Atithi Tum Kab Jaoge?

Atihti Tum Kab Jaoge
Cast: Paresh Rawal, Ajay Devgan, Konkana Sen Sharma,  Satish Kaushik
Director: Ashwani Dheer
Rating: **

Meet an urban and upwardly mobile family that has never had a houseguest before. Puneet (Ajay Devgan) is a mediocre film writer who is writing a script about a blind woman who can see and a mute man who can speak. His interior designer wife Munmun (Konkana Sen Sharma) struggles with her spoken Hindi, but rants in Bengali when she is angry. Their young son too gets pulled up at school for being a weak Hindi student.
Based on a short story by the late satirist, Sharad Joshi, the film opens with laborious explanations on the meaning of ‘Athithi Daivo Bhawa’ (Sanskrit for ‘The Guest is akin to God).
The heavily pre-empted guest arrives at Puneet and Munmun’s doorstep in the form of a never-seen-before relative from Gorakhpur. The harmless looking Chachaji (Paresh Rawal), armed with a dhoti and gamcha invades, rather unpleasantly, the family’s intimate nuclear set-up. Chachaji slaps the watchman, gargles like a garbled gargoyle at 5 in the morning, and brace your self, farts noisy stinkers all over the house.
Much to the chagrin of Puneet & Munmun, Chachaji begins to make their home his own and even orders extensive food preparations from the independent Munmun.
The frustrated couple soon realizes that chachaji has no return date in mind and they try different methods to get rid of him. But it all seems to be in vain as chachaji is made of sterner stuff.
Is the humor your cup of tea? Decide for yourself.
In one scene, the couple get an actor friend to fake a call from chachaji’s village informing chachaji that his wife has died (yes, the writers must have forgone the basics of humanity for the sake of comedy) Predictably, it is revealed that chachiji had passed away 5 years ago and chachaji gets the actor-friend thrashed by the cops. The irate couple goes to the extent of hiring an underworld don to threaten chachaji into leaving, but to their dismay, the thug begins to worship the chacha who has his traditional values intact. .  
In spite of a dodgy screenplay and scenes that go on and on, the clever casting does somewhat manage to hold it together. Paresh Rawal plays the part of the unwanted guest excellently, and refrains from making him loud and menacing. Ajay Devgan manages to stay his subdued self for most of the film and shares neat chemistry with Konkana Sharma. Konkana gets her comedy quite right. Together, the couple put in a natural performance.

A really funny moment has chachaji in a temple, singing a bhajan for Durga Maa to the tune of, brace yourself again, ‘Beedi Jalaile’ the Bipasha Basu hit song. Also funny are the scenes where Munmun follows chachaji around the house with a can of air freshener to combat his deadly flatulence.
Undoubtedly, anyone who has had a difficult houseguest will relate to plight of the family. Not only is their privacy interminably invaded, but they also have to exasperationgly tune their western minds towards the rural values of the ‘desi’ uncle. This aspect of the story is particularly interesting, exposing a whole generation of city bred children, like Puneet and Munmun’s son, who know very little about the significance of Indian culture and its values.
The film has a soulful message, the comic timing comes out right and the acting is well controlled. Unfortunately, the rest of the filmmaking is not in control. The script is strangely schizophrenic, ranging from great one-liners to illogical babble. The is editing is indulgent and the gags stay on screen stay well beyond their punch lines.  
The verdict:  ‘Athithi Tum Kab Jaoge’ builds up moments nicely, but like all flatulence, it throws up far more than it can digest. Watch; but with a can of air freshener next to your popcorn.

At first the movie made a wrong impression when it came out with an inspired poster from the English Flick “License To Wed” as its first look. Later after the new posters came in, the makers couldn’t impress the viewers with their ‘Just OK’ promos on all the TV channels. As a result the comedy was not able to generate enough curiosity in the trade circles, despite of the presence of Paresh Rawal in its lead comic role.

And now after watching the so called comedy, it can be easily said that the final outcome is exactly similar to its average promotional campaign and nothing else. Though director Ashwni Dhir sincerely tries to revive the magic of those realistic and lovable films by Hrishikesh Mukherjee & Basu Chatterjee. But his ATKJ fails to make an overall impact on the viewer and misses the mark just like the recently released “Toh Baat Pakki”.

Based on the plot of an unwanted guest (Atithi) in the house, the movie starts off well and manages to impress the viewer with an appreciable climax too. But it’s between these two ends that it loses the grip over the subject and starts wandering into many predictable, uninteresting and repetitive sequences which unfortunately take away the beauty from its noticeable concluding 30 minutes. For instance how many times we have seen a married couple going to a hotel to spend few days and then being caught in a sudden police raid at the place.

Instead of writing some novel and fresh scenes in the script, the writers have gone for the usual comic punches involving the Police and Underworld Don seen many times before in similar other projects. To be precise the first scene of the movie itself is highly inspired from the famous Pakistani Stage Artist “Umar Sharif’s comedy play”. Apart from these, the overused farting sequences of Paresh also tend to go over the top after a while. The characters remain the part of a movie only and the viewer never feels empathy towards their circumstances.

However there are few worth watching moments in the flick, which are able to save it from being called a merely below average product. One is its beautifully directed final hour which gives you the glimpses of our rich traditional values and culture. Second are the highly enjoyable and well acted scenes of Satish Kaushik with Paresh Rawal, capable of moving you emotionally. And third are its two devotional tracks with their innovative western arrangements by Pritam especially the “Mata Ki Arti” track made on the composition of “Beedi Jaliye Le”

Performance wise, Paresh Rawal excels in the title role of an Atithi. He truly looks great and acts superbly as a village person visiting Mumbai after a long gap. Konkona is very natural and real in her portrayal of a lady trying to cope up between her home and work. But Ajay Devgan is strictly Ok with nothing exceptional to write about. Satish Kaushik is a delight to watch in his few scenes and from the rest of the cast Sanjay Mishra stands out as the watchman. The child artist playing the couple’s son doesn’t get much scope in the script. Musically the soundtrack is fine with a catchy title track from Amit Mishra, but it cannot sell as a Music CD alone in the market. Cinematography serves the purpose well and dialogues are good in some particular scenes.

In short, ATKJ is a sincere attempt but could have been much better with some fresh and hilarious sequences added into the script. Actually it’s a light comic drama and not a complete comedy as misleadingly projected by its makers. It fails to generate any laughter but is capable of making you smile at regular intervals. A simple and clean movie, which can be watched with the entire family on a weekend holiday.

According to the opening titles the movie is inspired from a short story or article by Late Sharad Joshi, but I also found the subject hugely similar to Satyajit Ray’s masterpiece “Agantuk” meaning Stranger, which had the great Utpal Dutt playing the unwanted guest in the house.

Rating : 2.5 / 5

(by Bobby Sing from www.bobbytalkscinema.com)