaceful well being. Hence I rest assured that if nothing happens revolutionary happens to the system (of which I myself am a part), I would get to watch such movies that incite me to think again and think wise!