Film: Mere Baap Pehle Aap

Banner: Shemaroo Entertainment

Director: Priyadarshan

Producer: Raman Maroo, Ketan Maroo, Mansi Maroo

Star- Cast: Akshaye Khanna, Naseruddin Shah Shobhana, Paresh Rawal, Om Puri, Rajpal Yadav, Manoj Joshi, Genelia Dsouza, Archana Puran Singh

Rateing: 2.5/5

Here comes yet another Priyadarshan comedy with its staple cast, convoluted plots and mixed genres. Mere Baap Pehle Aap has an unconventional father-son pair--Paresh Rawal and Akshaye Khanna--in a subversive paternal relationship. Here, the son is the father and the father the son.

The film also has a chirping youthful bird by the name of Shikha (Genelia D'Souza) who flitters around adding a lot of zing and zest to the proceedings. Shikha is staying with a dignified but silent (why o why!) Shobhana, gorgeous as ever, who holds the essential key to the plot. Oh yes, it has a delectably hammy Om Puri in a completely miscast role.

So what happens? Boy meets girl and keeps meeting until boy's father meets girl's aunt and realises it's his long-lost love. Boy and girl too realise this and set about on a mission to re-unite them. Oh! This sounds too interesting for words. While the (main?) plot appears long after even the interval, the film wastes its time and energy in unnecessary sub-plots that do nothing for the main one.

There is the lusty Om Puri constantly looking for an alliance, a foul-mouthed Archana Puran Singh, a tough cop constantly catching hold of Om Puri (and alongwith him Paresh Rawal) for his 'mis'deeds and the befuddling track of Shikha playing befuddling games with Akshaye Khanna push everything else against the walls. So much so that the main track hardly ever gets a breather.

This, yet-another remake of a Telugu movie, follows the Priyan formula of bawdy comedy with pedestrian drama and a dedicated love angle. It fortunately maintains a standard that fell atrociously with Dhol and sustains itself through the meanderings right onto the conventional end. The film, like any other Priyan film, expends that much energy on cinematography, music, sets and other production values as is required for a mass entertainer which is as factory-produced as RGV's underworld...

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