Loosely based on the Spanish rom-com 'Seres Queridos' ('Only Human') in which a Palestinian boy meets his Jewish girlfriend's family, Total Siyapaa explores the India-Pakistan cultural divide through the relationship of Aman (Ali Zafar) and Asha (Yami Gautam), set in London. Everything in their relationship is picture perfect, till Asha invites Aman to meet her family over dinner. Asha's family goes crazy when they come to know that Aman is a Pakistani. The chaos begins and Aman finds himself in nightmare, which just doesn't seem to be ending!
The first half of the movie is a breezy comedy of errors, with some sharp dialogues and funny situations. But second half goes on an entirely different tangent that doesn't tie in with the first half. After a while, the screenplay seems super stretched, with too many pointless sub-plots. Even when the movie is less than two hours one wishes that at least 15 minutes more were edited. Also other than a few dialogues that evoke a hearty laugh rest just fail to make any impact.
Performance wise, Kiron Kher steals the show, playing the loud Punjabi paranoid mother with perfect comic timing, barring a few scenes where she overacts
Ali Zafar plays himself, a musician from Pakistan, offering nothing new in his poker face type of performance. He still has the natural charm and is likable as the confused, ill-fated Pakistani boyfriend stuck in a crazy situation.
Yami Gautam's character, as the Indian Hindu love interest, was poorly written and she did not have much scope to perform. Also, there was no chemistry between Ali and Yami. On the other hand, watching the interactions between Zafar (the damaad) and Kher (the mother-in-law-to- be) together on screen were an absolute delight.
Anupam Kher is completely wasted and it is sad to see an actor of his talent play a silly, cameo- ish role in Total Siyapaa. New-find Sara Khan comes across seductive. Other actors were plain and bland.
Anupam Kher and his real life wife Kiron Kher play the on screen couple for the first time and their chemistry and pairing has not been properly exploited in the movie.
Total Siyapaa has a very telefilm or theatric look and feel and director Eeshwar Nivas has made the entire flick in essentially three sets and the entire cast has donned one outfit throughout. Outcome of a low budget more then the script's demand, because the artists are also badly styled.
Music is strictly average and not very memorable - although 'Palat meri jaan' is enjoyable and compliments the plot.
Total Siyapaa is really a major chaos. Overall, the best moments from Total Siyapaa were already shown in the snappy promos and a very interesting concept is churned out as strictly average movie lacking charm, spark and humor.
