Mera Baap Pehle Aap

Papa don’t preach, because sonny’s not in trouble deep. Priyadarshan , back in form after a series of duds, delivers his favourite actors in a tale which generates laughter and tears : more of the former ; less, thankfully, of the latter. And that’s the way we like it.

Gaurav Rane (Akshaye) is ‘maal-a-maal’ : he owns a fancy mall, a snazzy bike, and an ever-loving dad (Paresh). ‘Baap’ and ‘beta’ lead a happy life, whose only irritant is pa’s best friend (Om), a fifty-plus bachelor itching to get hitched. Along comes groovy babe Shikha (Genelia), complicating matters further.

In his previous few releases, Priyan has let his Hindi flicks (remakes of his super-hit Malyalam films) run away with themselves. The humour has been relentlessly loud and crude, and the balance between audiences wanting to laugh out loud and break into tears has been skewed. ‘Mere Baap Pehle Aap’ has one coarse strand —Archana Puran Singh’s Haryanvi cop uses language which makes everyone in earshot blanch, and poor Om is made to not only wear a hideous wig, and do a hip-wiggle with scantily-clad extras, but also get a kick in the goolies. The rest is kept restrained. Or as much as it can be in a Priyan film.

Akshaye and Paresh work in such perfect tandem (they’ve been in loads of the director’s films) that the two leading ladies seem almost an intrusion. But it is a pleasure to see the graceful Shobhana, and even better to see how good Paresh can be when he’s shot through a soft, romantic lens. And Genelia d’Souza makes a spirited return to Mumbai masala (after her first couple of tepid Bollywood outings, she had headed south, and now she comes back with a bang, even if her Hindi is heavily accented).

Good for a single serve on a summer afternoon.

shubhra.gupta@gmail.com